Microsoft employees removed from town hall for protesting AI contracts with Israeli military
MEMO | February 27, 2025
US official vows to imprison pro-Palestine protesters for years

Press TV – February 27, 2025
An official with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) says student protesters who took part in pro-Palestine protests could face years in prison.
Leo Terrell, head of the DOJ task force on anti-Semitism, announced his plans for lengthy prison punishments for those who protested against Israel during its genocide in Gaza.
“We are going to put these people in jail—not for 24 hours, but for years,” Terrell told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12.
Terrell also vowed to “financially attack” the universities where such demonstrations took place.
The announcement came as students at Columbia University began fresh pro-Palestinian protests after two students were expelled for their anti-genocide activism.
The decision to imprison anti-Israel students comes despite the fact that US President Donald Trump declared his intention to “stop all government censorship” and “bring back free speech to America” during his inauguration speech.
One X user responded to the announcement by calling it the “death of the 1st amendment for a foreign nation of Israel.”
“The 1st Amendment in this country ends where Israel begins” stated another.
In the past years, numerous laws have been passed in America that punish criticism of Israel and Zionism.
These include numerous state laws that punish public workers for refusing to buy Israeli products, or the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act which has faced criticism for chilling free speech.
During the previous academic year, US universities and colleges emerged as a focal point for student-led pro-Palestinian protests, igniting a significant wave of demonstrations at universities throughout the world, where hundreds of students called on their universities to divest from companies that have ties to the Israeli regime.
In the spring, after pro-Palestinian students set up tents at Columbia University and school officials brought in city police to clear the demonstration, similar encampments began to emerge at colleges nationwide.
Protests erupted at prominent universities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and the University of California, frequently intensifying into clashes between opposing groups’ factions and increasing tensions within the campus environment.
The US police arrested more than 3000 students, professors, and faculty members after accusing the involved activists of “anti-Semitism” and “terrorism” and school administrators threatened some protest leaders with suspension and academic probation.
Website Publishes List of Canadian Israelis who Served in the IOF
Al-Manar | February 27, 2025
The non-profit news website The Maple published a list of 85 Canadians with Israeli citizenship who have served in the Israeli occupation army.
The website announced that this is the initial list and that it intends to publish additional lists of additional Canadians that have joined the Israeli military.
The article, entitled “Meet 85 Canadians That Have Fought For Israel,” featured in online publication The Maple provides a link to the list.
According to the article, its purpose is to provide a database of “mini-profiles for as many Canadians that have fought in the Israeli military at any point as I could find,” said its author, because “there is little existing research in Canada beyond one-off news articles about who these soldiers are and how they came to make the life choices that they did.”
The list has sparked anger by Israeli circles, with Israeli Channel 14 describing the move a “scandal”.
“I don’t think it’s an acceptable thing to happen in Canada,” Rebecca Garner, who served in the IDF from 2011 to 2014, and whose name was enrolled in the list, told the National Post, a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper.
Hundreds of Palestinians freed from Israeli jails after weeklong hold up
The Cradle | February 27, 2025
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were let out from Israel’s prisons early on 27 February in exchange for the handover of the bodies of four Israeli captives who were held in Gaza, as part of the seventh and final round of exchanges for phase one of the ceasefire.
The bodies of the four Israeli captives were handed over silently and not covered by the media, as Tel Aviv had demanded that Hamas refrain from holding its customary captive release ceremony.
Five hundred and ninety-six Palestinian prisoners were released overnight out of the 642 detainees whose release was held up by Israel last weekend. There are 46 other prisoners who are expected to be released in the coming hours, which include women and children.
Among the released were those with high sentences and life sentences. The prisoners were received in the occupied West Bank and southern Gaza’s city of Khan Yunis. Nearly 100 have been exiled to Egypt.
The world’s longest-serving political prisoner, Nael al-Barghouti, referred to as the “dean” of Palestinian detainees, was among those released and exiled to Egypt.
He spent 45 years in Israeli custody, including 34 consecutive years. He was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal that saw 1,000 prisoners, including late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, get released. However, he was rearrested in 2014 and slapped with a renewed life sentence.
US envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday to negotiate an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
According to reports, Israel is looking to violate the deal by maintaining its military presence along the Philadelphi corridor on southern Gaza’s border with Egypt. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that the corridor will remain “a buffer zone just as the case is in Lebanon and Syria.” Tel Aviv is also reportedly planning for a resumption of its brutal war against Gaza after having imposed new conditions, including the full disarmament of Hamas and the release of all remaining captives in a single swap.
According to a report by Haaretz, “as far as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is concerned, there is no second stage” of the deal.
The report says Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer recently told Witkoff that Netanyahu’s plan is to secure the release of all captives in a single stage, and that Hamas will receive prisoners in exchange. Otherwise, “Israel will return to intense warfare” and reimplement a “version” of the Generals’ Plan – which saw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from north Gaza, the killing of thousands, and the destruction of the Gaza health sector.
New US sanctions on Russia take effect
RT | February 27, 2025
A US ban on providing petroleum services to Russia officially took effect on Thursday, in the latest round of sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.
The restrictions on the operations of American companies in Russia are part of sanctions targeting the country’s oil production and exports, which was approved by the US Treasury Department in conjunction with the UK on January 10.
The measure bars US services for extracting and producing crude oil and other petroleum products in Russia. The export or re-export of oil production services, including their indirect sale, has also been prohibited. Additionally, 30 Russian companies have been placed on a special sanctions list.
Businesses were given a grace period to wind down their operations with Russian partners, which ended on February 27. Three major projects – the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Tengizchevroil, and Sakhalin-2 – were granted exemptions and will be allowed to receive US services under a special license until June 28.
The sanctions were introduced less than two weeks before the end of Joe Biden’s term as US president.
It targeted two major Russian oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz, along with their subsidiaries and entities providing insurance and transportation services. More than 180 vessels allegedly used to transport Russian oil in defiance of Western restrictions – described by the US as a ‘shadow fleet’ – were also sanctioned.
At the time, Biden acknowledged that the latest package of sanctions could have economic repercussions for ordinary Americans, admitting that they could lead to a slight increase in gas prices. However, he claimed the move was necessary in order to reduce Russian energy revenues.
Moscow has dismissed the restrictions as “illegal.” President Vladimir Putin has said Russia has overcome the challenges caused by the sanctions, crediting them with boosting domestic industries.
Commenting on the restrictions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Biden’s legacy will be defined by the “mess” he left behind.
The new US administration has recently suggested that Western nations may have to consider lifting the sanctions on Russia in order to find an “enduring, sustainable” solution to the Ukraine conflict.
President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Washington could lift the sanctions “at some point” during the Ukraine peace negotiations.
According to Moscow, the Western sanctions have failed to destabilize or isolate Russia, while backfiring on the countries that imposed them.
Trump declines to comment on protecting Taiwan island, expresses welcome for Chinese investment in Cabinet meeting
Global Times | February 27, 2025
During his first official Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump refused to comment when asked by a reporter’s question about whether “the US would allow China to take control of Taiwan by force,” Instead, he responded by expressing his desire for Chinese investment in the US, Reuters reported.
“I never comment on that,” Trump said at the White House. “I don’t want to ever put myself in that position,” according to the Reuters report.
Trump claimed he had a great relationship with the Chinese leader. “We want them to come in and invest. I see so many things saying that we don’t want China in this country. That’s not right. We want them to invest in the US. That’s good. There’s a lot of money coming in, and we’ll invest in China. We’ll do things with China. The relationship we’ll have with China will be a very good one,” Trump said.
Some local media outlets in Taiwan noted on Thursday that this was not the first time Trump had declined to make a commitment to the island.
In an article published by CNA on Thursday, it was noted in its headline that Trump refused to make a commitment to the island again.
The CNA report cited an interview of Trump with NBC’s Meet the Press in December 2024, when the host asked, “If China invades Taiwan on your watch, are you committed to defending Taiwan?” Trump responded, “I never say.”
Local media FTV News also published an article on Thursday, saying Trump refused again to make commitment to Taiwan.
Citing articles from The New York Times, Taiwan’s UDN News published an article on Thursday titled “Trump abandons Ukraine, doubts about US support deepened in Taiwan.”
The New York Times noted on Tuesday that In Taiwan, Trump’s stinging comments about Ukraine could feed a current of public opinion arguing that the island has been repeatedly abandoned by Washington and cannot trust its promises.
In response to media reports about the Trump administration release of $5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including $870 million designated for military assistance to Taiwan, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday’s press briefing that China has all along opposed US military assistance to China’s Taiwan region, which has severely violated the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests, and sent a gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.
“We urge the US to stop arming Taiwan and undermining the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. China will closely follow the situation and firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” Lin said.
“‘Protection fees’ won’t protect ‘Taiwan independence’ forces, and the ‘chess pieces’ will inevitably turn into ‘abandoned pieces,'” said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, during a press conference on Wednesday.
Her remarks came in response to reports that the secessionist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities on Taiwan island are contemplating arms purchases from the US, ranging from $7 billion to $10 billion, in an effort to gain favor with the Trump administration.
‘Incompetent cowards’ in Brussels could have prevented Trump tariffs, claims Hungarian FM
By Thomas Brooke | Remix News | February 27, 2025
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has launched a scathing attack on the European Union’s leadership following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of an impending 25 percent tariff on European imports.
In a statement on his social media channels, Szijjártó accused the EU leadership, specifically the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen, of incompetence and cowardice in trade negotiations with Washington, accusing Brussels of failing to act despite knowing Trump’s stance on trade fairness and the likelihood of new tariffs.
“The whole world, including Brussels, knew very well that Donald Trump wants balanced trade conditions,” Szijjártó stated. “They knew, but they did nothing. Because they are incompetent, and especially cowards.”
“They bullied Donald Trump for eight years and now they don’t dare to face him,” Szijjártó added, lamenting von der Leyen’s leadership of the bloc which he says has now “isolated the European economy, after China, from the American economy as well.”
The Hungarian minister emphasized that the EU could have averted the tariffs with minor policy adjustments proposed by Budapest, such as lowering the duty on American cars imported into Europe from 10 percent to 2.5 percent, matching U.S. tariffs on European cars. However, according to him, bureaucratic inefficiency prevented such action.
“Brussels bureaucracy is killing the European economy: sanctions on Russia, customs on the Chinese electric car industry, and the complete inability to negotiate with the United States,” Szijjártó added.
President Trump, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, justified the new tariffs, saying, “The European Union was formed to screw the United States – that’s the purpose of it and they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.” The 25 percent tariff, he noted, would apply broadly to European goods, with a particular impact on the auto industry — a move likely to give the new German government a sizeable headache.
The European Union responded with a strong rebuttal, warning that it would react “firmly and immediately against unjustified tariffs.”
“It has been a boon for the United States. We’re ready to partner if you play by the rules. But we will also protect our consumers and businesses at every turn. They expect no less from us,” a spokesperson for the European Commission stated.
Hungary now appears to be intent on using the goodwill it has secured with the Trump administration over recent years to seek an independent path to safeguard its economic interests. Szijjártó announced that Budapest would engage in direct negotiations with Washington to ensure strong Hungarian-American trade relations. “What Brussels damaged, we must fix here in Budapest,” he declared, vowing to pursue the “most productive Hungarian-American economic cooperation of all time.”
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Jim Jordan Subpoenas FBI: Unraveling Biden Admin’s Big Tech Collusion
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | February 26, 2025
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed the FBI on Monday for seven categories of information, including on the Biden Administration’s collusion with Big Tech.
In a letter to the new FBI director, Kash Patel, Jordan states that during the mandate of his predecessor Christopher Wray and the former administration, the agency “departed from its core public safety mission” and was able to do this while avoiding “any real transparency or accountability for its actions.”
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
According to Jordan, this resulted in deep distrust in the FBI, which can be remedied by shedding light on the agency’s involvement in these activities.
Regarding the government-Big Tech collusion, Jordan recalled that during the previous Congress as well, the Committee that he heads undertook to investigate how this was happening, and to what extent.
The results of this oversight so far, as well as discovery in the Missouri v. Biden case (that continues to be litigated in a federal court), have revealed the FBI’s involvement.
In order to determine what the agency’s exact role was and make sure it doesn’t deviate from its mission in a similar way going forward, the Committee is now requesting the documents that Christopher Wray, for the most part, had not produced.
Jordan notes that a subpoena issued in August 2023 sought access to all of the FBI’s internal documents, communications, and notes about any meetings between its representatives and those of Big Tech, and also records related to the censorship of reports about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
What the investigations have revealed to date is that the FBI was falsely presenting the story as “Russian disinformation” while in effect pressuring social media companies to censor it.
Yet another, earlier subpoena, from February 2023, sent to Meta and Google, “revealed that the FBI, on behalf of a compromised Ukrainian intelligence entity, requested – and, in some cases, directed – the world’s largest social media platforms to censor Americans engaging in constitutionally protected speech online,” Jordan writes.
To understand the full extent of the FBI’s role in any unconstitutional activities that also involve “coordination” with social media companies, the Committee wants Kash Patel to now provide all the relevant communications.
The ultimate goal of the investigation is to establish if legislative changes are necessary to prevent the agency from acting in a similar way in the future.
Tulsi Gabbard labels CNN ‘propaganda arm’ of spies
The Director of National Intelligence says the network’s anonymous CIA sources are exactly the people “we need to root out”
RT | February 27, 2025
Newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has accused CNN of acting as a “propaganda arm” for disloyal intelligence agents, calling the network’s report on potential retaliation by dismissed spies an “indirect threat” to President Donald Trump’s administration.
As part of Trump’s broader effort to downsize and restructure the federal government, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has recently offered so-called buyouts to its agents. In a report published Monday, CNN, citing unnamed sources, claimed that some senior CIA officers were “quietly discussing” how the dismissals “risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.”
“I am curious about how they think this is a good tactic to keep their job,” Gabbard told Fox News on Tuesday.
“They are exposing themselves, essentially, by making this indirect threat – using their propaganda arm, CNN, that they’ve used over and over again – to reveal their hand,” she continued. “Their loyalty is not to America, not to the American people or the Constitution; it is to themselves.”
The director of national intelligence stressed that such disgruntled employees are “exactly the kinds of people we need to root out, get rid of, so that the patriots who do work in this area, who are committed to our core mission, can actually focus on that.”
Gabbard also claimed that many within the intelligence community had reached out to her personally, expressing support for Trump’s efforts to “clean house” and refocus on the core mission of serving the American people.
A former US congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard rose to national prominence in 2016 when she resigned as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to endorse Bernie Sanders for president. She later ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, advocating against US military interventions abroad, which she argued were harmful to service members like herself and detrimental to national interests. As tensions with the Democratic Party escalated, Gabbard left the party in 2022. After two years as an independent, she joined the Republican Party and endorsed Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump’s nomination of Gabbard for the top intelligence role in November sparked criticism from establishment figures, who labeled her a security risk. Despite the backlash, she was confirmed earlier this month by a 52-48 Senate vote, with only one Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, opposing her appointment.
In January, the Senate also confirmed another Trump nominee, John Ratcliffe, as director of the CIA in a 74-25 vote. Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and ex-director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, is known for his skepticism of intelligence agencies and his criticism of investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
EU Contributes €4M to UNESCO’s Expanding Online Content Regulation and Digital ID Goals
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | February 26, 2025
The EU is spending another €4 million (just under $4.2 million) on a project it runs together with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), known as Social Media 4 Peace (SM4P).
Those targeted by this latest contribution from Brussels are Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, and South Africa as newly included countries, whereas what’s already been achieved in Indonesia and Kenya will be “reinforced,” the UN said.
Others that have been a part of the scheme, which critics consider a censorship initiative, are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Colombia. The EU has already given €4 million to SM4P in 2021, when it launched.
According to the EU’s SM4P page, the project’s purpose is to deal with “potentially harmful online content – in particular hate speech.” Now UNESCO announced the latest contribution saying that will help SM4P’s mission to address harmful content in “conflict-prone and polarized” societies.
And the UN agency promises to protect free speech and rights – “of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities.”
Other than the dystopian-sounding declaration of being there to counter “potentially harmful content,” SM4P raises eyebrows for activities such as contributing to the “shaping” of the Global Forum of Networks.
The burgeoning EU-UN partnership to tackle “disinformation and hate speech globally” has also contributed to what is referred to as global policy discussions on digital platform governance.
In the UN’s system of “nesting dolls of censorship projects,” the Global Forum of Networks is set up to allow international regulators to collaborate and implement UNESCO’s Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms – the result of the said “discussions” – and what SM4P will be focused on until 2027.
The Guidelines’ About page states that this initiative’s aim is to “deal with the problems of dis- and misinformation and hate speech online.”
Then there’s the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals – including Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.9 (“legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030”), which pushes for digital ID as a way to participate in the digital economy.
That is another goal that SM4P will contribute to, according to the EU page about the project.
In announcing EU’s latest €4 million contribution, UNESCO said that SM4P already has more than 80 partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya – but that its influence in “fostering multistakeholder collaboration and strengthening resilience against online harm” extends “beyond target countries.”
Florida Judge Rules Brazilian Censorship Orders Unenforceable Against Rumble and Trump Media
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | February 25, 2025
A federal judge in Florida has denied a request from Trump Media and video platform Rumble to block enforcement of orders issued by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, ruling that the case is not yet ripe for judicial review.
We obtained a copy of the order for you here.
However – that’s not because Rumble and Trump Media have no grounds – it’s because both companies “were not served upon Plaintiffs in compliance with the Hague Convention, to which the United States and Brazil are both signatories nor were they served pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States and Brazil.”
The two platforms have been at the forefront in the fight against censorship. In a win for free speech, the court ruled that the direct demands of Rumble and Truth are not through “established protocols” and so Plaintiffs [Rumble and Truth] are not obligated to comply with the directives and pronouncements, and no one is authorized or obligated to assist in their enforcement against Plaintiffs or their interests here in the United States.”
The immediate dispute revolves around a conservative Brazilian commentator living in the US, referred to in the lawsuit as Political Dissident A. This commentator, a vocal critic of the Brazilian Supreme Court, has been accused of “anti-democratic” speech—a charge that US courts would almost certainly dismiss as constitutionally protected under the First Amendment.
US District Judge Mary S. Scriven effectively stated that the two platforms do not need a temporary restraining order against Moraes because Morae’s orders to Rumble have no grounds.
In a statement, a Rumble spokesperson stated: “The court explicitly ruled that Moraes’s directives were never properly served under US or international law…” and that “The court further made clear that if anyone attempts to enforce these illegal orders on US soil, it stands ready to intervene to protect American companies and free speech. The ruling sends a strong message to foreign governments that they cannot bypass US law to impose censorship on American platforms.”
“This is a major victory for free speech and free expression online,” said Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes. “The ruling confirms that would-be dictators in any country can’t force Trump Media or Rumble to censor their opponents. We congratulate our partner Rumble on its principled stand for freedom.”
