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CDC Awards Pfizer $1.24 Billion for COVID Vaccines for Kids and Adults

By Henrick Karoliszyn, DSW | The Defender | June 12, 2026

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent decision to award Pfizer $1.24 billion for COVID-19 vaccines has renewed debate over the government’s continued investment in mRNA technology.

The contracts, awarded on June 1, include about $735.7 million for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines and nearly $505.3 million for adult doses for fiscal year 2026-2027.

Critics say the funding reflects a continued commitment to vaccines associated with high rates of serious injuries and deaths, and a lack of adequate safety testing and monitoring.

Public health experts argue the investment is necessary to protect vulnerable populations and prepare for future outbreaks.

The latest contracts come as mRNA technology expands beyond COVID-19.

A recent review in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics found that mRNA-based therapeutics were identified in more than 550 registered clinical trials. The authors reported that more than 90% of the projects involved mRNA vaccines and that most products remain in early-stage testing before broader adoption.

‘Unnecessary and often harmful injections’

The procurement of monetary resources signals that federal officials intend to continue investing heavily in mRNA technology despite declining public demand and ongoing controversy over vaccine safety monitoring, critics say.

Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, told The Defender there was “no scientific justification” or “market demand” for the latest mRNA vaccine funding.

“This raises a serious question concerning how these captured agencies really work,” Tucker said. “We are talking about vast amounts of tax dollars flowing to support unnecessary and often harmful injections.”

“This is $1.24 billion for what is essentially a cold in minor children,” said Children’s Health Defense Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker.

Daniel O’Connor, publisher of TrialSite News, which covers global biomedical and clinical research, told The Defender Americans “better start asking the hard questions.”

“If demand is falling, safety questions remain contested and many reporting vaccine injuries say they’ve been left behind, why is Washington committing another $1.24 billion to vaccine procurement instead of first providing a transparent accounting of need, benefit, risk, and responsibility?”

‘COVID-19 has not disappeared’

Public health experts disagreed, saying their support of vaccinations is supporting the prevention of future pandemics.

Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, told The Defender that the monetary installments will help stave off another public health crisis because “COVID-19 has not disappeared.”

“While the emergency phase of the pandemic is over, the virus continues to cause significant illness, hospitalizations and deaths each year,” she said. “This investment reflects the reality that vaccines remain one of our most effective tools for preventing severe disease, particularly among those at highest risk. Maintaining access to updated vaccines is an important part of ensuring the country remains prepared for future COVID-19 surges.”

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said the contracts will ensure “continuing availability of safe and effective COVID vaccines through the next two years.”

“COVID vaccines have repeatedly been demonstrated to provide protection against the most severe manifestations of COVID infection: hospitalization, intensive care unit admission and death,” Schaffner said. “This is particularly applicable to those persons at increased risk of becoming seriously ill: persons age 65 and older, anyone with a chronic medical condition, persons who are immunocompromised and persons who are pregnant.”

However, some studies suggest claims that the COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives are based on flawed models and incorrect calculations.

Legality of funding in question

The contracts also raise questions about federal vaccine spending.

Under the CDC’s Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program, the federal government agrees to buy and provide free vaccines through negotiated contracts for eligible children.

Current CDC price schedules list Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines at roughly $69 to $91 per dose, depending on the formula, while Moderna doses range from about $78 to $83.

Dr. Robert Malone, a pioneer and expert in mRNA vaccines, however, questioned the legal authority to use federal funding for the Pfizer contracts because the purchase wasn’t approved by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

“Use of VFC funds requires ACIP authorization,” he said. “But there is no ACIP.”

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued an injunction blocking many of the recent ACIP appointments made under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) against Kennedy and the U.S, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The AAP accused Kennedy of violating procedures when he fired previous ACIP members and replaced them.

The ruling effectively paralysed ACIP and cast doubt on the legitimacy of its membership structure.

Requests for comment from ACIP went unanswered.

‘We are a long way from reckoning’

The CDC has maintained that authorized COVID-19 vaccines underwent extensive safety review and that the benefits outweigh known risks.

However, during a Capitol Hill meeting this week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) referred to reported COVID-19 vaccine injuries as the “biggest government scandal in my lifetime.”

“What about all the injection-injured?” he said. “Until this government and this administration acknowledge those injuries, acknowledge the harm caused by these injections, and I would say federal health agencies also acknowledge the harm done by childhood vaccines, we are a long way from reckoning.”

In April, Johnson released a report revealing that Biden-era health officials rejected a state-of-the-art statistical tool for detecting COVID-19 vaccine safety signals — and instead deliberately continued using a broken method because they didn’t want to “feed in to [sic] anti-vaccination rhetoric.”

During an April 29 hearing, Johnson revealed that a longtime U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) medical officer, Ana Szarfman, M.D., Ph.D., repeatedly warned colleagues that the agency’s approach to safety monitoring could miss serious safety signals due to a problem known as “masking.” Masking occurs when other vaccines obscure risks tied to a specific product.

Johnson said FDA officials brushed aside Szarfman’s warnings.

The CDC, HHS and Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the contracts.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Comments Off on CDC Awards Pfizer $1.24 Billion for COVID Vaccines for Kids and Adults

Historic blow to South Korea’s military intelligence agency

“Military Intervention in Politics Will No Longer Be Possible”

By Erkin Oncan | Strategic Culture Foundation | June 15, 2026

The aftermath of the December 2024 coup attempt in South Korea, led by former President Yoon Suk-yeol, continues to reverberate.

It was revealed that Yoon had ordered drone deployments to North Korea in an effort to escalate tensions and create conditions conducive to a coup. The ongoing trials related to these events have now concluded with prison sentences handed down to Yoon and other senior officials of the era.

The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of “acts benefiting the enemy” and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Among those convicted was then–Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who also received a 30-year sentence.

Yeo In-hyung, head of the Armed Forces Counterintelligence Command – one of the most powerful units within the South Korean military – was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The lightest sentence was given to Kim Yong-dae, then commander of Drone Operations, who was closest to the “obedience within the chain of command” principle. He received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years.

These prison sentences represent far more than the punishment of a criminal act. Since the suppression of the coup attempt, Seoul has been undergoing a profound transformation in both military and civilian bureaucracy.

One of the most significant steps in this transformation was taken two days ago.

The South Korean government announced the dissolution of a military intelligence unit under the Ministry of National Defense.

The disbanded institution was the Defense Counterintelligence Command, known by the abbreviation DCC.

The primary justification for the decision was the command’s “role during the martial law process.” However, details of the restructuring also provide important clues about the broader transformation underway within the military.

What was the DCC?

The DCC has a history spanning more than 70 years. Since its establishment in 1950, it has also been known as the “Special Service Unit,” “Security Command,” and “Military Security Command.”

It acquired its current structure in October 1977, when the Army Security Command, Naval Security Unit, and Air Force Special Investigation Office were merged.

Not only the DCC but all of Korea’s intelligence services have played central roles in nearly every dark chapter of the country’s modern history.

One of the most notable examples is the assassination of former President Park Chung-hee in 1979, known as the “October 26 Incident.”

Park, one of Korea’s longest-ruling dictators, was assassinated by Kim Jae-gyu, the then-head of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).

This assassination – rooted largely in inter-agency rivalry – demonstrates how state institutions, particularly intelligence bodies, have historically been capable of reshaping political power dynamics in pursuit of institutional dominance.

At the time, the DCC (then known as the Military Security Command) was a powerful centralized military intelligence organization.

The figure who significantly strengthened the DCC and made it capable of intervening in politics was Chun Doo-hwan, who was appointed head of the organization six months before the assassination.

Chun used investigations under his control to purge rivals and seized power through a military coup in 1979. The subsequent wave of martial law culminated in the bloody suppression of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980.

The Gwangju uprising

The Gwangju Uprising (May 18–20, 1980) began with student protests and rapidly expanded into a broader civilian resistance against military dictatorship.

It was brutally suppressed by military forces, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians at the hands of their own army.

Today, it is commemorated every May 18 as one of the most tragic events in Korean history.

During this period, the DCC played a central, if not decisive, role. It is known that its members infiltrated civilian crowds in plain clothes, spread misinformation and rumors, and engaged in various provocations to escalate violence.

Scandals and reorganizations

By the 1990s, the DCC once again came under scrutiny, this time due to illegal surveillance scandals.

Investigations revealed that the organization had built a nationwide illegal monitoring network targeting civilians and politicians alike. These revelations led to another name change in 1991.

In more recent history, the agency was implicated in political interference in 2018. According to reports by Yonhap News Agency at the time, the DCC played a role in disseminating online content supporting the ruling party and targeting opposition figures.

During the latest coup attempt, it was also revealed that the DCC had planned operations to surround key institutions such as parliament, formed arrest teams targeting political opponents, and prepared detention lists.

In short, for a significant portion of the public in South Korea, this quasi–counterintelligence structure – often described as a politicized “dirty security apparatus” – had long been seen as an institution that should have been dismantled years ago.

The dissolution process

This historic development in South Korean politics was announced by Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back during a press briefing at the ministry.

According to the minister, the new restructuring ensures that “military intervention in politics will no longer be possible.”

Emphasizing that the decision is “not merely an administrative reorganization,” he stated:

“This step is a fundamental restructuring of the structure and mission of military intelligence agencies to ensure they can never again interfere in politics. It marks a historic turning point toward building a military that belongs to the people.”

What is changing?

Under the new arrangement, the DCC will be dismantled and divided.

Its functions – including counterintelligence, defense industry intelligence, security investigations, and security inspections – will be transferred to different institutions.

A newly established Defense Counterintelligence Center will take over counterintelligence operations, defense industry intelligence, defense industrial security, and cybersecurity.

Authorities related to security investigations and joint investigations conducted during martial law periods will be transferred to the Ministry of National Defense’s existing Investigation Headquarters.

Security inspections at corps-level and above units, along with investigations into security violations, will be assigned to a newly created Defense Security Support Group.

At the same time, several key powers that previously enabled the command’s influence within the military are being completely abolished.

From now on, South Korea’s military intelligence agency will no longer be able to monitor military personnel’s activities, collect intelligence on service members, prepare reputation assessments of officers and soldiers, or gather information on corruption and other misconduct outside the scope of counterintelligence.

Strengthening civilian oversight

As the DCC is dismantled, civilian oversight over the newly established Counterintelligence Center is being guaranteed.

The inspector general of the new structure will be a senior civilian auditor. A newly created intelligence and counterintelligence oversight committee within the Ministry of National Defense will operate directly under the defense minister and be composed entirely of civilians.

The government is also working on new legislation that clearly defines the operational limits of military counterintelligence personnel and establishes penalties for illegal activities.

A turning point

The dissolution of the DCC represents more than a simple institutional reorganization. It can also be interpreted as South Korea’s long-delayed confrontation with its history of military coups and military political influence.

Ultimately, however, the extent to which these plans and decisions are successfully implemented will depend once again on the balance of power within both the military and the political establishment.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception | , | Comments Off on Historic blow to South Korea’s military intelligence agency

Russian frigate fires warning shots in English Channel

RT | June 16, 2026

A Russian vessel fired warning shots near a British yacht sailing on a dangerous trajectory in the English Channel, the Russian Defense Ministry has said, adding that the shots were fired when all other options had been exhausted.

The Admiral Grigorovich was sailing in international waters between the Isle of Wight and Normandy shortly before midday on Tuesday when its crew spotted the civilian yacht, the ‘Bright Future’ sailing “on a dangerous course that would bring it into close proximity with the warship,” the ministry said.

The Russian crew tried and failed to reach the yacht by radio, before firing signal flares and sounding a siren, neither of which succeeded in changing its course. When the yacht came within 150 meters, the commander of the Admiral Grigorovich decided to fire warning shots across its bow with small arms.

“Following this, the British-flagged yacht immediately altered course and moved away from the Russian warship,” the ministry said, adding that the Russian crew “acted in strict compliance with international navigation rules and took all necessary measures to prevent an incident.”

The incident was first reported by the British press, which made no mention of the yacht sailing toward the warship. The British Defense Ministry did not comment on the encounter, except to tell the BBC that it was “investigating reports of an incident in the Channel.”

The Admiral Grigorovich – a 3,600-ton warship equipped to carry Kalibr cruise missiles – was being followed by a Royal Navy patrol ship – the HMS Mersey – at the time of the incident, the BBC reported. It is unclear how close the HMS Mersey was to the Admiral Grigorovich at the time.

The incident took place two days after British commandos boarded and seized a Cameroon-flagged tanker supposedly carrying sanctioned Russian oil. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the tanker as belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a euphemism for tankers that carry Russian oil without coverage from Western insurers. The vessel, the ‘Smyrtos’, was boarded in the English Channel.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Comments Off on Russian frigate fires warning shots in English Channel

Radio Free Europe, the Cold War ‘Weapon’ Congress Still Funds

By Patrick Pillow | The Libertarian Institute | June 16, 2026

“Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were critically important weapons in the free world’s competition with Soviet totalitarianism—and without them the Soviet bloc might even have not disintegrated.”

This was the assessment of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter and one of the most influential foreign policy strategists of the Cold War era.

Brzezinski’s description is notable not only because of who said it, but because of how he described the organization. He did not characterize Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as merely a U.S.-funded news organization but instead, referred to it as a “weapon” in a geopolitical struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

More than three decades after the Cold War ended, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty remains in operation—and Congress is now considering a major increase in its funding.

As Americans continue to grapple with rising prices and persistent inflation, Washington DC’s attention has increasingly shifted toward foreign policy priorities rather than domestic economic concerns. When foreign spending does enter the public conversation, it is often through provisions buried deep within legislative text and only briefly summarized in committee reports, with limited public attention.

One recent example is the Ukraine Support Act, sponsored by Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY). The bill continues ongoing U.S. funding for Ukraine as the war with Russia enters its fourth year, and like most large foreign aid packages, it contains a wide range of provisions.

Among them is Section 108, which authorizes $250 million in funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for 2026 alone. The language describes this funding as necessary to bring the organization to its “full capacity” in combating “conspiracy theories” and “Russian disinformation.” To understand this framing, it helps to look at the organization’s origins.

When it was originally founded in the 1950s, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was created to broadcast alternative reporting into countries behind the Iron Curtain. It received its first significant funding from both the U.S. Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and has since been described as one of the CIA’s largest successful covert action projects.

Among the organization’s initial goals was a focus on “destroying the Soviet government’s monopoly of information,” during the Cold War. This included early attempts to create a “crisis of confidence” in Soviet leadership.

Over time, that structure evolved, but the organization remained. Today, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty operates in more than twenty countries, with a reported weekly audience of 47.6 million, more than 1,700 staff members, and over 9 billion video views in 2023. Its operations now include Radio Farda in Iran, Radio Azadi in Afghanistan, and services in the Balkans—regions of significant U.S. foreign policy interest.

What was once a Cold War-era broadcasting organization has become a global, publicly funded media operation with a clear geopolitical focus. According to congressional funding records and budget summaries, RFE/RL has received roughly $140–$150 million annually since 2023. The 2026 authorization increases prior funding levels by over 60%, with the stated goal of combating what Washington describes as “disinformation.”

The organization itself is almost entirely publicly funded. In a March 2025 court declaration, RFE/RL president Stephen Capus stated that roughly 99% of the organization’s funding comes from congressional appropriations through the U.S. Agency for Global Media, while around 1% comes from private donations or other sources.

When funding was briefly disrupted in 2025, Capus called the interruption a “massive gift to America’s enemies,” pointing specifically to governments like Russia, China, Iran, and Belarus as among those who would “celebrate the demise” of the organization.

Supporters of RFE/RL note that the relatively small cost—especially compared to overall defense and foreign aid spending—is justified by its strategic value. With independent media remaining a key tool for challenging state-controlled narratives abroad, think tanks such as the Hudson Institute have described RFE/RL funding as a “pittance in terms of U.S. government spending,” with a particular focus on countries like Russia, China, and Iran.

As a whole, RFE/RL sees itself as more than just an independent news organization. In an FAQ section on its website the group notes that the organization is also working to serve U.S. foreign policy objectives and U.S. national security interests.

Still, this leaves unresolved the question about whether communication organizations abroad should be treated as a permanent feature on the domestic spending ledger.

At a time when the U.S. economy continues to face inflationary pressure and the stock market experiences significant volatility, the question remains what tangible benefit U.S. citizens receive from this use of tax dollars.

Whether Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is viewed as a valuable instrument of American influence or an outdated relic of the Cold War, Congress is now preparing to increase its funding substantially.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | | Comments Off on Radio Free Europe, the Cold War ‘Weapon’ Congress Still Funds

UN: Israel continues to violate Lebanon airspace in defiance of Iran-US MoU

Press TV – June 16, 2026

The United Nations has reported ongoing Israeli military offensives in southern Lebanon, including projectile launches and repeated violations of airspace, though it recorded a decrease in overall violence following a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference on Monday that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had “observed a decrease in violence and exchanges of fire” from midnight until 4 p.m. local time.

UNIFIL also documented “133 trajectories of projectiles and 2 airstrikes” conducted by Israeli forces, while noting “no trajectories from Hezbollah or non-state actors.”

Dujarric further explained that peacekeepers had recorded 25 violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli forces, with a cumulative overflight duration of “approximately 40 hours.”

“Prior to the announcement of the agreement yesterday between the US and Iran, our UNIFIL peacekeepers noted 135 violations of Lebanese airspace by the [Israeli military], with a total overflight time exceeding 222 hours,” he stated, adding that the peacekeeping mission had recorded a total of “1,374 trajectories of projectiles over the weekend, with 1,328 attributed” to Israeli forces.

Regarding the humanitarian situation, Dujarric highlighted the prevailing uncertainty on the ground, stating, ”Some families have reportedly begun to return to their homes or are evaluating the conditions in communities in parts of southern Lebanon, particularly in Nabatieh.”

“However, no large-scale returns have occurred thus far,” he added.

On Monday evening, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) reached between Tehran and Washington earlier in the day will bring an end to warfare on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

The SNSC secretariat also announced that the MoU is scheduled to be officially signed on Friday, June 19.

Despite the agreement, the Israeli army conducted demolitions and shelling in several towns in southern Lebanon on Monday. Reports indicated that displaced residents were returning to some southern villages, while local municipalities advised caution and urged residents to postpone their returns.

Since March 2, Israel has been conducting an extensive military offensive in Lebanon, killing 3,783 individuals and injuring 11,699 others, as reported by the Lebanese Health Ministry. Additionally, over one million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Israel maintains its occupation of certain regions in southern Lebanon, with some areas being held for decades and others since the onset of the 2023-2024 war. Israeli troops have also penetrated more than 10 kilometers into Lebanese land.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , | Comments Off on UN: Israel continues to violate Lebanon airspace in defiance of Iran-US MoU

Araghchi: Israeli occupation of Lebanese land a violation of MoU

Al Mayadeen | June 16, 2026

In a televised statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that, from Iran’s perspective, the two parties to the Memorandum of Understanding are the United States and “Israel” on one side, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other.

He also said, contrary to Trump’s overnight statement, that the MoU would be signed on Friday.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting with ambassadors, chargés d’affaires, and heads of foreign and international missions in Tehran on Tuesday, Araghchi stressed that the end of the war in Lebanon is an inseparable part of the complete end of the war, noting that ending the war on Lebanon also includes ending the occupation of Lebanese territory.

Araghchi said that, from now on, any military attack by “Israel” on Lebanon, as well as the continuation of the occupation of Lebanese territories, will be considered a violation of the MoU.

According to Araghchi, the heads of the two delegations from the US and Iran will first sign the memorandum of understanding on Friday before the inaugural round of formal negotiations begins.

Tehran, he said, aims to build on the understandings reached and translate them into a tangible economic opening.

Implementation mechanism amid deep-seated mistrust

The Iranian foreign minister also said that the negotiation agenda and the mechanism for implementing the anticipated understandings will be formulated in light of the prevailing lack of trust in the United States stemming from previous experiences marked by breaches of commitments and failures to uphold obligations.

“Naturally, we do not squander any opportunity in foreign policy, but at the same time, we do not pin our hopes on any opportunity,” Araghchi said, underscoring Tehran’s cautious and pragmatic approach to the forthcoming negotiations.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed overnight Monday that a memorandum of understanding with Iran has been signed and that the Strait of Hormuz will be completely reopened by Friday, speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Evian, France, ahead of the G7 summit.

The formal signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Geneva, with Vance confirmed to attend.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Araghchi: Israeli occupation of Lebanese land a violation of MoU

Hezbollah fighters confront intruding Israeli forces in southern Lebanon

Press TV – June 16, 2026

Fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement have confronted an Israeli military convoy as it was attempting to infiltrate into southern Lebanon despite an Iran-US agreement that includes complete cessation of Israeli assaults on Lebanon.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Monday that its fighters, employing rockets and drones, obstructed an Israeli unit comprising an excavator and two Merkava tanks that was moving forward near the town of Kfar Tebnit, close to the southern city of Nabatieh.

In a subsequent statement later in the day, Hezbollah said, “The enemy army has reorganized its forces in the vicinity of the crossing area by deploying an armored contingent consisting of five Merkava tanks and four vehicles.”

“The combatants of the Islamic Resistance have targeted them with rocket barrages and artillery shells, and clashes are continuing.”

It came after an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in the same region, killing its driver. The air raid marked the first fatal strike since the announcement of the agreement.

Hebrew-language media outlets, meanwhile, reported “a serious security incident” for Israeli soldiers positioned in southern Lebanon.

The outlets added that Israeli rescue helicopters are trying to transport the injured troopers to hospitals in the northern part of the occupied territories.

There were no immediate reports about the number of casualties that the Israeli army suffered as a result of the incident.

Israeli media outlets also reported that a soldier fighting in southern Lebanon committed suicide last night due to mental distress from military offensives.

This comes as the Israeli military is witnessing a continuous and alarming rise in soldier suicides, a trend linked to widespread post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from Israel’s prolonged and repeated aggressions on multiple fronts.

According to figures published by the Haaretz daily newspaper, at least six active-duty soldiers and three non-active reservists died by suicide in April alone.

‎Earlier this year, the newspaper recorded 22 soldier suicides in 2025, a 15-year high.

A new poll by Israel’s public broadcaster KAN shows that a majority of Israeli settlers believe that the Zionist regime has failed to secure victory in any war since October 2023.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Comments Off on Hezbollah fighters confront intruding Israeli forces in southern Lebanon

The Straight of Hormuz is Open for Iranian Business… Oil is Moving and Iran is Getting Paid

By Larry C. Johnson | SONAR21 | June 16, 2026 

Let’s give Donald Trump credit for one thing… He kept his word and lifted the US blockade on Iranian ships and Iran is going to town with its oil tankers moving in and out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.

This does not mean that the MOU with Iran, which is supposed to be signed in Geneva on Friday, will hold, but it is a step in the direction of de-escalation. So the question we ought to ask is why did Donald Trump blink and accept the proposal that Iran proffered way back in April?

I think there are several reasons, but the principal one is that the US is running out of oil, which means Trump will not be able to artificially suppress the price of gasoline. US strategic oil reserves have fallen to their lowest level since 1983, reports CNN. The decline comes amid continued drawdowns to mitigate the impact of the conflict with Iran. Reserves have dropped to 340.3 million barrels, last seen during the Reagan administration, which was still building the stockpile. US daily consumption is 20 to 21 million barrels in 2026, which means the reserve can supply 17 days of gasoline, which falls on July 1st.

Donald Trump may be in mental decline, but he still retains enough smarts to understand that an oil shortage and soaring prices of gasoline in July is politically untenable.

Another factor is that US installations and aircraft in the Persian Gulf took a helluva beating last week. The US attacks on Iranian installations in the Strait of Hormuz on June 9 and 10 provoked a fierce Iranian response that hit targets in Iraq (CIA-bases supporting the Kurds), Kuwait (the Ali Al Salem airbase, Camp Buehring in northeastern Kuwait, as well as a makeshift operations center near the civilian port of Shuaiba), the Prince Saud Airbase adjacent to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Mowaffaq Al Salti Airbase in Jordan. The attacks were devastating and reportedly employed some new Chinese missiles supplied to Iran.

Then there is the pressure from Gulf Arabs to end the attacks on Iran. Iran, backed by China, Russia and Pakistan, engaged in intense diplomacy with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The UAE, who has been a thorn in the side of Iran and Saudi Arabia and has been identified as an ally of Israel, sent a delegation to Iran on 9 June. Reuters reported that the UAE had agreed to release billions of dollars for Iran — two regional sources put the figure at $10 billion (including more than $3 billion already delivered), while two other sources put it at $20 billion, with the funds agreed in exchange for Iran halting attacks on the UAE. However, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denied those reports, stating the allegations were “entirely false and unfounded” and that no frozen Iranian funds had been released, transferred, or facilitated through the UAE. What is undisputed is that the UAE sent a high-level delegation to talk to the Iranian government.

A high-level Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on Wednesday, June 10, to hold talks on bilateral relations, regional developments, and diplomatic efforts to end the conflict between Iran and the United States. The delegation arrived at midday and the visit came after Trump accused Iran of stalling and said Tehran must now “pay the price.” AFP, citing an informed diplomat, reported the Qatari negotiating team had traveled to Tehran following consultations with American officials to help narrow remaining differences between the two sides.

A senior Pakistani source with access to information about Pakistan’s role in mediating the talks between the US and Iran, reported that Pakistan, with the encouragement of China and Russia, was making progress in its talks with the Saudis and the Qataris to stop hosting US military bases in their respective countries. These talks coincided with Saudi Arabia denying the US the use of its airspace to attack Iranian targets during Project Freedom.

Will the deal be signed on Friday? I remain skeptical simply because of the enormous Zionist backlash being visited on Donald Trump by angry Israeli officials and US politicians beholden to AIPAC. However, as I write this Monday night, the deal appears intact.

Why hasn’t Donald Trump released the text of the MOU? Two possible explanations (and I’ll be interested in what you think is the most plausible): 1) There are still areas of disagreement between Iran and the US and they are still trying to work out a compromise, 2) Trump does not want to provide the details beforehand fearing that the Zionist backlash could derail the Friday signing ceremony in Geneva. The diplomatic roller coaster is running full blast… It will be a wild ride until Friday.

Video interviews

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on The Straight of Hormuz is Open for Iranian Business… Oil is Moving and Iran is Getting Paid

Biden’s Closed Circle on Russia

An excerpt from ‘The Great Betrayal’

By James W. Carden | The Realist Review | June 14, 2026

Joe Biden’s presidency may ultimately come to be seen as a cautionary tale. Here was a president who showed little interest in entertaining arguments that might have contradicted his most deeply held assumptions.[1] And there were precious few within the upper ranks of the administration who might have attempted to do so, after all, only policy hands and political operatives who had come up through the ranks of the Clinton and Obama administrations or had longstanding ties to the citadels of the foreign policy community were invited into the fold.[2]

The message BidenWorld sent early on was that heterodox voices, even tepid ones, were not welcome. Consider the case of a respected expert on Russian affairs, Dr. Matthew Rojansky, who was then serving as the director of the Kennan Institute at the Congressionally-funded Woodrow Wilson Center. Rojansky had been denied a position on the Biden NSC because he was viewed as “soft” on Russia. Administration officials feared that appointing Rojansky would, as a contemporaneous report by Politico put it, “signal a conciliatory U.S. policy toward Moscow.”[3] The incident had echoes of the 2009 Freeman affair, when a foreign lobby (Israel’s) mobilized its allies in the media and on Capitol Hill to block an appointment it deemed threatening to its agenda. This time around, another foreign lobby (Ukraine’s) slammed the door on Rojansky. From the start, Biden’s White House was a closed circle—new names, new faces, and new thinking were not welcome.

The parallel one reaches for to best describe the inner workings of the Biden White House is that of the Reagan White House. Back then, a chief executive of questionable sentience relied on a tight circle of political operatives to run the day-to-day operations of the White House. During Reagan’s first term, that job fell to a “Troika” consisting of Chief of Staff James Baker, Counselor to the President Ed Meese, and Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Deaver. Meese did policy, Deaver was the image-maker. Baker was in charge of everything else. Joe Biden had a Troika of his own: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, and Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed. Klain and Ricchetti were longtime centrist Democratic operatives. Reed was the policy wonk. No friend of progressives, Reed came up through the ranks as a centrist policy adviser to Senator Al Gore in the 1980s. He later served as a domestic policy adviser to President Clinton.

On the foreign policy side of the ledger, what was old was new again. Like Presidents Carter and Clinton—and his erstwhile Democratic rivals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders—Biden embraced a vision of the world divided between democracy and authoritarianism. While the script had been slightly updated since the end of the Cold War, the story was a familiar one: The US and its NATO allies were now said to be threatened by an “authoritarian axis” led by Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia. The axis is also said to include Iran, North Korea and other revisionist powers. Discussions regarding our putative “friends” and “allies” that also happen to be authoritarian (Saudi Arabia, Turkey) or ethno-nationalist (Israel, Ukraine) are usually excluded from the schema. In December 2021, Biden hosted a ‘Summit for Democracy’ that brought together leaders from over 100 countries in support of a rather amorphous strategy to “defend” democracy—a cause that Biden claimed was “the defining challenge of our time.”

More thoughtful men than Biden saw things rather differently. George Kennan, for one, felt that there was nothing “more egocentric than the embattled democracy.” The problem, as Kennan correctly foresaw, was that an embattled democracy will tend “to attach to its own cause an absolute value which distorts its own vision to everything else. Its enemy becomes the embodiment of all evil. Its own side is the center of all value.”[4] While Kennan wrote those words in 1961, it would be hard to find a better description of the politics of the New Cold War. The main deliverable of Biden’s “democracy” conference was the creation of a Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, which, at a cost of nearly half-a-billion dollars to US taxpayers, would seek to promote “democracy, fight corruption, and defend human rights worldwide.”[5]

As with so many of the ideas and programs championed by the Democratic establishment since the end of the Cold War, the “autocracy vs. democracy” paradigm borrowed liberally from the neocon playbook. Biden’s old friend, the late Senator John McCain, had long called for the creation of a global “League of Democracies.” Speaking at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in 2007, McCain said the new league would, “form the core of an international order of peace based on freedom.” It would be able to “bring concerted pressure to bear on tyrants in Burma or Zimbabwe, with or without Moscow’s and Beijing’s approval.[6] McCain’s proposal might just as easily have come from the pen of Samantha Power. As with the men and pigs at the conclusion of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, when it comes to the neocons and the Democratic elite, it is now impossible to say which is which.

***

The Great Betrayal: How The Democrats Became The Party of War, hailed by Professor Richard Sakwa as “a brilliant, timely, and important achievement,” is available now from OR x Nation Books.

NOTES:

[1] For example, no dissent on matters relating to Israel was welcome; see: https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-silencing-dissent-gaza. For reporting on Biden’s tyrannical streak, see, for example, https://thebrunswicknews.com/president-biden-has-notorious-temper-yells-curses-frequently-in-private-report/article_107fcc8f-b3f8-5dad-a447-083dbde1eaa1.html

[2] Including The Brookings Institution, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The German Marshall Fund, The Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Center for American Progress, The Center for a New American Security, and The Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

[3] https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/19/biden-russia-expert-483000

[4] For Kennan, see: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/12/17/hang-up-the-magical-thinking-and-try-strategic-empathy-on-for-size/

[5] On the Democracy Summit and Biden’s remarks, see: https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/23/summit-for-democracy-summary-of-proceedings/

[6] For McCain’s remarks, see: https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/inline/docs/McCain_05-01-07.pdf

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Book Review, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | | Comments Off on Biden’s Closed Circle on Russia

Lebanon Accuses Israel Of Violating The Chemical Weapons Convention By Spraying Toxic Herbicide Over Farmland

By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | June 15, 2026

Lebanon has officially accused Israel – in a complaint filed with the U.N. Security Council- of violating the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for using aircraft to spray glyphosate, a “toxic herbicide with serious consequences for health, soil, and crops” over farmland in Southern Lebanon, as part of its broader ethnic cleansing plan.

Lebanon said that “the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prohibits the use of herbicides as a means of warfare”.

It noted that “Chemical analyses and laboratory tests conducted on soil samples taken from Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district), Ras Naqoura and Dhaira (Sour district) ‘confirmed the use of glyphosate at high concentrations reaching 22,750 micrograms per gram, a level far higher than the concentrations usually found in agricultural soils after farmers’ direct use of this product, which generally range between 0.5 and 2 micrograms per gram at most’”.

For context, Lebanon’s agriculture minister, Nizar Hani, revealed in February that “Laboratory tests have identified the chemical sprayed by Israeli aircraft in southern Lebanon as glyphosate, a widely used herbicide that can destroy vegetation when applied intensively,” adding that “the substance was used at abnormally high concentrations along the border with Israel”.

Nizar Hani noted that, “glyphosate, like other herbicides, eliminates vegetation when used at such high levels, directly affecting soil and water and causing negative repercussions for human health” and “the substance is classified as having carcinogenic effects and poses serious risks, particularly to agriculture and plant ecosystems” adding, “the incident was consistent with known practices along the border, where such substances are used to create vegetation-free zones, effectively resulting in systematic desertification.”

The Guardian reported that glyphosate was “in 2015 classified by the World Health Organization as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’.”

In January, Israel similarly sprayed glyphosate over farmland in the southern Quneitra province in Syria and soon after, “A second incident occurred two days later, during which the visible release of substances led to outcries from Syrian farmers in occupied areas near Quneitra, southwest of Damascus and along the border with Israel.”

Israel, through spraying this carcinogenic herbicide, is attempting to kill off the farms and crops needed to sustain life in areas of Syria and Lebanon targeted for Israeli annexation in the Greater Israel Project.

June 16, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Comments Off on Lebanon Accuses Israel Of Violating The Chemical Weapons Convention By Spraying Toxic Herbicide Over Farmland

Did the 9/11 Hijackers Really Fly the Planes?

@IC911Justice

Full video:

9/11 Flight Simulator Study Preliminary Results | Dr. Piers Robinson

June 15, 2026 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Comments Off on Did the 9/11 Hijackers Really Fly the Planes?

‘Jewish lobby’ deceived Putin – Lukashenko

RT | June 15, 2026

Russian President Vladimir Putin was deceived into withdrawing troops from near Kiev in 2022 by forces claiming to represent Vladimir Zelensky’s willingness to seek peace, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said.

Speaking in an interview with Al Arabiya, Lukashenko said the conflict could have ended quickly in its early stages, when Moscow’s forces were near the Ukrainian capital.

“At the time, not only I, but everyone in the world understood that the war would end quickly with a Russian victory. This was primarily because the Russians were in Kiev,” the Belarusian leader said, according to BelTA.

However, Lukashenko claimed that “certain politicians and forces” then asked Putin to stop, pull troops back from Kiev, and conclude a peace agreement. “Before that withdrawal, everyone understood that Ukraine’s days were numbered.”

The Belarusian president argued that Moscow had been acting on what appeared to be a genuine opportunity to reach a settlement, adding: “Judge for yourselves who was right and who was wrong in this matter.”

“Once again, probably, these forces deceived him. It was the Vatican. And, surprisingly, the Jewish lobby, the Israelis,” Lukashenko said. “They said on behalf of Zelensky: that’s it, we are moving toward peace, we agree. And others as well.”

It was not immediately clear what exactly Lukashenko meant by the “Jewish lobby.” In the early days of the conflict, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett acted as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev, meeting Putin in Moscow and holding multiple phone calls with Zelensky. Media reports at the time claimed that Bennett had urged Zelensky to accept Moscow’s terms.

Lukashenko also did not elaborate on the Vatican’s alleged role. In March 2022, however, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill held a video call in which they stressed the “exceptional importance” of the negotiation process.

Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in March 2022. Putin said in June 2023 that Ukrainian negotiators had initialed a draft treaty on permanent neutrality and security guarantees, but that Kiev later abandoned the deal after Russian troops pulled back from areas near the Ukrainian capital.

Moscow has argued that Ukraine walked away from the agreement under Western pressure, including from then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who reportedly urged Kiev not to sign any deal with Moscow and to “continue fighting.”

Kiev has disputed Moscow’s account of the failed talks, even though its former chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, has acknowledged Johnson’s role. Ukraine has since formally applied to join NATO and abandoned discussions of neutrality.

June 15, 2026 Posted by | Deception | , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Jewish lobby’ deceived Putin – Lukashenko

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