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Israeli Army Closes Tulkarem Zakat Committee Headquarters

IMEMC | September 8, 2026

Israeli forces invaded and closed the Tulkarem Central Zakat Committee headquarters in the northwestern West Bank before dawn Tuesday. After the soldiers withdrew, Palestinians found the body of Gaza Strip resident As’ad Mleiha inside.

Media sources said several Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip had been living in part of the facility since October 7, 2023. When a large contingent of Israeli soldiers invaded the building, the soldiers forced the workers to leave.

Soldiers then abducted an unspecified number of workers and transported them by military truck to an undisclosed location.

The sources added that the soldiers vandalized the contents of the headquarters and then posted a notice at the entrance alleging that the committee was “illegal,” “supports terrorism,” and had been shut down.

During the invasion, Israeli soldiers fired concussion grenades and tear gas canisters at journalists covering the events and chased several reporters in the surrounding area. No injuries were reported.

Following the army’s withdrawal, Civil Defense and Palestinian Red Crescent Society crews recovered As’ad Mleiha’s body from inside the committee headquarters.

Civil Defense and Palestinian Red Crescent Society crews transferred the body to a hospital. The circumstances surrounding Mleiha’s death and how his body came to be inside the building remain unknown.

No information has been released regarding the fate of the Gaza workers abducted by Israeli forces during the invasion.

The closure of the committee comes amid ongoing Israeli military assaults throughout the Tulkarem governorate.

The Tulkarem Central Zakat Committee is a charitable institution affiliated with the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs.

The committee uses donations and zakat funds to provide humanitarian, social, educational, and financial assistance to families in need, orphans, and other vulnerable groups.

Once a refuge for Palestinians from Gaza stranded in the occupied West Bank after the since October 2023, the Tulkarm Central Zakat Committee headquarters has now become the scene of an Israeli military operation.

The development highlights the vulnerability of Gaza residents living in the West Bank, where ongoing Israeli invasions and abductions continue to expose them to heightened security and legal risks.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Comments Off on Israeli Army Closes Tulkarem Zakat Committee Headquarters

Blaming the Victim in the Gaza Genocide

Amnesty International blames the victim in a time of genocide

By Paul de Rooij • Unz Review • September 8, 2026

The late Dr. Israel Shahak once related that during WWII when a collaborator at the Warsaw ghetto was eliminated, the jubilant inmates (himself included) danced with joy.[0] Maybe the extreme situation didn’t permit the semblance of a legal process, but natural law ran its course. Now imagine if at that time a sanctimonious body were to pop up and chastise the inmates for this “crime”. Under the circumstances, it would appear hypocritical for anyone to criticise the inmates, let alone refer to their action as “unlawful” and demand “accountability”.

Well, Amnesty International just published an article that fits that description in a contemporary setting. It just published a news release, “Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions…”[1], which is an indictment of the execution or beatings of collaborators in Gaza. Amnesty’s rumination amounts to blaming the victim.

About Collaborators

For many decades Israel sought to recruit Palestinian collaborators. These were used as an enforcement arm of the oppressor; to inform on the Palestinian society and the resistance; to undermine the cohesion of the society, to sow distrust; act as propaganda agents; and to create dependence on the oppressor. The Israeli desire to destroy the Palestinian society has been ever present.

From the early days prior to the formation of Israel, zionists sought informers and traitors. Bedouins and the “peace bands” acted as trackers to find and eliminate Palestinian fighters. Wealthy Palestinians sold land or acted as agents for the zionists to acquire land. There are gradations of collaboration — from the ones who were involved in violence against their own people, to those engaged in acts that undermined Palestinian society[2].

Today the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA) are collaborators in the Israeli project; they suppress Palestinian resistance, maintain dependence and subjugation, and protect the network of Palestinian collaborators created by Israel. Prominent Palestinians opposed to Israeli oppression have been murdered by the PA; the PA goons have been tasked with suppressing resistance in key areas such as Jenin and Nablus; and PA forces coordinate their actions with Israeli forces.

Israeli prisons use collaborators (aka Asafir) placed in cells together with Palestinian prisoners to get them to divulge information. Asafir collaborators are also used to break the solidarity between prisoners; any activity that might create a spirit of resistance is broken up.

Notorious armed collaborators roam in the West Bank where they harass and intimidate victims at the behest of their handlers. But to create a culture subservient to the Israeli occupation, Palestinians are told to petition the collaborators to obtain permits, access to land or work. The collaborators simply do Israel’s dirty work.

Drug dealing and collaboration go hand in hand. There is a history of Israel supplying drugs and fostering the criminal gangs in Gaza and the West Bank.[3]

Yet another true and tested way to undermine a society. Drug dealers also act as armed enforcers.

It is fairly easy for Israelis to recruit collaborators. Any Palestinian who has to cross a checkpoint is easy prey for Israeli agents to coerce or bribe victims to become collaborators. No cooperation results in blocked access, and thus no work and the like. If a child requires to go to an Israeli hospital or a health facility in Jerusalem, the parents are often confronted with the choice of obtaining a permit by collaborating, or being turned back. Students seeking to go to study abroad are also put in the same quandary, collaborate or have passage denied. There is an upside to collaborating (obtaining access or favours), and the downside is minimal because collaborators aren’t persecuted. So, now there are collaborators everywhere in the West Bank.

Collaborators in Gaza

When Hamas took over Gaza after it won the elections in 2006, it displaced the collaborationist Palestinian Authority. But most of the ejected members of the PA forces, predominantly Fatah members, remained in Gaza and many were willing to collaborate with Israel. The Palestinian resistance has to contend with collaborators who would pinpoint tunnels, weapons or key personnel. Several resistance commanders were likely killed when exposed by collaborators. Hooded collaborators enable the Israeli military to identify and separate Palestinian prisoners who are either in or assist the resistance.

Some collaborators were tasked with spreading false rumours in crowded places. A favourite tactic was for a collaborator to take a shared taxi ride, and then loudly claim that a given official was corrupt or criminal. Others were instructed to paint defeatist or hateful graffiti.

And at present Israel is arming and organising Palestinian criminal gangs to terrorise neighbourhoods to drive people out of their homes. The Middle East Eye reports:[4]

Based on testimony from Israeli soldiers, UN reports and satellite imagery, the investigation found that increasingly well-armed collaborator militias have expelled Palestinians from their homes and carried out operations across Gaza. Israel has trained at least five militia groups, and potentially a sixth, operating from heavily fortified bases inside Israeli-occupied areas of the enclave.

One Israeli soldier described how the state, army and Shin Bet intelligence service send armed and “trained militias to commit war crimes, …”.

One can well understand Palestinian anger against the collaborators’ treasonous and criminal behaviour, and their attempts to poison Palestinian society.

Amnesty on rough justice

Although Israel is responsible for recruiting and exploiting a collaborator network, Amnesty portrays Hamas’ rough justice as “unlawful” and it calls for Hamas to be held accountable. It doesn’t portray the collaborators as an Israeli instrument.

Amnesty portrays the issue of collaborators as one between the Palestinian population at large and Hamas; not as one where Israel is the oppressor, and the Palestinians are the oppressed. And under the circumstances (Amnesty plainly admits there is “a collapse of law and order in Gaza”), how are Palestinians supposed to dispense justice? On the one hand Amnesty wants Hamas to operate under a legal framework, yet it plainly downplays the Israeli violations of most laws that should confer all Palestinians some protection. It is a clear double standard.

Israeli forces have targeted the police and courts. On day one of the 2014 attack, dozens of police were bombed and killed. In the recent past, police have been similarly targeted. So, it seems that Amnesty expects Hamas to operate within a legal framework meant to mediate societal tension in a state of peace. When Hamas establishes that organised crime in Gaza operates in tandem with Israeli forces, then it has the right to defend itself. Amnesty may not like the rough justice this entails, but it has no standing to criticise the way Palestinians defend themselves.

Erika Guevara Rosas, the author of the “Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions” article, seems to dismiss the accusations made by Hamas against collaborators. When referring to the collaborators, the article is sprinkled with the usual Amnesty weasel words: “suspected”, “alleged”. The word informant is put in quotation marks. Amnesty confers no credibility to statements made by Hamas. One wonders why Palestinians should be required to justify their actions when Israel carries on with impunity.

A legal argument

Anyone hiring a hitman for an assassination or any serious crime would face severe legal consequences. In the same manner, when Israel hires or coerces collaborators to perpetrate serious crimes, e.g., murder, then the contracting party should also bear severe legal consequences. Alas, this is not an argument that Amnesty understands.

There is a pattern

Most articles/news releases published by Amnesty seem to follow a pattern. One article will criticise Palestinians, and it is shortly thereafter followed by an article which criticises Israel. In the current context, we have the article about execution of collaborators, and it was followed a few days later by an article restating that Israel has done nothing to end the genocide and to abide by the ICJ’s ruling.[5] Amnesty seeks to portray itself as a neutral organisation which sits on the fence criticising “both sides”. Amnesty’s actions are neither proportional to the violence or injustice of the current situation. The reason it takes this dubious stance is because it doesn’t want to be in solidarity with the Palestinians, but it similarly doesn’t want to be antagonistic towards Israelis. The actions of the oppressed and oppressor are held to the same ahistorical standard.

Amnesty and genocide

It took a long time for Amnesty to unequivocally refer to Israeli crimes as genocide. On 28 October 2023, Craig Mokhiber, the former UN official in the High Commission for Human Rights, resigned because his agency was not reacting given the unfolding situation in Gaza, and stated in his resignation letter: “this is a textbook case of genocide”. It was only 13 months later that Amnesty acknowledged the nature of Israeli crimes, thus Amnesty was rather late to announce that Palestinians were subject to a genocidal campaign.[6] But then one would expect more action from “the leading human rights organisation”. Currently, several weeks transpire before it cursorily mentions genocide. It seems that Amnesty’s actions aren’t proportional to the severity of the crime — and to boot, Amnesty will regularly chastise Palestinians for the way they deal with collaborators or protestors.

A matter of timing

There are many egregious cases of Israeli violence or threats to perpetrate heinous acts. On 15 August 2026, Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli security minister, stated that he sought to kill 30 to 40 Palestinians every day. The man interviewing him helpfully volunteered to kill with his own bare hands. This is only Ben Gvir’s latest statement about an intent to kill many Palestinians, and he certainly belongs in the same dock as Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant to answer for all their mass crimes. Amnesty’s article chastising Palestinians for the assassination of collaborators coincided with Ben Gvir’s statements about criminal intent. What is worse, the elimination of collaborators or the threat to kill 30 to 40 Palestinians every day? What is surprising is that Amnesty didn’t utter a peep about Ben Gvir’s threats — hardly empty threats.

Human rights are for the birds

Human rights organisations think that they can opine on everything, and they believe that they can offer recommendations to everybody. Alas, the human rights framework is problematic and deficient, and human rights organisations are mostly compromised and propaganda tools for those who pay for them.

When confronted with mass crimes what is needed is justice, and not one of its bastardised, neutered, malleable and ineffective substitutes. If one wants justice then it behooves one to speak in terms of justice, and to avoid the human rights mumbo jumbo. When faced with mass crimes one should demand justice, and not merely seek some bandages. This is specially the case when human rights have been cynically exploited and weaponised by the US and UK. A framework that can be used to justify wars, the so-called humanitarian interventions (even humanitarian bombing!!), cannot be a framework that advances justice or motivates people to act against mass crimes.

Most human rights NGOs don’t even condemn the forever wars, the US/Israeli wars of aggression. Amnesty International is “not an anti-war organisation”.[7] How one can favour human rights and not oppose wars is a mystery. But then Amnesty is against capital punishment, but not opposed to some killing by the military. However, all killings by the Palestinian resistance are condemned or criticised in Amnesty’s weasel-like inimitable style. The same demands don’t apply when Israel bombs refugee camps, or hires, arms and organises collaborators to terrorise and expel the residents of the refugee camps. Here another standard applies.

Amnesty International is not part of the solution; it is part of the problem.

Notes

[0] Frank Collins, “Why Palestinians Kill Palestinians in Israeli-Occupied Territories”, WRMEA, Nov. 1989.https://www.wrmea.org/1989-november/why-palestinians-kill-palestinians-in-israeli-occupied-territories.html

[1] “Palestine: Hamas must stamp out extrajudicial executions and ensure justice for victims”, 21 August 2026.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/08/palestine-hamas-must-stamp-out-extrajudicial-executions-and-ensure-justice-for-victims/

[2] A good overview of early Palestinian collaboration see: Joseph Massad , “Palestinian elites have been collaborating against the resistance for a century”, 12 June 2026.

[3] Here is a recent example: Joe Glenton, Israel is smuggling narcotics into Gaza, Palestinian tribal council warns, The Canary, 17 December 2025.

https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/12/17/israel-narcotics/

[4] Israel arms drug dealers to commit new ‘Sabra and Shatila’ in Gaza, MEE Staff, MEE, 27 August 2026.

See also: Palestine Information Center, “Agent militias in Gaza: Temporary occupation tool or project to reshape society”, 3 September 2026.

https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2026/09/03/369484/

[5] “Israel/OPT: South Africa ICJ submission must spur states to press Israel to end its genocide in Gaza”, Amnesty International, 1 September 2026.

[6] Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty International, 5 December 2024.

[7] Personal communication with Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, January 2003.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | Comments Off on Blaming the Victim in the Gaza Genocide

Yemeni drones reportedly struck Saudi oil, military sites

Al Mayadeen | September 8, 2026

The Yemeni Resistance, Ansar Allah, appears to have launched a major drone attack targeting sites in southwestern Saudi Arabia in recent hours, with reported strikes and fires detected around Jazan, Abha, and Khamis Mushait.

According to data compiled by Egypt’s Intel Observer, the operations appear to have affected several strategic facilities, including Aramco’s Jazan oil refinery and the Jazan Bulk Plant, where multiple hotspots were detected. Another hotspot was also identified near King Abdullah Airport in Jazan.

Reported strikes target oil and military facilities

Satellite data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) VIIRS also showed multiple heat signatures at Aramco’s bulk plant in Abha, suggesting the facility was directly hit in a recent operation.

Additional hotspots reportedly appeared around oil and gas storage facilities at the Asir Central Power Plant in Abha. The facility supplies baseload electricity to the southern region of Saudi Arabia.

King Khalid Air Base also reportedly hit

King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait also appears to have been targeted, with a fire hotspot detected at the site.

The satellite detections indicate possible fires at several locations, but they do not by themselves establish the cause of the heat signatures.

Saudi Arabia admits hits

The Saudi Ministry of Energy announced that a number of energy facilities and infrastructure in the southern region of the Kingdom were targeted this morning.

The ministry said the attacks caused fires to break out at several sites, resulting in the temporary suspension of some operations.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni Armed Forces announced early Tuesday that it is preparing a statement to “announce a large-scale military operation deep inside Saudi territory.”

Ansar Allah repels Saudi-backed advance in Yemen’s al-Jawf

At the same time, the Yemeni Armed Forces repelled an advance by Saudi-backed mercenaries toward the al-Labanat Mountains east of al-Jawf province, according to Mohammed al-Farrah, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau.

Al-Farrah said on Tuesday that Yemeni forces targeted reinforcements belonging to Saudi-aligned forces in al-Jawf with several ballistic missiles, destroying and disabling dozens of military vehicles and transport units.

He said the strikes also resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries among the Saudi-backed forces, including commanders.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , | Comments Off on Yemeni drones reportedly struck Saudi oil, military sites

It’s OK to fight for a foreign army (as long as they’re our friends)

That’s the unwritten rule for Britain’s media

By DES FREEDMAN | Declassified UK | September 2, 2026

The death of a British national, Bradley Townsend, killed in Ukraine in June while fighting for Russian forces has been widely reported in the media.

“British traitor who joined Vladimir Putin’s army ‘killed by Ukraine drone’” splashed the Daily Star while former security minister Tom Tugendhat told LBC that Townsend was “extremely misguided” for “engaging in an army that is committing the most barbarous war crimes that the world has seen in decades.”

Compare this to the far more positive coverage in the media of individual British nationals who have served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a genocide that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians.

When Declassified, for example, revealed exclusively that more than 2,000 British subjects had joined the IDF since October 7, the only reference to this in the mainstream media was a short article in The London Standard.

There are, however, no stories describing British nationals as ‘traitors’ for joining the IDF, nor ministerial condemnations of subjects taking part in what the United Nations has described as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”.

On the contrary, British subjects enlisting in the IDF are routinely humanised and their justifications reported without criticism.

A Times story in October 2023, headlined “Meet the Britons defending ‘the only place Jews feel safe’”, described IDF soldier Sam Sank as a Tottenham fan and dog owner while also referring to another dual national, Joe, as a “Chelsea fan… camping out with an emergency supply of PG Tips tea.”

BBC News interviewed British-Israeli soldier Alex Moeller on 17 November 2023 drawing on his experience in an ‘IDF anti-terror unit’.

Moeller spoke, without rebuttal, about how Israeli forces had committed to “minimise civilian casualties and obviously minimise humanitarian impact”.

He opposed a ceasefire, describing it simply as a ‘tactical’ ploy by Hamas.

There was a marked distinction in the reporting of British nationals fighting for Russia, which is extremely negative, describing them as “thugs”, “yobs” and seriously misguided people.

For example, the Sun reported in November 2024 on Jay Fraser, the “Scots mercenary fighting for Vladimir Putin” while the Observer described him as a “university dropout” who was “captivated by ‘manly’ Russia”.

In March 2024, the Mirror reported on the “British traitors” fighting on the Russian side, Ben Stimson and his best friend Aidan Minnis, describing the latter as a “former National Front member and convicted thug.”

The article quotes former British army commander Colonel Richard Kemp: “These two are an absolute disgrace and are traitors who upon their return to the UK should be arrested and jailed.”

It then carries a Home Office statement saying that: “Any person who travels from the UK to conflict zones to engage in unlawful activity, should expect to be investigated upon their return.”

There are no stories that reveal similar threats being made against dual nationals fighting for the IDF other than a single reference on late-night BBC radio on 22 July 2025.

Defence journalist Tim Ripley suggested that the UK government could use a law to stop British citizens “commuting to the war in Gaza”.

The suggestion was not explored afterwards by any outlet.

Heroes in Ukraine

In contrast to the coverage of pro-Russian Britons, articles on British subjects fighting on the side of Ukraine have been far more positive.

The Sunday Times, for example, reported sympathetically about the case of ‘Baby’, a young Scot who signed up for Ukrainian forces but who, on his return from the frontline, was prevented from joining Police Scotland.

There was also blanket coverage in February 2025 – including on the BBC and Sky – of former Tory MP Jack Lopresti who joined Ukrainian forces after losing his seat in the 2024 general election.

This includes particularly sympathetic profiles in the Telegraph and Mail. The Guardian was equally positive in its account which highlighted Foreign Office advice that “it is illegal for British citizens to fight in Ukraine”.

Even though it was revealed in February 2026 that Lopresti had joined the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade, the Telegraph then carried a story the following month with the headline: “Jack Lopresti is a rare example of a politician who puts his money where his mouth is”.

The article was written by Colonel Richard Kemp, the same person who had called for the jailing of the two Britons fighting on the Russian side.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , , | Comments Off on It’s OK to fight for a foreign army (as long as they’re our friends)

Lavrov: Russia, China keep no technological secrets from each other

Al Mayadeen | September 8, 2026

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia and China have built an equal, strategic partnership in which neither side withholds technology from the other, in remarks published Tuesday.

Speaking to the online project Sama Menshova, Lavrov said the absence of technological secrecy between the two countries reflects the balanced and mutually beneficial character of their comprehensive strategic partnership, pointing to joint agreements as evidence.

Asked whether Russia risks slipping into the role of China’s “junior partner,” Lavrov rejected the framing outright, saying Moscow and Beijing have never approached the relationship in those terms.

The foreign minister praised China’s standing as a leading technological power across both applied and theoretical science, citing its output of high-tech goods, robotics and reusable spacecraft.

He said Russia’s own scientific tradition is equally strong, and that the two countries’ strengths complement one another, pointing to joint work underway in space exploration, advanced technology and artificial intelligence.

Maritime trade between the two countries climbs

Separately, Russia’s Transport Ministry said Tuesday that maritime cargo traffic between Russian and Chinese ports rose 19.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2026, reaching 109.5 million tonnes.

The ministry released the figures during the 30th plenary session of the Russian-Chinese Subcommission on Transport Cooperation, held as part of the Second Russian-Chinese Forum in Khabarovsk.

Officials noted that sea cargo volumes between the two countries had already grown 4.3 percent across all of 2025, reaching 196.75 million tonnes, before accelerating further in the opening months of this year.

Broader trade ties continue to expand

This technological and maritime cooperation comes against a backdrop of fast-growing overall trade between the two countries.

According to China’s General Administration of Customs, trade between Russia and China rose 28.4 percent in the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, reaching $185 billion.

Chinese exports to Russia totaled $84.675 billion between January and August, up 30.7 percent year-on-year, while Russian exports to China climbed 26.5 percent to $100.37 billion over the same period, customs data released Tuesday showed.

The figures leave Russia with a trade surplus of more than $15.6 billion over the eight-month period.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Economics | , | Comments Off on Lavrov: Russia, China keep no technological secrets from each other

IRGC Navy seizes cutting-edge US unmanned submersible in Strait of Hormuz

Photo released by the IRGC Navy shows an advanced US underwater vehicle captured by the IRGC forces near the Strait of Hormuz on September 8, 2026
Press TV – September 8, 2026

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced that it has successfully intercepted and captured a highly advanced, unmanned American underwater vehicle at the entrance of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the IRGC Navy stated that the seizure was carried out in the early hours of the day following a “complex intelligence and operational action.”

The unmanned submersible incorporates some of the world’s most advanced underwater technology and was delivered to the US terrorist military in 2025, the statement said.

The IRGC announced that photographic evidence and detailed footage of the captured US asset would be released in the coming hours.

Iranian news agency Tasnim identified the captured system as a Dive-LD, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle developed by US defense technology company Anduril Industries and first delivered to the US Navy’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Group 1 in 2025.

The vehicle is approximately 5.8 meters long, has a diameter of about 1.2 meters and weighs roughly 2.7 tonnes.

Its published specifications include an endurance of up to 10 days underwater and a maximum operating depth of around 6,000 meters.

Designed as a modular autonomous platform, the Dive-LD can be configured for missions including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, seabed mapping, infrastructure inspection and mine-countermeasure operations.

The capture comes amid a sharp escalation between Iran and the United States over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints.

The waterway has increasingly become a key arena in the US war on Iran, prompting Tehran to assert greater control over maritime activity in and around the strait.

Recent military exchanges have included US strikes on Iranian oil tankers and Iranian missile attacks targeting US naval forces.

On September 6, Iran said it had struck a US unmanned vessel attempting to enter a restricted area near Hormuz.

The capture of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) marks the latest in a long history of Iran intercepting and seizing advanced Western military technology.

Over the past decade, Iranian forces have successfully downed or captured numerous high-value US assets, including the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and various underwater gliders and surface vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Reverse-engineering these captured technologies has historically played a significant role in accelerating Iran’s domestic drone and unmanned naval programs.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , | Comments Off on IRGC Navy seizes cutting-edge US unmanned submersible in Strait of Hormuz

Massie And Burlison Introduce Bill To Defund Flock Surveillance Cameras

By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | September 8, 2026

Two Republican members of Congress have introduced a bill that seeks to stop the federal government from funding surveillance cameras that are used to build mass vehicle and biometric location tracking systems.

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Eric Burlison of Missouri introduced the Flock-Off Act, H.R. 10221, on September 2.

Massie and Burlison want to cut off the flow of federal money to local and state law enforcement that is used to purchase, maintain, and operate the controversial Flock Safety cameras, but also other similar systems, and any data they produce.

And the proposal seeks to stop federal funding of any cloud services that store data collected by Flock Safety and similar companies, as well as any data-sharing agreements involving these systems.

Massie and Burlison are joined by five other representatives as original cosponsors of the bill: Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Ro Khanna of California, Chip Roy of Texas, and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

If it becomes law, the Flock-Off Act would represent a significant limitation on the ability of the federal government to help build and maintain surveillance systems that can track people’s movements and identify them through biometric data.

The bill covers automated license-plate readers, cameras that can identify or extract vehicle characteristics, and biometric surveillance cameras. Biometric data is defined as including facial recognition, voiceprints, iris or retinal scans, fingerprints, and gait recognition.

The bill would require federal agencies to decommission federally funded covered systems within 180 days, while state and local recipients would have to stop operating federally supported systems to continue receiving money under the relevant federal program. If they violate the spending prohibition, relevant program funds would be withheld until the improperly spent amount is repaid to the US Treasury.

There are some exceptions: the border, and toll roads. Federal funds could continue to be used for cameras located within one mile of the northern or southern US border, if they are used to detect or interdict “unlawful entry, human trafficking, or drug smuggling.” In addition, automated license-plate readers used solely to collect, administer, or enforce tolls would also be exempt.

Massie said the purpose of the bill is to stop the federal government from helping local police and cities that have “gone beyond the pale” by deploying mass surveillance systems that are reminiscent of those described in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

“The federal government shouldn’t provide ‘security’ grants to cities and police departments that have gone beyond the pale and turned their communities into a version of 1984,” Massie said. “The Flock-Off Act withholds federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock cameras to surveil law-abiding citizens. Federal taxpayers should not be forced to fund the surveillance state.”

“Technology may change, but our constitutional rights do not,” Burlison said. “The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches, and advances in surveillance technology should not come at the expense of our privacy and liberty.”

H.R. 10221 was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Comments Off on Massie And Burlison Introduce Bill To Defund Flock Surveillance Cameras

US Warns UK Against Forcing Platforms to Promote Preferred News

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | September 8, 2026

The US government has urged its British counterpart to give up on plans to make social media and video sharing platforms give more prominence to news from mainstream media outlets.

The US government’s objection is that this would amount to “mandating that platforms algorithmically amplify government-preferred media.”

The UK proposal was contained in a green paper published in June, titled “Watch This Space: A New Strategic Direction for UK Media.” The document said that the government will “explore legislative options to require social media to make news content from PSM providers, and potentially also national and local news publishers, prominent and easily discoverable.”

The US response to the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s consultation, which closed on August 31, argues that the idea of official judgments about which media outlets are trustworthy is dangerous because it can be used to suppress others and thus harm free expression and competition.

Unlike direct censorship, this would work by promoting government-preferred media, but the effect would be to make it even harder for others to be heard. This is because of the way recommendation algorithms work, and the limited space on a user’s feed – promoting some content means suppressing other content, and thus, speech.

The US government also warned that this policy would have “significant effects beyond UK borders” because of the global nature of the platforms that would be forced to implement it. This could lead to “extraterritorial censorship of protected speech by Americans online.”

The US Embassy and Consulates in the UK published the US government’s response. The British government’s preference is to have voluntary industry agreements. However, if these prove insufficient, the government says it is prepared to legislate.

The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport reacted to the US criticism by saying that it “strongly believes” in free expression and fair competition, and that any future action will ensure those are protected.

This is not the first time the UK proposal has been criticized. Among those who previously spoke against it were House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, YouTube, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

The UK green paper cites countering “misinformation” during “crisis” or “unrest” as the reason to make sure that news from public service media providers is easily accessible and prominent. It does not set out a final test for deciding which national or local publishers might also qualify, but that is the crux of the US criticism, and the question remains unanswered.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Comments Off on US Warns UK Against Forcing Platforms to Promote Preferred News

Mark Levin Trashes the Constitution to Protect Violent West Bank Settlers

By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | September 8, 2026

Mark Levin is at it again. He is livid over a decision by the UK government to ban trade with violent illegal settlers in the West Bank. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said this week the UK will ban imports of all goods from settlements in the occupied West Bank, in addition to services including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate, and advertising for settlements.

For Levin and the Zionists in Israel and the United States, a boycott of Kahanist settlers is antisemitism, the same as public criticism of Israel over its slaughter of Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, is hatred of Jews.

Levin considers himself a constitutional lawyer. However, his interpretation of the US Constitution is highly selective. As an ardent and outspoken Zionist and defender of apartheid and genocide, he believes a boycott of Israel is not protected by the First Amendment. The right to boycott was reaffirmed in 1982 with a Supreme Court ruling on NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. It held that nonviolent political boycotts are a form of protected speech. However, this is irrelevant when it comes to Israel.

The case centered around a civil-rights boycott of white-owned businesses in Mississippi. The Court upheld the right to peaceful advocacy, association, and political expression that were integral to the campaign.

In 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed Arkansas’ anti-boycott contracting legislation. The majority determined that the law governed commercial purchasing choices rather than safeguarding speech. In February 2023, the Supreme Court decided not to review an appeal.

However, court rulings in Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas have upheld the right to boycott as as a protected form of political expression under the First Amendment, challenging the legality of anti-BDS laws across the United States.

“Close to 40 states across the U.S. have laws that require ending contracts with and/or divesting from companies that engage in antisemitic boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel,” Levin posted to social media on September 7.

These states whose combined GDP is significant should publicly make clear to countries such as the UK that companies that engage in BDS because of their decisions will face consequences under state anti-BDS laws. By the way, Florida and Texas combined have a much larger GDP than the UK.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement is now illegal in 38 states. Congress has also considered anti-boycott legislation. In 2019, the Senate passed S.1, which contains anti-boycott provisions. In 2023, Republicans, including Marco Rubio, reintroduced the Combating BDS Act.

Most Americans oppose anti-BDS laws by a wide margin. 72% oppose laws penalizing people who boycott Israel while 22% supported such laws, according to the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll.

Levin is not opposed to BDS if it focuses on the correct target. In 2021, for instance, he demanded a BDS-style boycott of big tech and major television networks in response to criticism of Israel. “He argues that the way to fight against distortions and false claims, and to counter the media censors, is take a page from the anti-Israel activists’ playbook,” reported the Jerusalem News Syndicate in 2021.

Does Levin disagree with the colonial protests against British goods in the 1760s and 1770s that led to the Boston Tea Party? Does he believe the Montgomery bus boycott in the mid-1950s was illegitimate? How about the United Farm Workers boycotts in the 1960s, or the NAACP Mississippi boycott of white-owned businesses, also in the 60s?

No, probably not. The only legitimate opposition to BDS concerns Israel. The Zionist state gets a pass and the Constitution is null and void when confronted with spurious accusations of antisemitism.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mark Levin Trashes the Constitution to Protect Violent West Bank Settlers

UK Police Arrested 62,199 People Over Online Speech In Five Years

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | September 8, 2026

Britain’s police arrested at least 62,199 people over five years under laws governing what people say online or over the phone.

That’s a busy period for the written word. And the number of those charged over the same period is 18,510, while 12,292 people were convicted.

The Big Brother Watch report, Britain’s Free Speech Problem: How Growing Restrictions Are Stifling Speech Online and Offline, covers the period between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2025.

The laws are Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, and Section 179 of the Online Safety Act 2023.

What do they concern? Indecent or grossly offensive messages, electronic communications that are grossly offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing, as well as the persistent use of a public network intended to cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety.

That’s as well as sending a message that the sender knows to be false, without reasonable excuse, and with the intention of causing non-trivial physical or psychological harm to a likely
audience.

These are the “crimes” that the 62,199 people are suspected of committing, but the rate at which people are arrested under these laws varies greatly across the country. By as much as 43 times.

Cumbria Constabulary is leading the way with 25.7 people arrested per 10,000 residents. And at the other end of the spectrum is Staffordshire Police with 0.58.
That’s a 43-fold difference.

The report also details the case of Child A, a “vulnerable” teenager from the West Midlands. She viewed a TikTok post about a teacher, but did not create, share, or comment on it.

However, her school inspected her phone, found no account connected to the post, and then gave her name to the police.

Two officers then visited the family home and demanded that Child A hand over her devices. The family was told that she could either attend a voluntary interview or face arrest.

The family chose the former and Child A gave a written statement, after which the investigation was closed with no further action.

And then there’s the case of Anneka Svenska, an animal rights campaigner. Two Sussex Police officers visited her over a social media video in which she said that MBR Acres, a company that breeds beagles for research, sent “hundreds of kilograms of animal remains” to incinerators.

This happened in July 2026, and is therefore outside the five-year period covered by the report. But Svenska was offered a community resolution that included taking an “online thinking skills” course and an online “impact exercise,” or face arrest.

After her lawyer sent evidence supporting her claims to Cambridgeshire Police, the matter was reportedly dropped, in about 15 minutes, although the evidence had been available in the original video.

Svenska did not accept the community resolution.

In the five years covered by the report, there were 43-fold fewer arrests in some postcodes compared to others. But Big Brother Watch said that the Online Safety Act has already had a devastating effect on free speech, with some 300 small community forums closing or changing ownership in order to avoid the new law’s requirements.

And while the group doesn’t want all laws regulating communications to be scrapped – because some messages can indeed constitute crimes – the three laws in question are formulated in a broad and unclear manner, leading to their uneven application across the country, and investigations that are “avoidable.”

These investigations can be “punitive” even when no conviction follows, as people are subjected to police visits, demands to hand over their devices, interviews, arrests, and charges.

The group is now asking Prime Minister Andy Burnham to review what it calls “anti-free speech laws.”

Svenska, at least, escaped the online thinking skills course. It took the police about 15 minutes to catch up.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Comments Off on UK Police Arrested 62,199 People Over Online Speech In Five Years

US ambassador threatens Britain with economic retaliation over Israeli settlement trade ban

The Cradle | September 8, 2026

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said Washington will certainly hit back if Britain proceeds with trade sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, telling BBC that a response could come from the federal government and from individual US states.

Huckabee said acting in this way against “a partner, Israel” risked a “huge economic impact on British businesses,” which he warned could find themselves “banned” from operating “in a number of states.”

He told BBC the planned ban on illegal Israeli settlement goods would be “discrimination against the Jewish people,” singling out Florida as a state that could move against British trade.

The ambassador had already accused the British government of “Jew hate” over the weekend, responding to criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is himself Jewish.

Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine issued a parallel threat, saying legislation he pushed through as a state lawmaker “would ban any British company forced to comply from doing business with any state or local government in Florida.”

Firms joining the boycott would also be shut out of the state if they needed permits or tax dealings with authorities to function, he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in a filmed statement, said Britain would land on “the wrong side of history,” calling the step “a grave miscalculation” and “a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation.”

This comes after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham moved to impose a full ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with possible sanctions on Israeli ministers and individual settlers.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has publicly attacked British Foreign Secretary Miliband, calling his statement on the E1 settlement project patronizing.

The illegal E1 settlement bloc would cut the occupied West Bank in half, isolate it from occupied East Jerusalem, and bury any prospect of a Palestinian state, an outcome Israeli officials have stated as the goal.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on US ambassador threatens Britain with economic retaliation over Israeli settlement trade ban

Ukrainian Scam Machine Rakes in $1 Billion per Month Robbing European Citizens — Report

Sputnik – September 8, 2026

Western spy agencies originally cultivated and trained Ukrainian hacker groups “to counter Russia”, but they all quickly spun out of control, mutating into fraud networks, the Aydınlık outlet reports.

As of 2026, an estimated 1,000 call centers operate in Ukraine, employing roughly 60,000 people and targeting citizens of at least 29 countries through a range of schemes—including fake investment pitches, romance-baiting, and impersonation of banks or government agencies.

Various criminal ploys are used, including threats and blackmail, and different schemes are employed for different countries — for example, fake official documents in Germany, bogus cryptocurrencies in France, “safe bank accounts” in Greece and “tax authorities” in Canada and the US.

The network’s total monthly revenue is estimated at roughly $1 billion, with a single call center alone pulling in $8 million from Germany and approximately $1 million from the Baltic states, the outlet adds.

September 8, 2026 Posted by | Deception | , , , | Comments Off on Ukrainian Scam Machine Rakes in $1 Billion per Month Robbing European Citizens — Report

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