The UN’s plan to levy taxes on global trade is a sinister power grab
If these precedents on emissions charges and compulsory offsets stand, the appetite of unelected institutions for fiscal power will grow
By Brenda Shaffer | The Telegraph | June 22, 2026
International energy and climate policies stand at the center of one of the most defining political issues of our time: the expanding power of unelected institutions such as the United Nations in the lives of people in democratic societies.
Two UN agencies – the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – plan to tax global shipping and aviation for their greenhouse gas emissions. This would mark the first time an unelected institution has levied taxes on major sectors of global economic activity. The planned levies would expand the power and budgets of these agencies with no democratic accountability.
Regardless of one’s views on climate change, proponents of democracy should recognize the threat posed by taxation without representation and oppose this power grab by the UN.
If implemented, the UN agency levies will raise global shipping and aviation costs, adding to inflation worldwide. Shipping produces just around 2 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet a UN tax on it would add costs to virtually every traded good. Shipping carries more than 80 per cent of global trade, a share expected to grow. Civil aviation accounts for approximately 2.5 percent of global emissions. The planned carbon offset requirement would add further costs to international flights.
In October 2026, the IMO will take a final vote on launching its carbon tax. The ICAO’s requirement that airlines purchase carbon offsets for international flights comes into force in January 2027.
If implemented, the IMO scheme will rake in billions from shippers while doing little to lower greenhouse gas emissions: there is simply not enough zero-carbon or low-carbon fuel available that meets the IMO’s criteria. The IMO estimates the scheme will add between $11bn (£8.1bn) and $13bn (£9.6bn) to its budget.
The IMO taxation scheme would at minimum double shipping fuel costs. The current generation of low-carbon fuels – hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia – are not suitable for wide use in the shipping industry. These fuels are more flammable than those in use today, increasing risks for ships and crews. If adopted, insurance costs would soar, particularly following the first inevitable accident attributable to these fuels.
UK Speech Regulator’s Telegram Questions Point Toward Private Chats
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | June 21, 2026
Britain’s communications regulator is pressing Telegram to find ways of seeing what its users say to one another in private. Ofcom has begun questioning the messaging app about how it detects and prevents illegal incitement, following the conviction of a Ukrainian man for arson attacks on a car and properties connected to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Roman Lavrynovych, 22, was reportedly drawn in through a public Telegram channel that advertised money to post and print leaflets, and that channel broke no laws. It offered legal work and told anyone interested to “contact in private messages.” The real offers, first for the poster work and later for the arson, reportedly moved into one-to-one chats away from public view.
A spokesperson for Ofcom said it had contacted the app “to seek further clarification” because the arsonist had been directed on Telegram by a handler linked to Russia.
The regulator frames this as a preliminary stage ahead of any formal investigation, though the questions point in one direction. If nothing illegal appeared in the open channel, the only place left to look is inside the private conversations between individual users.
That request carries a cost the regulator has not spelled out. Telegram cannot scan private messages for signs of incitement without reading private messages, all of them, belonging to everyone, not the handful that turn out to involve a crime.
The arson plot stayed hidden in personal chats precisely because that is where people expect to speak without an audience. Asking Telegram to surface that content means asking it to treat ordinary private conversation as something to be inspected by default.
It is not even settled what “private messages” covers here and the ambiguity raises the stakes. Telegram’s standard chats sit on its servers. Its secret chats use end-to-end encryption that the company itself cannot read, but only when turned on, and the feature is not turned on by default.
Court reporting has not made clear which kind carried the arson offers. Should Ofcom expect detection inside encrypted chats, it is effectively asking Telegram to build a route around its own encryption, most likely by scanning messages on the user’s device before they are sealed. That hollows out the protection for the people who relied on it. A message read before it is encrypted was never really encrypted.
A single conviction has become the occasion to ask a platform how it inspects private speech in general and the answer Ofcom seems to want is closer inspection.
The push runs in one direction across the Online Safety Act, through age checks, hash-matching against databases of banned images, automated tools to flag grooming and self-harm content, and now questions about catching incitement inside private chats.
Detection keeps moving inward, from public posts toward the conversations people assumed only their recipient would see. Real harms justify the steps one at a time and the cumulative effect normalizes a new baseline, where a messaging app is expected to read along and act as an extension of the regulator’s reach. The Act backs that expectation with fines of up to £18 million ($24M) or a tenth of global revenue, which is leverage enough to make most companies listen.
Israel’s censor silenced 5,700 reports in 2025
Israeli forces detain a photojournalist in Hebron, West Bank on October 3, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | June 18, 2026
Israel’s military censor blocked or altered more than 5,700 news reports in 2025, an average of 15 items per day, making it the second-highest year for media censorship in Israel since records began 15 years ago, according to new data published by +972 Magazine.
The figures, obtained through a freedom of information request submitted by +972 and the Movement for Freedom of Information, show that the censor demanded redactions in 4,974 news items in 2025, while completely barring 753 further items from publication. Both totals remain far above the previous annual average of around 2,300 redactions and 320 full bans recorded between 2011 and 2023. The year 2024, the height of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, still holds the record for the highest number of interventions.
The censor, a unit embedded within Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, received 17,176 article submissions from media outlets in 2025, compared to a pre-2024 annual average of just under 12,000. Israeli law requires media organisations to submit material touching on “security” issues for censor approval before publication, under emergency regulations enacted at the time of Israel’s founding that remain in force today.
According to +972, censorship was most intensive during Israel’s war with Iran. Police, municipal inspectors, and at times civilians enforced severe restrictions on reporting the locations of Iranian missile strikes on Israeli cities, with Arab and foreign journalists disproportionately subjected to obstruction in the field. Television studios regularly hosted a representative of the censorship authority to monitor live broadcasts in real time.
Media outlets are legally barred from informing their audiences that the censor interfered in a published article. The censor is also authorised to intervene retroactively, ordering the removal of articles published without prior approval as it did last year when it demanded the deletion of a column in Haaretz that disclosed the locations of Iranian missile strikes in Tel Aviv.
The censor holds sweeping powers of enforcement, including the authority to indict journalists and to fine, suspend, shut down, or file criminal charges against media organisations that fail to comply with its orders.
The data raises questions about the political direction of the censorship apparatus. The two men who led the censor over the past two years — Kobi Mandelblit, who served as chief censor until April 2025, and Netanel Kula, who replaced him — are both relatives of senior legal figures from Israel’s religious-Zionist movement.
Three months after Kula assumed the role, reports emerged that he had suppressed coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son purchasing an undisclosed property abroad. The story eventually reached the public through other channels.
The data also points to a striking double standard in enforcement. The far-right Channel 14, a broadcaster aligned with Israel’s ultranationalist camp, repeatedly published sensitive combat plans and military intelligence tools that security officials determined had caused “actual harm” to national security. Despite this, the channel was not penalised on any occasion.
“It is particularly important during times of emergency to receive reliable information about changes regarding the censor’s activities,” said Or Sadan, an attorney from the Movement for Freedom of Information. “Although there has been a slight decrease from last year, it is hard not to notice the alarming rise in the number of news reports being hidden from the public. Democracy is based on the transfer of information from the government to the public, and any infringement upon this is a direct infringement upon democracy.”
+972 notes that military censorship, while severe, is not the most acute form of press freedom violation committed by the Israeli military. Since 7 October 2023, more than 250 journalists have been killed across Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran — some of them in strikes that investigators have concluded were direct and deliberate, including so-called “double-tap” attacks targeting rescue workers who arrived at the scene of a first strike.
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.
DHS docs: Govt bracing for nationwide anti-AI riots, preparing to crack down on dissent
By Alan MACLEOD | MintPress News | June 11, 2026
New documents from government agencies such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security show that Washington is preparing for widespread anti-A.I. riots, as the technology destroys communities and industries across the country. Ironically, the Trump administration is already using invasive A.I. technology to identify and suppress what it calls anti-A.I. “extremists,” in the process, sweeping the entire nation into its massive surveillance dragnet.
More than 1,000 pages of leaked documents reviewed by WIRED Magazine show that government agencies are anticipating a huge wave of domestic unrest in the coming years, as artificial intelligence upends American society. Automation-related job losses could shatter entire industries, while the building of gigantic data centers will remove water and electricity from public use, ramping up the price of what little remains.
As one report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau notes:
“The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent A.I. technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City.”
An Environmental and Health Catastrophe
Last year, the tech industry collectively spent around half a trillion dollars on the construction of new data centers. These buildings consume near insatiable amounts of energy and water. By 2030, they are expected to represent around 12% of total U.S. electricity consumption. One large data center consumes up to five million gallons of water per day – as much as a small city. It has been calculated that a single 100-word A.I. prompt to a chatbot like Claude or ChatGPT uses over half a liter of water, equivalent to one bottle.
When a data center moves into town, utility prices skyrocket. In this situation, wholesale electricity, for example, jumps by up to 267%. Ordinary Americans cannot compete with the likes of Amazon or Microsoft, and can be priced out of even the most basic necessities of life, causing widespread resentment.
Living near a data center can also be hazardous to human health. Thanks to the low-frequency noises they produce, residents often report chronic symptoms such as insomnia, vertigo, and nausea. Worse still, to meet their enormous energy demands, data centers often rely on gas or diesel generators, which emit high levels of nitrogen oxides, fine particular matter, and so-called “forever chemicals” into the air, further complicating the situation.
A.I. will also have a profound effect on employment. Goldman Sachs predicts that, over the next decade, 300 million jobs could be lost to A.I.-based automation. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, has suggested that whole industries may be replaced by his product. “Entire classes of jobs will go away and not come back,” he confidently stated in 2019. Facing growing public anger, last month, he walked those statements back, assuring the public that there would be no “jobs apocalypse.”
But if these predictions are anything close to correct, it will cause massive economic disruption across America, and send towns and entire cities dependent on certain types of work into potentially permanent depressions. The latest news that Washington is preparing to treat this unrest as akin to terrorism should be of great concern to all Americans.
The Dark Side of A.I.
The public, as a whole, is highly skeptical of artificial intelligence. A recent poll found that only 5% trust A.I. a great deal, while 77% think it could pose a fundamental threat to humanity.
The U.S. national security state, however, has fully committed to A.I., and is using it to mass surveil the public and to identify those not sufficiently supportive of the new technology. In March, FBI director Kash Patel confirmed that the bureau is buying Americans’ personal online user data from brokers in order to track the public. The Department of Homeland Security has spent millions purchasing A.I. software that detects the sentiment and emotions of Americans’ online posts, and is using it to identify activists and other potential “threats.” It has also sent subpoenas to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and other large social media apps demanding they share the personal information and identities of anonymous users who have criticized the actions of the Trump administration. Government officials confirmed to The New York Times that platforms have often complied with their requests.
A.I. giant Anthropic publicly pulled out of a deal with the U.S. Department of War to develop A.I. systems in “classified environments,” stating that they feared the technology would immediately be used to carry out mass domestic surveillance in the United States. “We cannot in good conscience accede to their request,” they said, explaining their decision. The company was immediately labeled a national security “supply chain risk” by the Trump administration, and the contract was fulfilled by OpenAI.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman is one of Trump’s most generous donors, having channeled $25 million to the president’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. He has also poured $50 million into Leading the Future, a bipartisan super PAC aimed at promoting pro-A.I. legislation in Washington, D.C., and defeating and silencing lawmakers who wish to curb the influence and power of the new industry.
It remains to be seen to what extent A.I. will actually become a revolutionary technology, but what is clear is that the U.S. government is preparing for major economic and social disruption in its wake. Instead of creating economic bailout plans and social welfare programs to help those negatively affected, however, it is preparing an authoritarian response, looking to crush dissent. What makes this future even more ironically dystopian is that, to do so, it is using the very A.I. that is triggering the problem in the first place.
Ex-South Korean President sentenced for trying to provoke conflict with Pyongyang
RT | June 12, 2026
A South Korean court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison, Yonhap news agency has reported. Judges reportedly found that he ordered drones to be sent into North Korea in order to inflame tensions and create a pretext for his declaration of martial law.
Yoon declared martial law in December of 2024, citing legislative gridlock and what he described as a plot by pro-Pyongyang forces within the South Korean political establishment. The nation’s parliament formally overturned the decree within hours despite attempts by police and soldiers to stop lawmakers from accessing the National Assembly building.
Yoon was impeached just over a week later, suspended from office, and formally removed from power by the Constitutional Court months later.
On Friday, a Seoul court ruled that Yoon had abused his power and “benefited the enemy” with his drone plot, among other charges, and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. According to the Associated Press, the court also accused him of harming South Korea’s military interests by exposing its capabilities and prompting Pyongyang to take a stronger defensive posture.
Yoon’s former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the plot, while former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung received a 15-year sentence.
Friday’s sentence adds to Yoon’s growing list of convictions.
In February, he was sentenced to life after being convicted of attempting to orchestrate an insurrection and seize power. In April, an appeals court increased his sentence for abuse of authority and obstruction of duty.
Yoon’s downfall follows a long pattern of legal persecution of former South Korean leaders.
Four of his predecessors had received prison sentences after leaving office. Among them were Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, although several were later pardoned.
EU state lifts arms embargo on Israel after spy scandal
RT | June 12, 2026
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa has lifted an embargo on arms sales to Israel after allegedly enlisting the help of an Israeli private intelligence firm to oust his left-wing, pro-Palestine predecessor.
Jansa’s government announced the decision on Thursday, adding that it would also overturn an entry ban on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“This will restore the conditions for a normal political dialog with Israel,” the Slovenian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the move would help “strengthen the role of the Republic of Slovenia in the efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Former Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob barred the export of military goods to Israel and banned the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in August. One year earlier, he had recognized the State of Palestine and declared Israel’s war on Gaza to be “genocide.”
Last December, Jansa met with executives from Black Cube, an Israeli private intelligence firm founded by Israel Defense Forces intelligence veterans, whose advisory board includes two former Mossad directors. Three months later, and with parliamentary elections drawing near, covertly-recorded video footage emerged on social media, showing associates of Golob’s Svoboda party discussing corruption within the Slovenian government.
The videos, which Black Cube admitted to filming, weakened Golob’s standing ahead of the election, but Svoboda managed to beat Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party by a margin of 0.67%. However, Golob’s coalition lost its majority and was unable to form a government. Jansa, who served three previous stints as Slovenia’s prime minister, built a right-wing coalition and took office last week.
Slovenia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) has since determined that Black Cube deliberately attempted to “influence democratic elections” by releasing the videos. “This interference was most likely commissioned from within Slovenia,” the agency concluded, without directly accusing Jansa of hiring the Israeli spies.
While it is unclear whether the Israeli government knew about or officially sanctioned Black Cube’s work in Slovenia, Israeli officials welcomed Jansa’s return to office and reversal of Golob’s policies.
“I commend Slovenian PM Janez Jansa for his swift and just decision to lift the distorted anti-Israeli measures taken by Slovenia’s previous government,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X on Thursday, hailing Jansa as “a bold leader and a true friend of Israel.”
French watchdog reveals Israeli propaganda firm meddled in New York, Scottish, African elections
The Cradle | June 12, 2026
On 11 June, French disinformation and digital interference watchdog Viginum linked Israeli firm BlackCore to digital influence and propaganda campaigns across Europe, Africa, and the US.
Viginum Chief Marc-Antoine Brillant and French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu identified global operations in France, Scotland, Angola, Togo, and New York City.
“Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference,” Brillant told Reuters.
The report identified BlackCore-linked accounts targeting Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who has described Gaza as a “man-made humanitarian catastrophe.”
Earlier investigations by Viginum revealed that BlackCore had targeted hard-left France Unbowed party candidates in Marseille, Toulouse, and Roubaix using automated accounts and data leaks, as well as fabricated sexual violence allegations against some candidates.
The latest investigations suggest that in the US, the firm allegedly meddled in New York City municipal elections, which were won by Zohran Mamdani, with Brillant confirming the same “modus operandi” from the French campaigns was utilized, though it remains unclear who the specific targets were or who sponsored the operation.
While Mamdani’s victory was received positively by younger progressive members of the Jewish community in New York, traditional pro-Israel backers were unsettled by his outspoken support for Palestine.
Lecornu sought a formal diplomatic explanation from Israel, stating, “I do not doubt for a single instant that if a French private group, from French soil moreover, had engaged in foreign digital interference in Israel, they would have done the same to its ambassador on site.”
Reuters reported that BlackCore removed its entire online presence following inquiries from the news agency. The Israeli firm describes itself as “an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare.”
In early May, Israel had authorized an unprecedented $730 million propaganda budget for 2026, marking a fourfold increase with the aim of reversing the global decline in public perception following its genocide in Gaza, and the many aggressions towards its surrounding countries that followed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had designated this narrative offensive as the “Eighth Front” of the Israel’s various wars.
The operation functions as what analysts call a “Digital Iron Dome” designed to suppress dissenting online content through AI-driven surveillance and mass reporting while simultaneously flooding social media platforms with state-sponsored narratives.
Researchers have identified expanding state-backed efforts to shape global discourse through AI, paid influence, and covert campaigns.
In the US, millions of dollars were channeled through entities linked to US President Donald Trump to automate state-engineered narratives on social media and AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude.
Trump State Department Moves to Deport Trita Parsi
By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | June 12, 2026
President Trump’s State Department has reportedly opened an investigation into Trita Parsi, an Iranian-Swedish international relations writer, political analyst, vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and critic of the administration’s war against Iran.
A Trump official informed the Free Press that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been “extremely clear” about his intention to focus on individuals who “support adversaries of the United States” and whose actions allegedly compromise the country’s security. “Anyone who seeks to undermine the US, we’re taking a hard look at,” the official said, while not explaining how Parsi’s analysis of foreign policy constitutes a threat. News reports suggest that US officials are initiating deportation proceedings against several US green-card holders who they believe have expressed sympathy for Iran.
Parsi serves as the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a foreign-policy think tank that promotes realism and restraint in foreign policy. “As a research institution we expose the dangerous consequences of an overly militarized American foreign policy,” states an overview of the organization. Personnel include the journalist Jim Lobe, political scientist and international relations scholar John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt, a political scientist and professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, among others.
“The report said that Parsi and his colleagues appear to view the investigation as a ‘serious threat,’” according to the Anadolu Agency, a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey.
In April, Quincy Institute CEO Lora Lumpe informed staff and donors that the organization’s chairman had agreed to fund legal preparations to defend Trita Parsi in the event of a deportation effort, according to a memo. The memo also noted that the institute was in the process of hiring an immigration attorney who had “advised that we immediately prepare a writ of habeas corpus to have at the ready” if Parsi were unexpectedly taken into custody by immigration authorities.
Zionist-centric Free Press Broke Parsi Story
The Trita Parsi investigation was first reported by the Free Press, a media company founded by the iconoclastic Zionist Bari Weiss, a former book review editor at The Wall Street Journal and and an op-ed staff editor and writer on culture and politics at The New York Times. In 2025, Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press. David Ellison, the CEO of CBS News, installed Weiss as as editor-in-chief of the broadcast news network. Weiss has never managed a television newsroom, never operated foreign bureaus, and is not known to have produced broadcast news content. Paramount has broadcast a number of documentaries and series covering the October 7, 2023 al-Aqsa Flood Gaza breakout.
Paramount Skydance was founded by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, formerly the richest man in the world and a top donor to Israel’s IDF. The elder Ellison is a confidant of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the journalist Alan Macleod, Ellison’s tech corporation, Oracle, “sees itself as an activist organization, one whose goal is the advancement of the Israeli colonization project.” Oracle began as project of the CIA, “named after Project Oracle, a 1970s CIA operation on which Ellison worked.”
Iranians Targeted for Deportation
Beginning with the illegal and unconstitutional sneak attack on Iran, the Trump administration has increasingly targeted figures of Iranian descent in the US. Hamideh Soleimani Afshar was abducted along with her daughter by masked ICE agents in April. Afshar is the niece of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was murdered by Trump prior to a meeting with Iraqi prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in 2020. ICE abducted Afshar and her daughter in California after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their lawful permanent resident status. The State Department said Afshar supported the Iranian government and what it described as its propaganda. It also said Afshar’s husband was barred from entering the United States, according to Reuters.
Rubio and the State Department also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Iranian politician Ali Larijani, and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in March along with his son Morteza and the head of his office, Alireza Bayat, in Tehran. Iran retaliated by launching a missile barrage at Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
In January, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) warned that the Trump administration planned to deport Iranians on a flight from the United States to Iran, the third of such flights. “These deportations come amid mounting evidence of systemic ICE abuses, including wrongful deaths in custody, deplorable conditions in ICE facilities, shootings and arrests of citizens, and the forcible removal of vulnerable individuals with credible fears of reprisal from Iranian authorities,” NIAC said in a press release.
Parsi was the first president and founder of NIAC. The organization has engaged in lobbying efforts in opposition to military conflicts by the United States and has advocated for the cessation of sanctions imposed on Iran. NIAC supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement between Iran and the United States in 2015. Critics argue the organization is a front for the Iranian government.
The Hoover Institution, a neocon think tank at Stanford University, contends NIAC is a lobby “in all but name” for the Iranian government. “NIAC is alleged to have been created, directly or indirectly, by the Iranian regime’s foreign minister Javad Zarif,” argues Kaveh Shahrooz. In early 2020, Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Mike Braun sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging an investigation into NIAC and its sister organization, NIAC Action. The lawmakers alleged that the groups violated FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) by lobbying on behalf of and amplifying propaganda for the Iranian government in the US, according to Cotton’s Senate webpage. Violations of FARA may result in severe criminal penalties, including up to 5 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000, along with civil enforcement actions. Failing to register with FARA, making false statements, or omitting material facts is a felony.
FARA requirements, however, do not apply to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Prior to losing the primary in Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie introduced the “Americans Insist on Political Agent Clarity Act” or “AIPAC Act,” that would have significantly expanded the scope of FARA, forcing AIPAC to register as a foreign principal under federal law. The Israel lobby spent more than $15.8 million to defeat Massie.
McCarthyism and the Trump Administration
It remains to be seen if Trita Parsi will be abducted by ICE and deported. However, news of Rubio and the Trump State Department’s interest in the vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and a related story put out by a Zionist-controlled propaganda outlet, should serve as a warning to others in opposition to Trump’s Iran quagmire.
Beginning in June of 2025, ICE arrested hundreds of Iranian nationals and has deported dozens. In addition to the Iranians previously mentioned, government data reveals that ICE “conducted a major surge of arrests of Iranians” during the June 2025 war on Iran, with 220 arrests in June, and 80 in July of 2025. 577 Iranians were imprisoned in ICE detention facilities across the United Sates as of May. The oldest of the Iranians in detention as of December was 77 years old, and the youngest was 5 years old, imprisoned in South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
The crackdown on opposition to Trump’s war, especially in regard to Iranians, many who are permanent residents, is reminiscent of the McCarthy Era, or the Red Scare, in the late 1940s and 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, destroyed many careers with blacklists and unsubstantiated investigations. Being accused of leftist sympathies or questioning the political status quo was frequently enough to result in termination. Federal employees, teachers, and university professors were subjected to interrogations, compelled to take loyalty oaths, and subsequently blacklisted. The government used the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act) and previous ideological exclusion laws to target and deport left-wing individuals, labor organizers, and suspected Communists.
President Trump, due to his narcissism and desire for revenge against political adversaries, may further increase the targeting of Iranians, abducting them while violating their constitutionally guaranteed right to due process. “The administration has sidestepped the courts and the ability of people to defend their rights wherever it can,” notes the Vera Institute of Justice. “The right to due process and fair treatment under the law is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to all people in the United States, regardless of where they were born.”
UK judge brands Palestine Action activists ‘terrorists’ for storming Israeli weapons company
Press TV – June 12, 2026
In yet another blatant example of Western complicity with the Zionist regime, a UK judge has ruled that four Palestine Action activists have a “terrorist connection” for storming a British site of the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The ruling by Justice Jeremy Johnson was delivered as hundreds of Palestine Action supporters held a demonstration outside Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London on Friday.
Metropolitan Police arrested 107 peaceful protesters who had gathered to support the activists.
In August 2024 — at the height of the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on Gaza — Charlotte Head (30), Samuel Corner (23), Leona Kamio (30), and Fatema Rajwani (21) carried out a courageous direct action at Elbit Systems’ factory near Bristol.
They inflicted approximately £1.2 million in damage to military equipment destined for the occupying Israeli forces, aiming to disrupt the flow of weapons used to slaughter defenseless Palestinian civilians and to pressure for the closure of this Israeli arms factory operating on British soil.
However, the judge declared that the damage “had a terrorist connection” because the activists are linked to Palestine Action, the pro-Palestinian direct-action group that the UK government had proscribed as a “terrorist organization” in July 2025.
Notably, the High Court later ruled this proscription unlawful in February 2026 — a decision the British government is still appealing, while keeping the ban in force.
Under the legislation, even membership in or public support for the group is now a criminal offense in the UK, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Because of the judge’s “terrorist connection” ruling, the four activists will be denied normal early release provisions.
Instead, a Parole Board will assess their supposed “risk to the public” before they can be freed.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk strongly condemned the UK’s misuse of counter-terrorism laws against pro-Palestinian activists, describing it as disproportionate and a threat to fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly.
This case exposes the hypocrisy of the British establishment: it shields Israeli war criminals and their arms suppliers while criminalizing peaceful citizens who dare to resist the machinery of genocide.
True terrorism is the Zionist regime’s daily massacre of Palestinians — not the brave actions taken to stop the weapons flow. The resistance continues.
How Successful Were Iran’s Retaliatory Strikes on Israel? Israeli Military Censors Don’t Want You To Know.
By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | June 8, 2026
Iran has fired missiles at Northern Israel after Israel crossed Iran’s red line and began bombing Dahieh in South Beirut .
The Israeli media has claimed that Israel intercepted most Iranian missiles, including missiles fired at Israel’s Nevatim and Tel Nof air bases.
But what Israel and Western media will not tell you is that Israel yet again issued strict censorship orders, barring journalists from covering any damage that Iranian missiles did to Israeli military facilities.
As the Al Jazeera journalist Nida Ibrahim, working in the occupied West Bank, noted :
In general, there is an emphasis in Israel on reporting that the Israeli military has been intercepting all the missiles launched from Iran into the country. Although some Israeli media outlets are reporting damage in certain locations, including yesterday when the first volley was fired from Iran, it remains difficult to fully assess the impact.
We have to remember how Israel works. There is a military censor that ensures information deemed sensitive by the state is not exposed to the media.
So it is hard to assess how much damage these rockets have been causing inside Israel.
Palestinian journalist Abdusalam Fayez revealed that the Israeli military censor issued “strict restrictions on coverage of the ongoing regional war, ordering journalists not to publish information about missiles landing at military sites in the country.”
This included orders from the Israeli military censor saying:
-Do not publish the exact number of missiles launched in each volley. You may use general phrases such as scattered missiles or dozens, but not precise numbers.
-Do not publish reports about missiles that fell before reaching their target or crashed along their path. Instead, say they did not reach their destination
-The censor also ordered journalists not to publish “any information about missiles landing at military or strategic sites, or at sea
-It further instructed them not to publish “any videos showing interceptor missiles hitting targets.”
He added that, “Israel also banned the circulation of visuals related to the sites where missiles and drones landed in Israeli cities, towns and settlements.”
This is a continuation of the Israeli military censorship that was put in place throughout the Iran war to hide the actual damage Iran had done to Israel through retaliatory strikes.
As CNN reported in March of this year:
Every reporter in Israel — and every member of the public — is subject to a military censor. On national security grounds, the regulation authorizes the censor to prohibit reporting or broadcasting any material that could reveal sensitive information or pose a threat to the country’s security interests.
This is particularly sensitive during wartime, where the military censor has made clear that broadcasting any images that reveal the location of interceptor missiles or military sites hit by enemy projectiles is forbidden, especially in live broadcasts.
To ensure military censorship, Israel has imposed harsher penalties for journalists who violate it.
The Committee to Protect Journalists noted in March that “Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi announced stricter enforcement measures against foreign media during the ongoing military operation. Officials said authorities would adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ policy toward violations of military censorship rules, including detaining and arresting journalists suspected of broadcasting information that could endanger operational security”.
Yet again, Israel has barred journalists from reporting on any Iranian strikes on Israeli military sites, and even Israeli military intercepts (suggesting they are not as successful as Israel lets on), in order to hide the damage that Iran’s retaliatory strikes have actually done.
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The toxic legacy of nuclear weapons testing serves as a stark warning of the danger these weapons pose
By Scott Ritter | RT | March 11, 2021
Millions of people suffer and die from the effects of radiation exposure from decades of nuclear weapons testing. Their experience should give serious pause to those who continue to embrace the viability of a nuclear deterrent.
A dust storm originating in the Sahara Desert swept across parts of Spain, France, the UK, and Ireland last month. In addition to bringing a red tinge to the sky, the dust caused a slight, yet noticeable, spike in radiation in the areas it reached. This radiation spike was caused by the presence of cesium-137, a radioactive isotope produced through the nuclear fission of uranium-235 in nuclear weapons. A legacy of French nuclear weapons testing that occurred in Algeria during the 1960s, the cesium-137 contamination is a reminder that while the testing of nuclear weapons may have been halted for the time being, the consequences of these tests live on through the poisoning of the planet mankind calls home.
The Saharan radioactive dust cloud is but the most recent visible phenomenon of a plague that has infected much of the world. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Israel furious at Trump over Turkey, Syria to invade Lebanon – w/ Col. Macgregor
- IRGC says it struck US military positions, warns of broader response
- Russia stops record number of Ukrainian drones overnight – MOD
- Denmark admits ‘no evidence’ for Russian drone hysteria
- Washington agreement ‘will not pass’: MP Fadlallah
- Iran mocks US for ‘solving’ domestic hunger problem, lecturing others on issue
- Germany, Israel hold joint naval drill off Haifa amid Gaza genocide
- Trump’s war on Iran becomes ‘most unpopular conflict’ in US history
- The Middle East is wringing its hands of Washington. Finally
- The Starmer legacy the establishment media won’t tell you: Celebrity sex crimes, imprisoning Assange and torture terror
- If Americans Knew
- Four Reasons the Netanyahu-Backed Plan to ‘End’ U.S. Military Aid to Israel Is a Scam
- Archbishop of Canterbury vows to help Palestinians achieve ‘freedom you deserve,’ calls for end to Israeli occupation
- The scars left behind by Israel’s white phosphorus in Lebanon
- Drones and decomposing babies: What’s in UN report on Israel’s genocide of Palestinian children
- Crimson Thread: The new Israeli separation wall that cuts through the ‘breadbasket of Palestine’
- Gaza ceasefire talks back to square one as Israel changes the rules – Daily Update
- The NDAA Proposed Merger of the U.S. and Israeli Military is Strategically Unwise and Inherently Unconstitutional
- Victories by Pro-Palestinian Democrats Show the Party’s Shift on Israel
- Massie moves to strike $3.3B in Israel military aid from the budget
- How Jeffrey Epstein’s Israeli Network Shaped Congo’s Deadly Mineral Trade
- No Tricks Zone
- 2025 Study: Cloud Effects Reduce Downwelling Longwave Radiation, Overriding The CO2 Impact
- 3 New Studies Find Increasing Trends In Solar Radiation Since The 1980s – Easily Explaining Warming
- THE TRANSCEIVER PARADOX: Why Organoid Intelligence (OI) Could Become Our Ultimate Alien Predator
- German Wind Turbines Face Regulatory Shutdown Due To Excessive Noise
- New Study: Chile’s Relative Sea Level Was 3.2 Meters Higher Than Today During The Mid-Holocene
- Beyond The Pitch: Why FIFA’s World Cup Is One Of Humanity’s Best Investments
- Climate Alarmists Now Using Natural Phenomena To Support Their Claims
- New Study: Significant CO2 Fluxes From Non-Volcanic Sources Are Largely Neglected In Carbon Budgets
- Women Climate Scientists Being Harassed, Insulted By Skeptics, Claims Berkeley Earth Researcher
- Germany’s Longterm Spring Climate Data Show “No Climate Trend”
Aletho News 