Family urges release of 16 y/o Palestinian-American held in ‘Israel’
Al Mayadeen | July 31, 2025
The family of Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American, is urging his immediate release from Israeli military detention. Ibrahim was detained in February while still 15 years old at his family’s home in the occupied West Bank village of Silwad. According to relatives, he was blindfolded and handcuffed before being transferred to Megiddo prison. He remains in pre-trial detention, accused of rock-throwing, an allegation his family denies.
The Ibrahim family, who divide their time between Silwad and Palm Bay, Florida, sought assistance from Republican Congressman Mike Haridopolos. Zaher Ibrahim, Muhammad’s father, wrote to the congressman in March after more than 45 days of no contact with his son. Describing the conditions at Megiddo as notorious for brutality, the family has exhausted all local legal options and turned to US authorities for support.
Haridopolos’s office acknowledged the outreach and forwarded the case to the State Department. The US embassy in “Israel” confirmed it was following standard procedures. A State Department spokesperson emphasized that ensuring the safety and security of US citizens is a top priority.
Human rights concerns
Human rights organizations have raised alarms over the treatment of Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim and others like him. A video seen by The Guardian shows Ibrahim being interrogated without legal counsel. Advocates argue that his US citizenship has provided little protection in a system known for detaining minors for extended periods without charges or family contact.
Ayed Abu Eqtaish from Defense for Children International-Palestine told The Guardian that Palestinian children in Israeli prisons are often isolated from the outside world, regardless of their nationality.
US government response
While US embassy officials have conducted welfare checks, their access has been increasingly restricted. Early reports from the embassy noted that Muhammad had lost 12 kilograms. In July, he was diagnosed with scabies, a contagious skin condition. The state department reported he was receiving medical treatment, but it remains unclear whether recent visits have occurred.
The department affirmed it provides consular support to detained US citizens, including ensuring access to necessary medical care and facilitating communication with families.
Targeting of Palestinian Americans
Since 2022, nine Americans have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, including five since October 2023. Among the most recent cases is Sayfollah Musallet, the cousin of Muhammad Ibrahim, a 20-year-old from Tampa, Florida, beaten to death by settlers in July 2025. Others include Mohammad Khdour, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Amer Rabee, and Omar Assad, a 78-year-old who died after being gagged and handcuffed by Israeli soldiers.
Multiple Palestinian Americans have also been detained or subjected to travel restrictions and surveillance. In February 2024, American citizens Hashem and Borak Alagha were detained during a raid on their family shelter in Gaza. Samaher Esmail, a 46-year-old from New Orleans, was arrested in Beit Lahm for alleged incitement on social media. Families report minimal assistance from US authorities.
West Bank under Israeli occupation
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, “Israel” has launched an unprecedented campaign of mass arrests across the occupied West Bank. By July 2025, approximately 18,000 Palestinians had been detained, nearly double the number held before the war. As of late July 2025, “Israel” currently holds around 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including about 450 children and 50 women.
A particularly concerning trend has been the rise in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Over 10,000 administrative detention orders have been issued, and 37% of detained Palestinian children are now held under such orders, the highest on record.
The arrest campaign intensified further with “Israel’s” launch of Operation Iron Wall in January 2025, displacing 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams. Most arrests during that period were concentrated in Jenin, which experienced severe aggression.
Israelis committing genocide in Gaza, with US ‘complicit’: Mearsheimer
MEMO | July 31, 2025
John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said that “the Israelis are executing a genocide in Gaza,” adding that the US is “complicit in that genocide,” Anadolu reports.
What is happening in Gaza is a systematic effort by Israel to dismantle the Palestinian national identity, Mearsheimer said in an interview with media personality Tucker Carlson published on Wednesday.
He added that Israel is targeting Palestinians specifically as a group, aiming not only to kill large numbers but also to erase their identity as a people.
Mearsheimer believed that the Israelis have long aimed to expel the Palestinian population from what they consider “Greater Israel.”
“If you look at Greater Israel, this includes the Israel that was created in 1948 and the occupied territories. This is the West Bank, Gaza, and what we call the Green Line Israel. That’s Greater Israel,” the scholar said.
“October 7th happens, and what the Israelis see is an excellent opportunity for ethnic cleansing. And they make this clear.
“In other words, it’s an excellent opportunity to go to war in Gaza and drive the Palestinians out of Gaza and solve that demographic problem that they face,” he added.
Israel also carried out large-scale ethnic cleansings in the region in 1948 and 1967, and Mearsheimer described the latest campaign in Gaza as “the third attempt at a massive ethnic cleansing.”
The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians. The relentless bombardment has devastated the enclave and led to food shortages.
Israel wants to ensure that its neighbors are ‘weak’
One of Israel’s goals is also to ensure that its neighbors are “weak,” said Mearsheimer, noting that “that means breaking them apart, if you can, and keeping them broken.”
He said the ethnic cleansing is a topic “that the Zionists talked about from the get-go, and they talked about extensively because there is no way they could create a Greater Israel without doing massive ethnic cleansing.”
David Ben Gurion, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and other prominent Zionist leaders are fully aware that achieving their goals would require doing “horrible things” to the Palestinians, he said.
The scholar highlighted that those Zionist leaders acknowledged this and even stated openly that they did not blame the Palestinians at all for resisting the actions planned by Jews arriving from Europe.
“They fully understood that they were stealing their land. And they fully understood that it made perfect sense for the Palestinians to resist, which of course they did,” Mearsheimer noted.
“They (Israel) start with the goal of ethnic cleansing. I don’t believe they want to murder all of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“They simply want to drive them out. But the problem is they don’t leave. And then the question is, what do you do? And what they do is they continue to up the attacks, increase the attacks, (and) kill more and more people in the hope that they will drive them out,” he added.
Israel lobby in US
Mearsheimer stressed that when a major power like the US has conflicting interests with another country, it prioritizes its own, following an “America first” approach. However, regarding Israel, it’s the opposite — it is “Israel first,” he stated.
Washington’s policy in the Middle East clearly reflects this, with plenty of evidence to support it, the scholar underscored.
Mearsheimer, who is also the co-author of the book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, said that the reason for this is due to the Israel lobby in the US.
“I think the lobby is an incredibly powerful interest group, and I’m choosing my words carefully. It has awesome power, and it basically is in a position where it can profoundly influence US foreign policy in the Middle East. And indeed, it affects foreign policy outside of the Middle East.
“But when it comes to the Middle East, and again, the Palestinian issue in particular, it has awesome power. And there’s no president who is willing to buck the lobby,” he added.
Senate Votes Down Two Resolutions to Block Israeli Weapons Sales
By James Rushmore | The Libertarian Institute | July 31, 2025
On Wednesday night, the U.S. Senate voted down two joint resolutions aimed at blocking additional weapons sales to Israel. Both measures were originally introduced by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in March.
The first resolution would have prohibited the sale of 20,000 fully automatic carbine rifles to Israeli forces, while the second resolution sought to cut off $675.7 million in arms sales. The latter measure would have barred the sale of 201 MK 83 1,000-pound bombs; 4,799 BLU-110A/B General Purpose 1,000-pound bombs; 1,500 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits for MK 83 bombs; 3,500 JDAM guidance kits for MK 83 bombs; and related logistics and technical support services. Sanders argued that the weapons sales would violate both the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.
“History will condemn those of us who failed to act in the face of these horrors,” he said in the run-up to Wednesday night’s vote.
The two measures failed 27-70 and 24-73, respectively. More than half of the Democratic caucus voted in favor of the resolutions. The Republican caucus, including U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), voted unanimously against both measures.
Sanders forced the votes in response to the ongoing starvation crisis in the Gaza Strip and the IDF’s continued massacre of Palestinian civilians. He blamed the famine on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, citing the six-week siege on the Strip. He also condemned the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution model for leading to the deaths of over 1,000 Palestinians.
“U.S. taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars in support of the racist, extremist Netanyahu government. Enough is enough,” the senior senator from Vermont said. “We cannot continue to spend taxpayer money on a government which has killed some 60,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 143,000, most of whom are women, children, and the elderly. We cannot continue supporting a government which has blocked humanitarian aid, caused massive famine, and literally starved the people of Gaza.”
“The time is long overdue for Congress to use the leverage we have – tens of billions in arms and military aid – to demand that Israel end these atrocities,” he added.
Since the October 7 terrorist attacks, the U.S. has provided more than $22 billion in military aid to Israel. In May, Haaretz reported that the U.S. has covered about 70% of Israeli military spending since the genocide began.
During an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday night, Sanders stopped short of labeling Israel’s actions a genocide. “Genocide is a legal term. What is going on now clearly is absolutely horrific…But the important point is not what you call it. It is horror, and I think the whole world knows that. The answer is, what the hell do we do about it?” he said.
US and UK behind cyberattack on Aeroflot – Russian MP
RT | July 31, 2025
US and UK intelligence services were behind this week’s major cyberattack that disrupted operations at Aeroflot and other Russian companies earlier this week, a senior Russian lawmaker has claimed.
Andrey Svintsov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, has said the attack is part of a coordinated campaign by Western powers to damage the Russian economy after failing to achieve their objectives through military means and sanctions.
Aeroflot, Russia’s largest airline, was forced to cancel or delay dozens of flights on July 28 after pro-Ukrainian hacker groups claimed to have crippled the airline’s internal IT systems. The cyberattack also disrupted airport operations and affected other companies, including a nationwide pharmacy chain.
”These are not isolated hackers, but a planned action by American and British intelligence agencies,” Svintsov told Russian outlet Abzats. He described the campaign as a “systematic effort that is being carried out against Russia,” suggesting that it’s a sign of desperation by the country’s adversaries.
”This is a systematic approach by our Western enemies, who have failed to defeat Russia on the battlefield. They are moving to weaken the economic potential, since sanctions are not helping,” Svintsov said. He warned that cyber sabotage could continue until Russia achieves victory in the Ukraine conflict.
In May, Defense Secretary John Healey said the UK would significantly increase cyber operations against Russia and China. He confirmed the creation of a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command, adding that “the keyboard is now a weapon of war.”
The Kremlin has urged Russian businesses to replace foreign-made software and hardware to reduce exposure to cyber threats. Last month, President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to accelerate import substitution.
Hacker groups Silent Crow and Cyberpartisans BY have claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack on Aeroflot. They claim to have been inside the airline’s corporate network for over a year, stealing more than 20 terabytes of data and destroying around 7,000 servers.
Communications regulator Roskomnadzor said the data leaks have not been confirmed. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has confirmed the cyberattack and opened a criminal case.
‘Compensation for war and security guarantees’: Iran sets conditions for US nuclear talks
The Cradle | July 31, 2025
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview published on 31 July that Tehran is seeking financial compensation for Israel’s war, an explanation on why Iran was attacked during negotiations, and security guarantees for any resumption of nuclear talks with Washington.
Araghchi told the Financial Times that Iran will not accept going back to “business as usual” after Israel launched its unprovoked war on the country in mid-June.
“They should explain why they attacked us in the middle of … negotiations, and they have to ensure that they are not going to repeat that [during future talks]. And they have to compensate [Iran for] the damage that they have done,” Araghchi added.
He said he has exchanged messages with US envoy Steve Witkoff since the war ended, and that Witkoff has tried to convince him to return to negotiations.
“The road to negotiation is narrow but it’s not impossible. I need to convince my hierarchy that if we go for negotiation, the other side is coming with real determination for a win-win deal. We need real confidence-building measures from their side. My message [to Witkoff] is not that complicated. I said the recent aggression proved there is no military solution for Iran’s nuclear program, but a negotiated solution can be found,” the Iranian diplomat added.
Israel started its war on Iran on 13 June in the middle of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran responded with successive barrages of ballistic missiles until the war came to an end on 24 June.
The US joined the war on 23 June with a bunker-buster attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, to which Tehran responded with a missile attack on its Al-Udeid base in Qatar.
Iranian nuclear facilities were heavily damaged, and western intelligence assessments have revealed that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program has not been “obliterated” as Washington has claimed.
According to Araghchi, a new enrichment site that Tehran had revealed right before the war – in response to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board vote against it – was also struck.
This is the first acknowledgment of an attack on this particular site.
“As far as I know, the preparations were made [for enrichment], but it was not active when it was attacked,” Araghchi said.
Araghchi’s comments come after recent threats by Israel to restart the war against Iran. Defense Minister Israel Katz said late last month that attempts by Tehran to move forward with its nuclear program will be met with force.
The Iranian foreign minister has said that a deal with Washington is not possible if the US returns to its previous “zero enrichment” demand, and that Iran will not back down from enrichment.
He has also reiterated Iranian warnings of a harsher retaliation to any renewed attack.
“If aggression is repeated, we will not hesitate to react in a more decisive manner and in a way that will be IMPOSSIBLE to cover up,” Araghchi said earlier this week, referring to Israeli censorship of coverage on sites targeted by Iran.
Estonian defense chief reveals failure of Pentagon meeting
RT | July 31, 2025
The Baltic states have failed to secure any guarantees from Washington regarding the continued deployment of US forces in the region, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has said.
Pevkur and his respective Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts met with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week in hope of convincing him to reinforce the US military presence in the Baltic region, which they claim is necessary to counter the threat allegedly posed by Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly denied having hostile intentions toward NATO states, dismissing such claims as fearmongering meant to justify increased military spending.
According to Pevkur, US officials declined to promise that even the current troop level of about 2,000 in the Baltic states would be maintained. Instead, the ministers were simply told that any future changes to the American force posture on the continent would be coordinated with NATO and would not come “as a surprise” to Europe.
Pevkur claimed that there have been no signs of an imminent drawdown of American forces in the Baltics since the meeting. He added, however, that Washington is preparing to review its European deployments in the fall.
Earlier this year, Politico reported that the US could withdraw around a third of its troops from Europe, equivalent to roughly 20,000 soldiers, according to unnamed NATO officials. The US currently has between 90,000 and 100,000 troops stationed across the continent.
Both President Donald Trump and Hegseth have previously indicated that the US may scale back its overseas presence. They have also called on European allies to increase their own defense spending instead of relying on American support.
NATO members have since agreed to raise their military spending target to 5% of GDP by 2035.
Moscow has criticized the bloc’s continued militarization and cited NATO’s policies as a key factor behind the Ukraine conflict. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the spending increases would pose no threat to Russia.
Kicking the peace can down the road
In discussion with Glenn Diesen
Ian Proud | July 28, 2025
Nice to catch up with Glenn Diesen to discuss recent developments, including my article on Trump’s 50-day ultimatum to Putin, which has now been reduced to 10-12 days, whatever that means. I continue to judge that the threat of secondary sanctions against Russia’s trading partners will have a greater impact on the US than on China, India or any other country that does business with Russia.
Meanwhile, Zelensky’s short-lived attempt to shut down anti-corruption organisations closing in on his cronies has been a big wake up call, not just for European political leaders and journalists, but more importantly, citizens.
Faced with admitting defeat in Ukraine and throwing Zelensky under the bus and continuing with an ineffective foreign policy towards Russia, I judge that Starmer, VdL and others will keep kicking the peace can down the road.
Yet every day the war continues, Ukraine loses more ground and more lives on the battlefield, and slides further towards the status of a failed state. My optimism remains low that the war will end in 2025.
US media owe Putin an apology – Fox News host
RT | July 29, 2025
The US media need to make “serious” amends to many people, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, for their active role in spreading the Russiagate hoax following the 2016 presidential election, according to popular Fox News host Greg Gutfeld.
The political commentator, comedian, and author was responding to recent revelations made by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who released a trove of documents she described as “overwhelming evidence” of a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials – allegedly led by Barack Obama himself – to politicize intelligence and falsely accuse Donald Trump of colluding with Russia to win the election.
“We cannot let this go. They need to make serious amends because we are still living with the aftermath,” Gutfeld said on his latest show, aired last weekend. “People lost jobs, careers, friends. There need to be consequences.”
“They owe a lot of people an apology. Hell, they even include Putin.”
According to Gutfeld, major American news media outlets “played the starring role in amplifying the subversive plot against the president of the United States.” He dismissed recent claims by the press accusing the Trump administration of trying to “rewrite history,” calling them an “attempt to shift culpability away from themselves and hide the lie they perpetuated for almost a decade.”
Earlier this month, a similar assessment was made by former CIA Director John Ratcliffe. In an interview with the New York Post, he cited an internal review suggesting that American public opinion had been manipulated through repeated media leaks and anonymous sources quoted by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other major outlets.
Allegations of “Russian collusion” persisted in mainstream media coverage even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence to support the claims. Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in the US election.
Gabbard described the Trump-Russia probe, widely referred to as Russiagate, as “a years-long coup” against Trump. The US president himself, who has consistently dismissed accusations of ties to Russia as fabricated, praised Gabbard for “exposing” the alleged plot and urged her to “keep it coming.”
Robert Taft Foresaw the Dangers of NATO
By James Rushmore | The Libertarian Institute | July 29, 2025
On July 26, 1949, Ohio Senator Robert Taft delivered a speech in which he explicated his reasons for voting against ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty. His remarks included the following:
“If we undertake to arm all the nations around Russia from Norway on the north to Turkey on the south, and Russia sees itself ringed about gradually by so-called defensive arms from Norway and Denmark to Turkey and Greece, it may form a different opinion. It may decide that the arming of Western Europe, regardless of its present purpose, looks to an attack upon Russia. Its view may be unreasonable, and I think it is. But from the Russian standpoint, it may not seem unreasonable. They may well decide that if war is the certain result, that war might better occur now rather than after the arming of Europe is completed.
How would we feel if Russia undertook to arm a country on our border; Mexico, for instance?”
Taft correctly anticipated a future in which NATO expansion would provoke a military response from Russia. He also foresaw the rationale behind Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine; namely the fact that NATO’s encirclement of Russia would make Moscow feel threatened.
In September 2014, NATO began delivering arms to Ukraine as part of an effort to combat pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. In June 2015, the United States proposed a deployment of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as part of an effort to shore up NATO training exercises. In December 2015, Poland considered participating in a NATO program in which countries without nuclear weapons would be able to borrow them from the United States. In January 2017, NATO carried out a “large-scale defensive drill” along the Polish-Lithuanian border. In March 2018, the U.S. provided “chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense training” to the Estonian military. And in August 2019, NATO upgraded a ballistic missile defense system in Romania.
Taft’s dire prediction elucidated the contradiction at the heart of the North Atlantic Treaty. In attempting to guarantee the security of Western Europe, it instead increased the likelihood that the region would face hostilities from the east. It was only a matter of time before Russia took stock of the military activity to its west and decided that a preventive strike would be its best course of action.
Taft also said:
“Under the new pact, the president can take us into war without Congress. But above all, the treaty is a part of a much larger program by which we arm all these nations against Russia. A joint military program has already been made. It thus becomes an offensive and defensive military alliance against Russia. I believe our foreign policy should be aimed primarily at security and peace, and I believe such an alliance is more likely to produce war than peace.”
Taft’s speech echoes the sentiments expressed by President George Washington in his 1796 farewell address. Washington warned against “interweaving [America’s] destiny with that of any part of Europe.” To do so would “entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice.”
Taft’s commentary also exemplified the foreign policy tradition of the Old Right, which rejected foreign military adventurism in favor of non-interventionism. Old Right luminaries like Taft laid the groundwork for the foreign policies advanced by Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, and Thomas Massie. Taft himself initially opposed U.S. entry into World War II. While he voted in favor of the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he remained an opponent of the ascendant internationalism that characterized the period.
At the core of Taft’s pronouncements is a recognition of the fact that U.S. military intervention begets both domestic and international turmoil. Proponents of a proactive foreign policy often accuse non-interventionists of being naïve and unrealistic. But Taft understood the folly of militarism. A realist foreign policy is predicated on an appreciation for the limits of American power. The inherent difficulty of reshaping foreign borders, in Eastern Europe or elsewhere, coupled with the potential for retaliation, ought to give more interventionists pause. The speciousness of such a foreign policy agenda certainly convinced Taft to reject the lofty ideals represented by NATO.
On February 1, 2008, William Burns, then the U.S. ambassador to Russia and future director of the CIA, sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a memorandum warning against NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. Burns wrote:
“Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.”
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, thus fulfilling the prophecy outlined by Taft. That conflict is now in its fourth year. By all accounts, it is unlikely to end anytime soon, even with an additional series of peace talks currently taking place in Istanbul.
Nearly thirty-five years after the end of the Cold War, NATO remains a relic of a bygone era. The West insisted that its preservation would ensure peace. They claimed that expanding NATO eastward would forestall or prevent Russian aggression, guaranteeing freedom and prosperity for Eastern Europe. They were wrong.
Germany steps up arms race and targets Russia by acquiring Tomahawk missiles
US also scrambles to produce more Tomahawk missiles for its own Navy and Army
By Ahmed Adel | July 29, 2025
Germany wants Tomahawk cruise missiles and Typhon missile launchers to attack Moscow, writes Military Watch Magazine. The magazine highlights that Germany, which is actively militarizing, considers Russia its main adversary and target of a potential missile attack, so Berlin wants to have such weapons.
“The Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile’s 1600 kilometre range allows Typhon units to strike targets in the Russian capital Moscow from German territory, with Russia considered the primary target of such a procurement plan,” the publication highlighted.
According to the magazine, on May 22, the German Army inaugurated the 45th Armored Brigade in Vilnius, Lithuania. This militaristic step by Berlin reinforced its advanced mechanized warfare capabilities, just 150 km from Minsk and less than 800 km from Moscow.
Furthermore, in early 2022, the German Ministry of Defense selected the US F-35A stealth fighter to upgrade its nuclear strike capabilities while maintaining wartime access to US B61 nuclear warheads through a sharing agreement.
“Russia and Belarus are considered the primary potential targets of this improved nuclear strike capability, of the major new ground force procurements and deployments, and of the new mobile cruise missile launch vehicles being procured, ensuring that Berlin makes a far greater contribution to NATO’s collective military pressure on Moscow that was previously the case,” the article noted.
The article opines that the effectiveness of the Tomahawk cruise missile for deep strikes into Russia is uncertain, as its Cold War-era subsonic design relies on navigation over close terrain to avoid long-range detection.
“Modern Russian air defence systems, and the country’s fighter and interceptor aircraft such as the MiG-31BM, are considered highly capable of shooting down such targets over significant distances,” the publication said.
Thus, the magazine concluded that the high efficiency of these complexes that Berlin aims to achieve is doubtful due to modern Russian anti-aircraft defense systems and interceptors.
Germany’s quest for more Tomahawks is amid the US’s struggles to attain the long-range missiles.
The US military is running out of Tomahawk missiles, and the country’s military industry is struggling to produce enough of these missiles to meet the demand of the US Armed Forces, according to 19FortyFive.
The portal highlighted that the US Navy was consuming missiles faster than the defense sector could replace them.
“But for more than two years, the US Navy had been firing the missiles faster than the defense industry can replace them. According to the Navy, the opening strikes in 2024 of the escalating conflict in Yemen expended more than 80 Tomahawks to hit 30 targets,” the article highlighted.
It is noted that the production lines for Tomahawk missiles, one of the most important weapons in the US Army’s arsenal, have been maintaining the lowest possible production rate for some time. The publication noted that the minimum sustainment rate required to keep production lines running is 90 Tomahawks per year, but this rate is not being achieved.
“The Army and Marine Corps are barely sustaining that production with their buys of experimental land-launched versions of the missile,” the portal emphasized.
Thus, the article concluded that only five Tomahawk missiles will be produced per month in the near future, due to a shortage of essential components, such as rocket engines, which makes it difficult to increase production.
Yet, despite struggles to attain more Tomahawk missiles, Germany also wants to send Patriot missile systems to Kiev, even though the US can only replace the system in 2026. Germany will receive the first Patriot air defense system from the US to replace those transferred to Ukraine within a maximum of eight months, as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius insists on accelerating the delivery of the systems, German media reported, citing sources.
According to Der Spiegel, it will take even longer for the US to deliver all other systems to its partners. According to the media outlet, the US plans to put the countries that transferred the Patriot to Kiev at the top of the list of candidates for new systems from the US company RTX Corporation.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the inquiry that he is negotiating with the manufacturer to expedite production and deliveries, and that he may also discuss the matter with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth. The minister reportedly noted that delivery times for the new systems should be “months, not years.”
In this way, Germany maintains grand ambitions against Russia, but its industrial capacity does not match this. No country has been more affected by the anti-Russia sanctions than Germany, with the sanctions having completely backfired as cheap Russian energy is no longer powering German factories. Yet, it appears that decision-makers in Germany are yet to accept this reality and still want to support Ukraine’s futile attempts to roll back Russian forces.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
American Academy of Pediatrics Goes To War Against Religious Exemptions, Parental Rights
By Jefferey Jaxen | July 29, 2025
The ability to practice ones sincere religious beliefs is woven into the very fabric of America and its founding ethos yet the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a membership organization focusing on pediatricians, just declared war on this bedrock right.
Besides being morally objectionable, the concept is just plain unpopular in modern America. By 2023 only six U.S. states officially denied parents religious exemptions to vaccination for their children via laws that were enacted in the face of massive opposition from the public.
Since then, two of the states (Mississippi and West Virginia) have seen their religious denial laws overturned by court wins from the Informed Consent Action Network’s legal team in which judges deemed such laws to violate the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, public pushback saw Hawaii as the latest state to defeat a bill that would have removed its religious exemption option.
AAP’s new policy paper has stepped in with an attempt to stop the momentum of religious freedom in the medical and public health spaces – an idea whose time has come.
“The AAP recommends that all states, territories, and the District of Columbia eliminate all nonmedical exemptions from immunizations as a condition of school attendance.
With a flowery mission to ‘attain optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults,’ AAP fashions itself more as a continuous pipeline for industry products through overreaching, anti-science edicts.
The AAP recently floated a lawsuit against HHS Secretary Kennedy for his recommendation to remove pregnant women and healthy children from the Covid vaccine schedule.
Lets take a look at some of AAP’s greatest hits over the last 5 years.
In 2019, Washington D.C.’s B23-0171 (later named D.C. Law 23-193) sought to add a new section into the existing regulations that would allow a minor child to consent to receive a vaccine. The bill, and its hearing, signaled a new high-water mark towards the removal of parents from some of their children’s most important medical decisions – and AAP was there.
During the public hearing before it was signed into law, pediatrician Dr. Helene Felman, representing Washington D.C.’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), stated:
“As a pediatrician, I like the legislation as it stands because it offers the opportunity to capture those young adults who can make informed decisions at technically any age.”
Any age…
An ICAN legal victory halting D.C.’s overreach saw a D.C. district judge issue a preliminary injunction against the act in favor of parents who brought suit. The parents filed complaints and were able to demonstrate that the act likely violates federal law.
Next up AAP was on the wrong side of the push, against clear scientific evidence, to medically transition children. As Norway, Sweden, Denmark, U.K. and other countries officially backed off the practice. A 2025 review by HHS of the evidence and best practices found significant risks associated with gender dysphoria treatments.
One of the authors of the paper stated simply:
“… No reliable research indicates that these treatments are beneficial to minors’ mental health.”
In 2023, AAP reaffirmed its stance in a policy paper arguing for youth to have open access to gender-affirming health care fully funded by health insurance.
And finally, the AAP worked to influence public policy by advocating for new injectable weight loss drugs for children.
“Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday.”
The newly discovered harms of such drugs are unfolding on a weekly basis but that didn’t seem to matter to the AAP.
As an industry mouthpiece who see children as a profit margin and pipeline demographic for drugs and shots, AAP is unmatched in its corporate ‘advocacy.’
The organization appears to have chosen another losing battle siding against religious freedom in the United States of America and with it a further loss of relevancy for the organization.
Matson Suspends Electric Vehicle Shipments Over Battery Fire Concerns
What’s Going on With Shipping? | July 27, 2025
In this episode, Sal Mercogliano — a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — and Patrick Dunham from StacheD Training discussed the decision of Matson to suspend the shipment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) on board their ships from the West Coast of the United States to Hawaii and Guam.
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From the Archives
Politicians lie
By Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance | August 18, 2013
There is no way to say this truth nicely: Politicians lie. That includes Japanese, American, Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian politicians! Is there something more common sense than that? Yet, so many citizens around the world believe their own politicians or wistfully acknowledge lies but think it is part of the job needed to run things. They believe even when politicians contradict themselves blatantly. This phenomenon is rather remarkable. It is a dissonance and disconnect from reality that many seem oblivious to. It is very dangerous because it can lead to accepting rationales for going to war. These can be deadly wars that lead to millions of lives lost as happened in what was called World War 1 and WW2. Even when incredible and declassified evidence abound, politicians continue to lie and old mythologies refuse to die. Here are just a few of the countless lies told to us over the past few decades… continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- RSF military group defects, joins Sudanese army: State media
- Ireland goalkeeper refuses to play ‘Israel’ as squad weighs boycott
- China pushes back against US on Cuba, Iran
- Ukrainian Soldiers, Potential Mercenaries: Have Gun, Will Travel!
- Burnham’s UN debut… A masterclass in British disinformation
- Iran flights continue despite US aviation sanctions
- Global Tipping Points Lead the World Into a State of Entropy
- The day-after at the White House: USA and Xi Jinping
- The Geopolitical Balance in the Red Sea: The UAE Being Displaced by New Players
- Iraqi resistance group vows to stage airport sit-ins over Iran aerial blockade
- If Americans Knew
- Deconstructing Netanyahu’s pants-on-fire UN rant – Daily Update
- Trump betrayed voters with his campaign lies and prioritized a foreign country once he took office
- Netanyahu calls Israel’s war in Gaza ‘opposite of genocide’ in UN speech to near-empty hall
- Settler Kidnappings: Torture, Sexual Abuse and Terrorisation of Palestinian Abductees as Israel Deepens Annexation of West Bank
- Gaza winter nears as 162,000 tents become unusable, raising fears of humanitarian crisis
- Netanyahu says, “It’s the opposite of genocide”; UN says Gaza economy is world’s ‘most severe crisis on record’ – Daily Update
- Israel’s US-Backed Assault on Gaza Has Created the ‘World’s Most Severe Economic Crisis on Record’: UN
- ‘Protecting U.S. Citizens’… From Israel
- ‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza
- In UN Speech, Iran’s President Displays Pictures of Children Killed by US, Brings Attention to Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: Earth And Venus Surface Warmth Largely Explained By Convection And Lapse Rate, Not CO2 Or Radiation
- 2025 Nature Paper Claiming Worsening Global Drought Gets RETRACTED …Heavily Flawed
- New Study: ‘Global Drought Shows No Detectable Recent Acceleration Under Climate Warming’
- Economic Masterminds: German Socialists Suggest Taxing Productivity Gains Stemming From Using AI
- The South China Sea Has Not Been Cooperating With The Climate Change Narrative
- Energy Crisis: Germany Enters Heating Season With Historically Low Gas Reserve Fill Levels
- New Study: The Antarctic Ice Sheet Gained Mass From 2020-2024 Due To Staggering Snow And Ice Accumulation
- Study: Ocean Heating Rates From Thousands Of Years Ago ‘Dwarf’ Modern Ocean Heating Rates
- Climate Extremists Target, Attack Large-Scale Power Grid Infrastructure In Germany!
- New Study: Antarctic Ice Melt Has Contributed Less Than 1 Centimeter To Sea Level Rise In The Last 30 Years
