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Category: Global

  • Trump threatens remaining Palestinians with ‘hell’

    Posting to his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has threatened the remaining population of Palestine with “HELL” if Hamas does not agree to his peace deal:


    ‘Unbearably miserable’

    Trump began his post as follows:

    Hamas has been a ruthless and violent threat, for many years, in the Middle East! They have killed (and made lives unbearably miserable), culminating with the October 7th MASSACRE, in Israel, babies, woman, children, old people, and many young men and women, boys and girls, getting ready to celebrate their future lives together.

    As Progressive International reported, in 2023 Israel had already subjected Gaza to “a state of siege, at various levels of intensity, since 2005“. As they wrote:

    As long ago as 2008, Israel put together a military committee to calibrate exactly how many calories would be needed to permit each Gazan to barely survive, thereby allowing it to calculate and regulate the absolute minimum amount of food that could be allowed enter the besieged enclave.

    The following chart highlights the deaths / injuries recorded by the UN between 2008 and 2020:

    Palestinian and Israeli deaths 2008 - 2020 - graph shows 5,590 Palestinian deaths compared to 251 Israeli deaths

    As can be seen above, the number of Palestinians killed stood at 5,590, which is more than four times the amount who were killed on October 7th. Despite this, politicians and media figures were not suggesting Palestinians would be justified in conducting a genocide against the Israelis. This would be an unhinged argument to make, of course, and yet it’s an argument they have repeatedly made in reverse.

    Prior to October 7th, Palestinians did protest peacefully for an end to the siege. Speaking on the peaceful Great March of Return protest, Amnesty wrote in 2018:

    More than six months have passed since the “Great March of Return” protests started in the Gaza Strip on 30 March.
    Their calls for Israeli authorities to lift their 11-year illegal blockade on Gaza and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their villages and towns have not been met.

    According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, since the start of the protests, over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations. At least 10,000 others have been injured, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. Of those injured, 5,814 were hit by live ammunition.


    Politicians and journalists also avoid acknowledging that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu supported the rise and continuation of Hamas – all because it’s easier for him to justify repressing a Palestinian government which supports armed resistance.

    Trump

    Trump’s post continued:

    As retribution for the October 7th attack on civilization, more than 25,000 Hamas “soldiers” have already been killed. Most of the rest are surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, “GO,” for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed.

    I am asking that all innocent Palestinians immediately leave this area of potentially great future death for safer parts of Gaza. Everyone will be well cared for by those that are waiting to help. Fortunately for Hamas, however, they will be given one last chance!

    Great, powerful, and very rich Nations of the Middle East, and the surrounding areas beyond, together with the United States of America, have agreed, with Israel signing on, to PEACE, after 3000 years, in the Middle East. THIS DEAL ALSO SPARES THE LIVES OF ALL REMAINING HAMAS FIGHTERS! The details of the document are known to the WORLD, and it is a great one for ALL!

    We will have PEACE in the Middle East one way or the other. The violence and bloodshed will stop. RELEASES THE HOSTAGES, ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THE BODIES OF THOSE THAT ARE DEAD, NOW! An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time.

    Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

    Trump has previously drawn criticism for his willingness to tolerate unlimited violence:

    As Skwawkbox reported for the Canary:

    A leaked document has exposed details of the US-Israel plan to install war criminal and former UK prime minister Tony Blair as governor of an Israeli-occupied Gaza after the criminal expulsion of the Palestinian people.

    …

    The proposal involves a ‘board’ of billionaires who would ensure that Donald Trump’s Palestinian-free Gaza would create “real financial returns” for the individual and corporate investors in turning Gaza into a Trumpian beach resort.

    The plan for the so-called “Gaza International Transitional Authority” (GITA) was initially drafted by Blair’s think-tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and subsequently tweaked by Trump’s advisers and others. It envisages a ‘hierarchical structure led by an international board’ that “exercises supreme strategic and political authority” under a chair leading the occupation as “senior political executive”, alongside a group directing investment projects and “housing schemes”.

    Israel has frequently violated ceasefires with little in the way of consequences from its Western backers. Trump is facing some degree of pressure at home, however, with several former supporters accusing him of ‘humiliating’ America through his perceived subservience to Israel:


    Featured image via Heute (license details)

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel’s ecocide in Gaza: the silent war on nature and survival

    Beyond the unbearable loss of lives and the endless destruction of homes, Israel is compounding their destruction of Palestine by waging war against the land itself.

    Israel’s ecocide in Gaza: the hidden siege with long-term consequences

    Fields once used to grow food have been burnt. Wells and water pipes are poisoned. And, the air is filled with smoke, dust, and toxins that linger long after the bombs fall. What remains is not just rubble, but a landscape stripped of its ability to sustain life.

    This destruction has a name: ecocide. It’s the deliberate killing of the environment, the tearing apart of the soil, the water, and the air that people depend on to survive.

    In Gaza, ecocide means that even if the bombs were to stop tomorrow, families would still face hunger, thirst, and sickness because the very earth beneath them has been attacked.

    Ecocide isn’t just a side effect of war. It’s used as a weapon, and its damage lasts long after the fighting ends, leaving the land and its people scarred for generations.

    Water weaponised

    UN experts expressed their concern about Israel’s water weaponisation:

    Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians. Cutting off water and food is a silent but lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies. The sight of infants dying in their mothers’ arms is unbearable. How can world leaders sleep while this suffering continues?

    Water is at the heart of Gaza’s ecocide. Even before October 2023, access to clean water in Gaza has been systematically destroyed. Less than 3% of available water met safe standards before the war.

    By mid-2024, 88% of Gaza’s water wells and all desalination plants had been destroyed or disabled. Reservoirs, pipelines, and pumping stations were deliberately stuck.

    At least 1 million people in Gaza reported having less than six litres per person per day of water suitable for cooking and drinking. Before October 2023, the population in Gaza had access to the minimum recommended of 80-85 litres of water per person each day.

    Children are queueing up for hours to fill a small jug. Meanwhile, hospitals report a surge in dehydration, diarrhoea, jaundice, and water-borne diseases.

    Toxic runoff seeping into vital groundwater sources

    Between February and August 2024, a joint study by Newcastle University and the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network uncovered alarming levels of contamination in Gaza’s soil and water. Their tests on landfill sites revealed both total and faecal coliform bacteria. In other words, clear evidence that untreated sewage and toxic runoff have seeped into the groundwater that people rely on.

    A separate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) survey painted an even grimmer picture: at least 87% of the population live within just ten metres of raw sewage or faecal waste. This daily exposure leaves communities facing not only grave health risks but also long-term damage to their already fragile environment.

    The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has warned that Gaza’s coastal aquifer, the main source of groundwater, is on the brink of irreversible collapse. Salinisation and sewage infiltration have rendered much of the aquifer undrinkable, endangering not only human survival, but also agriculture.

    Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) water and sanitation coordinator Paula Navarro said:

    For those who have endured relentless bombings, the suffering is made worse by a water crisis – many are forced to drink unsafe water, while others don’t have enough.

    Soil without life

    More than 86% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been destroyed, with only 1.5% accessible and not damaged.

    Orchards of olive and citrus trees, tended by families for generations, have been bulldozed or burned. Irrigation wells have been bombed, leaving the soil either dry or poisoned.

    For farmers, the devastation is not only material, but spiritual. For Palestinians, olive trees passed down through generations are a symbol of heritage, and a connection to the land.

    Scientists warn that contamination from white phosphorus, heavy metals, asbestos, and other hazardous materials have seeped into the soil, threatening future harvests and impacting food security.

    UNEP reported that soil was significantly contaminated with total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and aliphatic hydrocarbons, levels which surpassed the threshold requiring intervention.

    A report in the American Journal of Public Health warned that crops grown in Gaza may carry harmful levels of toxicity for years, and possibly decades to come, raising deep concerns about the long-term safety of food supply and its impact on human health.

    Air that kills

    The air over Gaza is filled with toxins. Clouds of dust hang over neighbourhoods filled with asbestos, pulverised gas, and chemicals from explosives.

    UNEP has estimated that more than 39m tonnes of hazardous rubble fill the Strip. Breathing this dust carries risks of cancer and chronic illness that will impact survivors for decades to come.

    Researchers have also measured the war’s invisible toll on the climate. In the first three months of the bombardment, greenhouse gas emissions exceeded the annual output of 26 countries, producing between 400,000 and 600,000 of CO₂. The study, led by Frederik Out-Larbi and colleagues, found that in the first 60 days alone, 281,000 tonnes of CO₂ were emitted, more than the yearly footprint of 20 nations.

    This war has undoubtedly caused an environmental catastrophe with irreversible consequences to the region and beyond.

    Debris, waste, sewage, and disease

    Waste has become another weapon. Bombing has destroyed 70% of sewage pumps and wastewater treatment plants. Untreated sewage now seeps into streets, farmland, and the sea.

    Piles and piles of uncollected garbage attract disease-carrying insects. Medical waste, hazardous chemicals, and munition debris further poison the land, water, and the population of Gaza.

    The result is an environmental and public health disaster. Outbreaks of diarrhoea 25 times higher than before the war, a resurgence of polio, surging cases of scabies, lice, and respiratory infections. Disease, like hunger, is part of this environmental war.

    Epidemics don’t respect borders, and disease spreading from Gaza threatens the wider region and beyond.

    The environmental catastrophe taking place in Gaza won’t disappear with a ceasefire. Aquifers poisoned with sewage can’t be stored overnight. Children inhaling asbestos fibres today may not show symptoms for decades. Fields covered with phosphorus may take generations to heal.

    Ecocide as elimination

    Human rights groups, environmental scientists, and UN agencies argue that Gaza’s environmental destruction isn’t a tragic accident.

    Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights has documented how Israel’s military systematically targets environmental infrastructure: water pipelines, reservoirs, and sewage plants. Its 2024 report calls it by its name: ecocide.

    The logic is as cruel as it’s clear: destroy the environment and you destroy the conditions for life. Turn water into poison, farmland into ash, air into a weapon, and survival becomes impossible. International law recognises this.

    The Genocide Convention lists the creation of living conditions intended to destroy an entire population as an act of genocide. In Gaza, ecocide and genocide are intertwined.

    This is Gaza’s catastrophe, and unless it’s named for what it truly is – a crime against the environment and humanity – it risks being forgotten beneath the rubble.

    Featured image via Al Jazeera English/Youtube. 

    By Monica Piccinini

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • CPJ calls on Israel to release journalists detained on the Global Sumud Flotilla

    New York, October 2, 2025 – The Committee to Protect Journalists demands Israeli authorities immediately and unconditionally release the humanitarian crew of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, which includes at least 32 journalists, after the vessels were seized on October 1 and 2.

    “Detaining members of the press while reporting on a humanitarian mission is a clear violation of international maritime law and a dangerous escalation in Israel’s pattern of attacks against journalists,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ Regional Director. “World leaders must act now to defend press freedom, protect journalists, and demand accountability”. 

    The Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest maritime aid convoy of its kind to date, set sail to Gaza from Spain on August 31, with the aim of breaking Israel’s naval blockade of the territory and delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians amid famine conditions that have taken hold under Israel’s months-long closure of crossings.

    It includes around 50 vessels carrying between 500 and 700 activists from more than 40 countries. 

    The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on X that all but one vessel was on its way to Israel, and all detained activists would be deported to Europe.

    CPJ has identified 32 journalists on board the vessels, but it remains unclear which of them were detained, apart from Yassine Al Gaidi, Hayat Al Yamani, Lotfi Hajji, and Anis Al Abbassi.

    Suhad Bishara, the director of the Adalah Center legal department, which is defending the activists, told CPJ that her legal team is in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, following up on their detention.

    “Currently, the picture is not complete. Regarding deportation or any legal proceedings, it could be this evening after the Immigration Authority begins the process, and it could take several days,” she said.

    Since September 15, Israeli authorities have published multiple posts accusing the flotilla of being “a propaganda tool for Hamas jihadists,” claiming its leaders and spokespersons have ties to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other groups. The organizers have staunchly rejected these allegations.

    CPJ emailed the IDF’s North America Media Desk to request comment on the detention of the journalists, but did not immediately receive any response.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Gen-Z protests rock Peru as president Boluarte’s approval hits rock-bottom

    Peru has recently seen weeks of youth-fronted protests against government corruption. The most recent wave of protests began on 20 September, triggered by a new law requiring young people to pay into private pension pots.

    Marches over the weekend of 27 September saw 18 people and one police officer injured in violent confrontations.

    ‘Marching against corruption’

    Bus and taxi drivers joined the predominantly Gen-Z demonstrators in their march on the capital city of Lima. They were protesting against a series of corruption scandals centring on president Dina Boluarte, along with increasingly severe economic insecurity.

    For their part, the transport workers also raged against a government that they felt wasn’t doing enough to tackle extortion. They claim that gangs like Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua frequently demand protection money from them, and the police habitually feign ignorance.

    One protester told Agence France-Presse (AFP):

    We are marching against corruption, for life, and against the crime that is killing us every day.

    Another young demonstrator told a local news site:

    These people [politicians] raise their own salaries, they kill us like flies and don’t care about anything. We need a total change, we’re sick of this situation.

    Back in July the president doubled her own salary, prompting massive public outcry. Pontifical Catholic University of Peru social movements expert Omar Coronel explained to BBC Mundo that:

    those who star in the protests are especially young people who are now joining the labor market and discovering the limitations and difficulties they will encounter in it.

    There is widespread rejection of President Boluarte and her allies in Congress due to the growing authoritarianism that has been imposed in Peru.

    Police repression

    Boluarte’s approval ratings recently reached record lows of just 2%. This ranks her as one of the least-popular leaders on the world stage. She first came to power in 2022 after the impeachment of the previous president Castillo. The ensuing months of protests that lasted well into 2023, and saw nearly 60 deaths recorded.

    In response to the weekend’s protests, Boluarte claimed on 30 September:

    I am a democratic woman and we will strengthen our democracy, and that is why I am not going to resign because some voices are used to living in anarchy, disorder, violence and that culture of hate that not all Peruvians embrace.

    The past weeks’ protests were met with violent police repression. Cops reportedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the assembled crowds of demonstrators. The tactics prompted swift condemnation from CNDDHH Perú, the nation’s human rights coordinator. The organisation posted on Facebook:

    We urge the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Attorney General’s Office of Peru to ensure the safety of citizens exercising their right to protest… it is urgent that guarantees be put in place to ensure a safe protest. Protesting is a right, not a crime.

    Mar Perez, a lawyer for the CNDDHH, echoed the sentiment:

    We call on the police to respect the right to protest. There was no justification for firing large amounts of tear gas, let alone for attacking people.

    International inspiration

    The marchers held placards that read “We demand a life without fear”. They also displayed variations of the hatted skull-and-crossbones logo of the anime One Piece, which was also seen in other Gen-Z protests in Nepal and Madagascar. Peruvian international relations expert Ramiro Escobar explained that:

    The protests that toppled the government in Nepal or those that were lived in Indonesia have inspired what we are now seeing.

    Colonel also noted the international influence:

    In Peru we had been in a time when people did not dare to protest the high cost they had had in the wave of protests in 2023, which left dozens of civilians dead. But the example of Nepal seems to have taught that with the mobilizations you can achieve changes even in more autocratic contexts than the Peruvian one.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump adds new terror ‘indicators’ amidst fears of anti-left crackdown

    US president Donald Trump has updated national security guidance to include ‘terror indicators’ like being ‘anti-American’. US streamer Hasan Piker has described the move as “straightforward fascism”:

    ‘Indicators’

    Journalist Ken Klippenstein provided a list of ‘indicators’ which authorities should consider when investigating potential terrorism:

    • anti-Americanism,
    • anti-capitalism,
    • anti-Christianity,
    • support for the overthrow of the United States Government,
    • extremism on migration,
    • extremism on race,
    • extremism on gender
    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,
    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and
    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.

    As commentators such as Piker have noted, these terms are vague on paper, but would allow agencies who are aligned with Trump to target his enemies. As an example, Trump has increased government hostility towards transgender people. Accordingly, people are predicting this latest move will be used as a pretext to curtail the rights of transgender individuals:


    Summarising his feelings, Klippenstein wrote:

    I don’t want to sound hyperbolic but the plain truth is that NSPM-7 is a declaration of war on anyone who does not support the Trump administration and its agenda. Yes, it repeats the word “violent” over and over to purport only to go after citizens who are moved to take up arms, but it also directs monitoring and intelligence collection to map and target the new “evildoers,” to borrow a Bush label he took from the Bible just days after 9/11.

    The partisan focus couldn’t be more obvious.

    As people have pointed out, White House figures such as Donald Trump and Stephen Miller have used exactly the same sort of rhetoric as that which they’re now clamping down on:


    Successive UK governments have faced similar accusations of using terror legislation to neutralise perceived ‘enemies within’. In 2020, it was revealed that a “counter-terrorism document” listed several protest groups including Greenpeace and Animal Aid. This year, the home office under Keir Starmer proscribed Palestine Action, which was the first time a non-violent group was labelled a terrorist organisation.

    Featured image via RawPixel

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Ignore the BBC – Starmer and Trump are both bleeding us dry in service of the 1%

    Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are both bleeding ordinary people dry in service of an increasingly brash and powerful billionaire class. And we need to destroy once and for all the dangerous notion that they’re different. Because as far as 99% of us are concerned, they’re both a dire threat.

    Dump the BBC propaganda!

    The BBC is clearly British state propaganda. But sometimes, its most dangerous content is more subtle. For example, it just tried to paint Keir Starmer and Donald Trump as “wildly different” figures. (That’s bullshit, but we’ll get to that in a few seconds.) The effect was to paint Starmer, indirectly, as the hero of the story – the serious, professional manager putting on a brave face to please the arsehole CEO who’s bulldozed his way into the office on a rare, uncomfortable visit to the front line. What a “relief” for Starmer, the BBC suggests, that things went so smoothly.

    But Starmer is not the hero – of any story. He lied to become Labour leader. He viciously purged left-wingers from the party before jumping into bed with corporate lobbyists. And he is happily supporting genocide and licking Trump’s boots. He knows exactly what he’s doing – riding the parliamentary gravy train and willingly furthering the longstanding corporate takeover of Britain in the process. He didn’t just accidentally fall into a “multibillion-pound deal” with Donald Trump to ramp up private-sector nuclear production to power resource-hungry Big Tech data centres. It was their aim – to serve their billionaire pals and overlords:

    They. Are. Not. Different.

    Other establishment media outlets also keep up the facade that Trump and Starmer are at odds with each other. But that’s because their owners benefit from making us think they are. If enough people broke out of the toxic electoral cycle of anointing different flavours of elite rule, they’d be in trouble.

    The fact is, neither Starmer nor Trump has principles they’re not willing to give up for money. The only differences are in charisma, power, and popularity ratings (Starmer has less on all fronts). The similarities, meanwhile, are plenty. Both are cracking down on free speech – whether it’s on anti-fascists in the US or anti-genocide protesters in the UK. Their predecessors paved the way, but they’re stepping the censorship up further. And they’re both destroying the international legal system by enabling Israeli war criminals. Even though British voters are more critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza than US voters, forcing Starmer to make meaningless statements and small concessions, he’s very much a loyal supporter of the billionaire–backed project.

    The obscene wealth of billionaires is becoming more and more extreme. And they’re laughing all the way to the bank because enough people still think choosing between red and blue corporate cronies at an election is ‘democratic enough’. We need to challenge that view more forcefully and more often. Because the billionaires are currently winning the class war against the rest of us, and they have both Starmer and Trump firmly on their side.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/BBC News

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Bernie Sanders ‘finally’ acknowledges Israel’s genocide

    Earlier this month, a UN report declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In a new op-ed, American senator Bernie Sanders has also now described Israel’s actions as “genocide”.


    Sanders drew criticism for not labelling it a genocide before now; he has also received criticism for the way he discusses it in his new op-ed.

    UK commentator Ash Sarkar referenced Sanders’ announcement, saying he has ‘finally’ described it as a genocide:


    Genocide

    Sanders has been described as a ‘liberal Zionist’, with people highlighting statements like the following from 2016:

    As somebody who is 100 percent pro-Israel, in the long run, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.

    Speaking out on liberal Zionism, Israeli-American doctor Yoav Litvin wrote:

    The Liberal flank of Zionism functions to sanitise and revise the reactionary, settler-colonialist and white supremacist essence of the movement and obscure its motivations – expansionism and apartheid. Duplicitously, it presents Zionism as compatible with democratic and progressive values and human rights, possessing a true desire for peace, justice and complete integration into the Middle East.

    He added:

    Liberal Zionists ahistorically present Israeli and Palestinian narratives as parallel truths, and both peoples as victims with legitimate claims and grievances requiring lengthy negotiations and difficult concessions before a compromise is reached. Thus, deploying colonising language, the Liberal Zionist revisionist narrative equates settler colonialist oppressors who hold all levers of power, with their Indigenous Palestinians victims.

    In his op-ed, Sanders begins:

    Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.

    But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

    Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

    I agree.

    The rest of the op-ed goes into further detail on the terrible toll the genocide has taken on the Palestinian people.

    Criticism

    One criticism Sanders received is that in describing the events of October 7th, he did not acknowledge that Israel instigated the ‘Hannibal Directive’. This protocol permits the Israeli military to use “any force necessary” to prevent combatants taking Israelis hostage. Use of the Hannibal Directive was reported on by Israeli outlet Haaretz, with Al Jazeera describing their findings as follows:

    During the chaos, while Israeli army commanders struggled to fully grasp the scale of the assault by Hamas, it is alleged the directive was deployed at three military facilities. However, the orders failed to distinguish between soldiers being captured and civilians.

    According to Haaretz, at 7:18am, during the early hours of the attack, a report of a kidnapping at Beit Hanoon, known to Israelis as Erez, a crossing between Israel and Gaza, the order given by the divisional headquarters was simply “Hannibal at Erez”, with no further explanation or clarification, suggesting its meaning was already well known to everyone included in the message.

    A message sent to the Gaza Division about five hours after the attacks began, ordered: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”

    A source within Israel’s Southern Command, responsible for policing parts of the borders with Egypt, Jordan and Gaza, subsequently told Haaretz: “Everyone knew by then that such vehicles could be carrying kidnapped civilians or soldiers … Everyone knew what it meant to not let any vehicles return to Gaza.”

    A report from Electronic Intifada provides even further information on these events, including the following:

    Nof Erez, the Israeli Air Force colonel who admitted that 7 October was a “mass Hannibal” event, answered positively when asked by the interviewer if they “exploded all kinds of houses inside the settlements.”
    Erez insisted that his pilots only did so with “permission” from their superior officers. “I saw numerous drones above every settlement on a computer image, which we can see in every IDF [Israeli military] command,” he explained.

    Footage on Israeli TV has shown Israeli tanks present and firing in the settlement of Kibbutz Be’eri.

    Most infamously, Brigadier General Barak Hiram admitted to ordering his tanks to fire at Pessi Cohen’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri – “even at the cost of the civilians,” as he told The New York Times.

    The Sanders op-ed also contains several references to Trump and “the extremist Netanyahu government”. Sanders has drawn criticism in the past for focusing blame on Trump and Netanyahu when Israel’s increasing hostility towards the Palestinians has enjoyed broad bi-partisan support from all sides of the political spectrum in America, Israel, and the West.

    Turning point

    While many have noted Sanders is late in his appraisal, he is still ahead of every other US senator:


    Ilhan Omar has described Israel’s actions as genocide, but she sits in the House of Representatives as opposed to the Senate. Her fellow representative AOC described it as a genocide too, but despite this she voted to send Israel more ‘defensive’ weapons, receiving criticism as a result.

    Following the UN’s announcement, other political figures are also now describing Israel’s actions as genocide:

    Featured image via Gage Skidmore (Flickr)

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • People are boycotting Disney+ after they caved to Trump’s censorship demands

    On Wednesday 17 September, the Disney-owned ABC abruptly cancelled the Jimmy Kimmel Show after the host criticised Donald Trump. The backlash has been swift, with celebrities speaking out, and paying customers cancelling their Disney-related subscriptions:


    The question for Disney now is: can they afford to side with Trump and his war on free speech?

    Boycott the mouse

    It’s reported that ABC cancelled Kimmel following a threat from Trump’s FCC chair.


    Rolling Stone reported on the sacking and the atmosphere of fear that the Trump administration has invoked:

    In the hours leading up to the decision to pull Kimmel, two sources familiar with the matter say, senior executives at ABC, its owner Disney, and affiliates convened emergency meetings to figure out how to minimize the damage. Multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, the two sources say, but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed.

    “They were pissing themselves all day,” one ABC insider tells Rolling Stone.

    Even before Trump won the 2024 election, he and some of his closest advisers had plotted how to use the FCC and other powerful federal organs to punish late-night comics who Trump has hated for years.

    On 17 September, the Canary reported how Trump has used lawyers to attack the media, with the latest example being a $15bn lawsuit against the New York Times. This followed lawsuits against ABC News and CBS in which Trump was able to negotiate out-of-court settlements worth millions.

    In response to Kimmel’s sacking, people have begun cancelling their subscriptions:

    At the same time, Kimmel’s Hollywood contemporaries are speaking out against the obvious censorship, as Newsweek reported:

    Actors including Ben Stiller, Wanda Sykes, and Jamie Lee Curtis voiced support for Kimmel, while SAG-AFTRA condemned the suspension as a violation of free speech. Critics say the decision reflects growing political influence over broadcast media and raises concerns about censorship in an election year.

    Sykes commented on the issue, saying: “Let’s see. He didn’t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week. But he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.”

    One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush said: “The First Amendment doesn’t exist in America anymore. Period. Fascism is here and it’s chilling.”

    The Canary reported on how the Kimmel sacking is part of a much larger anti-free speech drive being pushed by Trump and his supporters.

    Target

    Several people have linked the boycott to the campaign against American retail company Target:


    In January 2025, Target announced plans to end its Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It happened around the same time that Trump and his supporters were criticising DEI, going so far as to blame an air tragedy on the practice in one instance.

    Georgia pastor Jamal Bryant organised a boycott in response to Target’s decision, which resulted in a 2.8% drop in sales in Q1 alone. By August this year, CEO Brian Cornell exited the company after it suffered a 21% reduction to net income in Q2. Cornell had headed the company since 2014.


    Shifting systems

    At this point, we probably have to stop describing the American model as ‘late-stage capitalism’. We’re not sure what we’re looking at now, but it’s clearly not a system in which corporations dictate the direction of travel. Instead, we have a world in which increasingly panicked CEOs make knee-jerk decisions to avoid the wrath of the orange toddler – decisions which are tanking their bottom lines and obliterating their long-term viability.

    This is pure Trumpism, in other words, and it’s chaos.

    Featured image via Heute (license details) / Pixabay

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Donald Trump could sue several critics out of existence

    On 15 September, president Donald Trump announced a lawsuit which has the potential to drive several of his critics into bankruptcy:

    NEWS: Trump has filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times, a few of their writers, and Penguin Random House, seemingly because they published things about him he didn’t like.

    — MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 2025-09-16T04:13:13.551Z

    The New York Times has a “market cap of $9.53 Billion USD” as of September 2025.

    “Historic fashion”

    Trump’s latest lawsuit states:

    On November 5, 2024, President Trump won the 2024 Presidential Election over Vice President Kamala Harris in historic fashion, emerging victorious in both the Electoral College and the popular vote, and securing a resounding mandate from the American people. President Trump trounced Harris with 312 electoral votes and a sweep of all seven “battleground” states. This victory was remarkable for many historic reasons, including because President Trump had to overcome persistent election interference from the legacy media, led most notoriously by the New York Times.

    Lower down, it states the following:

    It came as no surprise when, shortly before the Election, the newspaper published, on the front page, highlighted in a location never seen before, its deranged endorsement of Kamala Harris with the hyperbolic opening line “[i]t is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump.” . … The Board asserted hypocritically and without evidence that President Trump would “defy the norms and dismantle the institutions that have made our country strong.”

    After entering government, Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made wide-reaching cuts to the federal government, entirely dismantling institutions such as the the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, meanwhile, has made “deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare” among other areas. It’s expected these cuts will lead to the closure of many rural hospitals (300 were already at “immediate risk” of closure in July this year).

    This latest action follows lawsuits against ABC News and CBS. In those cases, Trump was able to negotiate out-of-court settlements worth millions.

    Defamation

    The suit alleges that writers knowingly generated what Trump might refer to as ‘fake news’:

    The subject matter of this action—a malicious, defamatory, and disparaging book written by two of its reporters and three false, malicious, defamatory, and disparaging articles, all carefully crafted by Defendants, with actual malice, calculated to inflict maximum damage upon President Trump, and all published during the height of a Presidential Election that became the most consequential in American history—represent a new journalistic low for the hopelessly compromised and tarnished “Gray Lady.”

    Trump is making his second state visit to the UK this week. Channel 4 have announced plans to mark the occasion as follows:

    In August 2016, news site Gawker closed down following a lawsuit filed by the late Hulk Hogan. This lawsuit was funded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who described Gawker as “terrorists” following an article they published outing him as a gay man.

    Featured image via rawpixel

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Charlie Kirk suspect caught, but FBI hint at chaos behind the scenes

    On Wednesday 10 September, a gunman shot and killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Despite the shooting happening at a public event and in broad daylight, the killer escaped the scene of the crime. Since then, an FBI press conference has suggested a chaotic state of affairs behind the scenes. This is on top of the chaos which was already going on as a result of changes made by president Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel:

    While an alleged suspect is reportedly now in custody, this doesn’t say much about the FBI’s ability to conduct an investigation in the current landscape. As reported by Sky News, Trump claims he wasn’t actually caught, but that the alleged gunman’s father handed him into the police.

    Charlie Kirk suspect chaos

    Two comments stood out in the FBI press conference given on 11 September. The first was this (emphasis added):

    So far, we’ve received more than 7,000 leads and tips. Uh, I I would just note that the FBI hasn’t received this many digital media tips from the public since the Boston Marathon bombing.

    The second was the following:

    I uh I I would also just add a word of note for those people who are spending so much time on on social media. I think Charlie said it best that when when things get get bad, we should put our phones down and spend a little time with our our families.

    So what’s the relevance of all this?

    Specifically, the response on social media led to a great deal of chaos and confusion, as NPR reported in 2023:

    One 2013 study showed that 29% of the most viral content shared in the days after the bombing was false information or rumors. Another 50% were just opinions or feelings, not facts.

    In one case, Twitter users picked up a Reddit rumor that a missing Brown University student was the chief suspect. And the rumor was repeated, prima facie, by some journalists.

    It wasn’t the only mistake legacy media outlets made.

    In one notorious example, CNN prematurely reported a suspect had been arrested. Other outlets, including the Associated Press and the Boston Globe followed their lead — and all had to issue corrections when officials denied the claim.

    The New York Post was sued for libel after publishing a photo of two Moroccan runners under the headline “Bag Men.”

    Some online investigators believed the bombing was a ‘false flag attack’, which is a now common accusation following any violent event.

    Another incident was when Reddit identified Sunil Tripathi as their key suspect. The problem? Tripathi wasn’t the perpetrator. In fact, it would later turn out Tripathi wasn’t even alive at the time of the bombing.

    These references to the Boston Marathon Bombing and social media seem to be the FBI signalling that they’re being fed more unhelpful information than they can sift through.

    As the Boston bombing happened over 10 years ago, you’d think they’d be better placed to handle this, right?

    Well, the thing about that is.

    Cuts

    In January, Reuters reported that Trump’s Justice Department was making “sweeping cuts”. In particular, these cuts targeted FBI agents and prosecutors who subjected January 6th rioters to justice.

    As Reuters reported:

    Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove on Thursday told the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot, which was the largest Justice Department probe in modern U.S. history, two sources briefed on the matter said.
    The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The FBI was also ordered by Tuesday to provide a list of all employees who worked on the criminal cases against Trump, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

    That memo ordered eight FBI officials to resign or be fired, saying that their participation in the Jan. 6 cases represented part of what Trump has called the “weaponization” of government.

    In a statement on Friday, the FBI Agents Association, a membership group of more than 14,000 active and former FBI agents, called the moves “outrageous.”

    The sackings have continued since then. Interestingly, FBI director Kash Patel actually fired the special agent heading up Salt Lake City, Utah just last month. For those who don’t know, Salt Lake city is the office investigating the Kirk shooting.

    Patel, a Trump loyalist, is a former lawyer, children’s book author, and conspiracy theorist. Former FBI director Andrew McCabe had this to say on Patel travelling to Utah to oversee the Kirk case:

    There are many good reasons why you wouldn’t go, if you’re the director, out to the scene of an ongoing post-crisis investigation. One of the reasons not to do that is because the presence of the director imposes a huge burden on the field office. There’s all kinds of arrangements that have to be made, there’s all kinds of security concerns that arise.

    He added:

    Transportation becomes very complicated, and that’s the last thing you want to do to the field office while they’re in the middle of investigating a critical incident. So again, it’s strange to go out there under those circumstances.


    We should note that McCabe was fired in the first Trump administration after he ordered a probe into Trump potentially obstructing justice by firing another FBI director. McCabe was two ways away from retirement at the time of his sacking.

    Despite the suspect allegedly being handed in by his father, Patel took credit for the ‘record turnaround’ between the murder and arrest:

    Patel ended his speech by telling his deceased friend Charlie Kirk to rest now, and that he would ‘see him in Valhalla’.

    The FBI

    You could certainly argue that the FBI should have its funding cut. In an article titled “How the FBI Created a Terrorist”, the Intercept wrote about how the FBI targeted a Muslim man with a schizoaffective disorder, writing:

    FBI employees talked about how Osmakac didn’t have any money, how he thought the U.S. spy satellites were watching him, and how he had no concept of what weapons cost on the black market.

    The source of their amusement was also their primary source of concern. Osmakac was, in the FBI’s own words, “a retarded fool” who didn’t have any capacity to plan and execute an attack on his own. That was a challenge for the FBI.

    The piece goes on:

    In constructing the sting, FBI agents were in communication with prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, the transcripts show. The prosecutors needed the FBI to show Osmakac giving Amir Jones money for the weapons. Over several conversations, the FBI agents struggled to create a situation that would allow the penniless Osmakac to hand cash to the undercover agent.

    “How do we come up with enough money for them to pay for everything?” asks FBI Special Agent Taylor Reed in one recording.

    “Right now, we have money issues,” Amir admits in a separate conversation.

    Their advantage was that Dabus, the informant, had given Osmakac a job. If they could get Dabus to pay Osmakac, and then make sure Osmakac used his paycheck to make a payment toward the weapons, the agents could satisfy the Justice Department. “Once he gives it to him, it’s his money, whether we orchestrated it or not,” Reed says.

    It’s important to remember, though, that Trump isn’t diminishing the FBI because of stuff like this. He’s kneecapping the bureau to avoid the little scrutiny he’s experienced in the past, and to funnel more into ICE – an organisation which has been described as the “American Gestapo“.

    The FBI have their suspect in this case, but given his family handed him in to police, they seem to have got lucky. We’ll see how long their luck holds out.

    Featured image via Associated Press / CNN News

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Speculation that ‘stroke signs’ may explain alleged Trump ‘AI video’ miss the point

    On 11 September, we reported on a White House video in which Donald Trump seemed to launch a ‘war on the left’. In that same article, we noted some believed the video of Trump showed signs of AI or digital alteration. Later that same day, pictures emerged of Trump at a 9/11 memorial in which he appeared to be suffering from ill health effects:


    Things became increasingly confused when a Sky News video from the same day featured Trump without any pronounced facial drooping.

    We’re not sure quite what’s going on at this point, but we are sure of one thing; Trump released a video in which he used spurious claims and slander to argue for a crackdown on the left.


    ChAIn of events

    Let’s be clear about one thing: Trump’s White House address video did not look unedited:

    Issues with it include:

    • The lighting and colouring seem off.
    • Trump moves in an odd fashion.
    • There’s a sudden skip at one point.

    Do this mean it’s AI? Not necessarily.

    The colouring could be high contrast by design; Trump’s odd movement could be explained by a low frame rate; the skip could just be an edit. It could also be the case that AI is being used to smooth things out and make Trump look different but it’s a filter rather than a full recreation.

    Compare this comment:


    To this one:

    We can also report that regardless of what’s going on, it’s not the first White House address to have the same visual hallmarks. The following videos are from two days ago, Wednesday 10 September:

    Looking through the other videos that the White House has posted to YouTube, we can’t find instances of them using this same setup. So they’re definitely doing something new; it’s just not clear precisely what’s changed.

    What is clear, though, is that Trump and others are using Charlie Kirk’s death as an opportunity to spread disinformation and further clamp down on their political enemies:


    Trump’s health

    Speculation about the video being AI went into hyperdrive after Trump appeared with an obviously drooping face:


    As noted, Trump later appeared looking considerably different. This is becoming something of a pattern now.

    As Al Jazeera noted, people recently believed Trump to be dead after he showed several signs of failing health and then disappeared for several days. As they noted:

    Although Trump had no public meetings, his schedule was not suspended as some users claimed. The White House continued to publicly release and chronicle meetings and actions.

    But some on social media persisted. They pointed to photos of Trump’s swollen ankles and bruised hands, and a July letter from his doctor diagnosing Trump with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition that can cause leg swelling. It is not typically life-threatening.

    Given that Trump keeps returning looking mostly as he has done in the past, the question must be asked: is Trump experiencing unusual health issues? Or is he simply experiencing the regular amount of poor health you’d expect from a 79-year-old man who lives off fast food and works in a high-stress job?

    Again, it’s not entirely clear, but these are the sort of questions which emerge when the most powerful country in the world repeatedly elects septuagenarian presidents.

    One thing that is clear, though, is that Trump is still the guy in charge, and he’s still spewing the same hypocrisy as ever:


    Oh, and this is his son by the way:


    And these are his followers:

    This exchange, meanwhile, completely gives the game away:

    Distraction tactics

    There’s so much going on at once these days that it’s easy to become distracted. No one is better at distracting people than Trump, because everything around him seems chaotic and fraudulent. While suspected AI / health concerns are definitely worth commenting on, in this instance the key thing to watch are the political moves being made to capitalise on Charlie Kirk’s death.

    Featured image via C-Span

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Breaking video: over 1500 Palestinian men taken hostage by Israel in West Bank raids

    In mass raids of homes, shops, factories, and even bystanders on the streets since noon today (11 Sep) and continuing at the time of writing, Israeli occupation forces have taken more than 1,500 Palestinians hostage in a mass arrest campaign targeting civilians in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

    The scale of the illegal arbitrary detention of ordinary Palestinians can be sensed from this clip of a column of apparently blindfolded and shackled hostages being marched along by occupation troops, which has emerged this evening:

    Well over 10,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel, many under severe conditions including torture, sexual torture, rape and deliberate starvation. Thousands have not been charged with any crime. Many are children.

    The new wave of detentions came on the same day that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed publicly that there will never be a Palestinian state, as he rubber-stamped Israel’s grossly illegal plan to annex large portions of the occupied West Bank.

    Israel is a terror state.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lead boat of Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla, carrying Madleen crew including Thunberg, bombed and set on fire near Tunisia

    The lead boat of the Gaza-bound humanitarian ‘Global Sumud Flotilla – the boat carrying members, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, from the voyage of the Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla vessel attacked and seized by Israel, along with its crew – has been bombed by a drone in Tunisian waters and set on fire.

    The fire was contained and the crew is safe, but the attack – there is no real doubt who committed it – again displays the arrogance and lawlessness of the terror state of Israel, which is determined to prevent the flotilla of more than fifty boats reaching the shores of Gaza to break Israel’s criminal blockade that is starving almost two million Palestinian people of the enclave, with more than half a million in the final, deadly stages of famine.

    By Skwawkbox

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘We want legitimate leaders’: Bougainvilleans head to the polls amid push for independence

    By Margot Staunton, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

    Bougainvilleans went to the polls today, keen to elect a leader who will continue their fight for independence.

    “There’s a mood of excitement among the people here,” said Electoral Commissioner Desmond Tsianai.

    “It is important that this election is successful and credible, because we want legitimate leaders in the government, who will continue discussions with Papua New Guinea over independence,” he said.

    Tsianai said there were more than 239,000 registered voters in the autonomous PNG region and he expects a better turnout than the 67 percent during the 2020 election.

    “We anticipate voter turnout will increase due to the importance of this election in the political aspirations of Bougainville.”

    Tsianai said his office had been proactive, encouraging voters to enrol and reaching out through schools to first-time voters aged 18 and over.

    He is adamant Bougainville could achieve a one-day poll, despite the election being rescheduled at the last minute.

    Polling pushed back
    Polling was scheduled to begin on Thursday but was pushed back a day to allow time to dispatch ballot papers.

    In addition, he said, there were some quality control issues concerning serial numbers.

    “These are an important safeguard against fraud. We, therefore, took measures to ensure that these issues were rectified, so that electoral integrity was assured.”

    The final shipment of ballot papers, which was scheduled for delivery on August 23, finally arrived on September 2, he said.

    This did not allow enough time for packing and distribution to enable polling to take place on Thursday.

    “The printing of the ballot papers and the delay afterwards was out of our hands, however we’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the process.

    The polling period for the elections was from September 2-8, and the office had discretion to select any date within that period based on election planning, he said.

    “Rescheduling allowed sufficient time to resolve ballot delivery delays and to ensure that polling teams are ready to serve voters.”

    Preventing risk
    He said that the rescheduling was done in the interest of voters, candidates and stakeholders, to prevent any risk of disenfranchisement.

    “We remain fully committed to delivering a credible election and will continue to provide regular updates to maintain transparency and confidence in the electoral process,” he said.

    “We have taken the necessary steps and anticipated that some wards within constituencies have a larger voting population so extra teams had been allocated to those wards so polling can be conducted in a day.”

    The dominant issue going into the election remained the quest for independence.

    In 2020, there were strong expectations that the autonomous region would soon achieve that, given the result of an historic referendum.

    A 97.7 percent majority voted for independence in a referendum which began in November 2019.

    However, that has not happened yet, and Port Moresby has yet to concede much ground.

    Toroama not pressured
    Bougainville’s 544 polling stations will open from 8am to 4pm local time (9am-5pm NZT) in what is the first time the Autonomous Bougainville Government has planned a single day poll.

    Some 404 candidates are contesting for 46 seats in the Bougainville Parliament, including a record 34 women.

    Six men are challenging Ishmael Toroama for his job.

    Toroama recently told RNZ Pacific that he was not feeling any pressure as he sought a second five-year term in office.

    “I’m the kind of man that has process. They voted me for the last five years. And if the people wish to put me, the decision, the power to put people, it is democracy. They will vote for me.” he said.

    Counting will take place on September 9-21, and writs will be returned to the Speaker of the House the following day.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Local journalists and fixers are dying at unprecedented rates in Gaza. Can anyone protect them?

    ANALYSIS: By Simon Levett, University of Technology Sydney

    Journalist Mariam Dagga was just 33 when she was brutally killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on August 25.

    As a freelance photographer and videographer, she had captured the suffering in Gaza through indelible images of malnourished children and grief-stricken families. In her will, she told her colleagues not to cry and her 13-year-old son to make her proud.

    Dagga was killed alongside four other journalists — and 16 others — in an attack on a hospital that has drawn widespread condemnation and outrage.

    This attack followed the killings of six Al Jazeera journalists by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in a tent housing journalists in Gaza City earlier on August 10. The dead included Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anas al-Sharif.

    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists
    A montage of killed Palestinian journalists . . . Shireen Abu Akleh (from left), Mariam Dagga, Hossam Shabat, Anas Al-Sharif and Yasser Murtaja. Image: Montage/The Conversation

    Israel’s nearly two-year war in Gaza is among the deadliest in modern times. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which has tracked journalist deaths globally since 1992, has counted a staggering 189 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began. Two other counts more widely cited have ranged between 248 and 272

    Many of the journalists worked as freelancers for major news organisations since Israel has banned foreign correspondents from entering Gaza.

    In addition, the organisation has confirmed the killings of two Israeli journalists, along with six journalists killed in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon.

     

    ‘It was very traumatising for me’
    I went to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank in 2019 to conduct part of my PhD research on the available protections for journalists in conflict zones.

    During that time, I interviewed journalists from major international outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, BBC and others, in addition to local Palestinian freelance journalists and fixers. I also interviewed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera English, with whom I remained in contact until recently.

    I did not visit Gaza due to safety concerns. However, many of the journalists had reported from there and were familiar with the conditions, which were dangerous even before the war.

    Osama Hassan, a local journalist, told me about working in the West Bank:

    “There are no rules, there’s no safety. Sometimes, when settlers attack a village, for example, we go to cover, but Israeli soldiers don’t respect you, they don’t respect anything called Palestinian […] even if you are a journalist.”

    Nuha Musleh, a fixer in Jerusalem, described an incident that occurred after a stone was thrown towards IDF soldiers:

    “[…] they started shooting right and left – sound bombs, rubber bullets, one of which landed in my leg. I was taken to hospital. The correspondent also got injured. The Israeli cameraman also got injured. So all of us got injured, four of us.

    “It was very traumatising for me. I never thought that a sound bomb could be that harmful. I was in hospital for a good week. Lots of stitches.”

    Better protections for local journalists and fixers
    My research found there is very little support for local journalists and fixers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in terms of physical protection, and no support in terms of their mental health.

    International law mandates that journalists are protected as civilians in conflict zones under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. However, these laws have not historically extended protections specific to the needs of journalists.

    Media organisations, media rights groups and governments have been unequivocal in their demands that Israel take greater precautions to protect journalists in Gaza and investigate strikes like the one that killed Mariam Dagga.

    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga
    London-based artist Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) illustrated this tribute to the slain Gaza journalist Mariam Dagga. Image: The Fuller Project

    Sadly, there is seemingly little media organisations can do to help their freelance contributors in Gaza beyond issuing statements noting concern for their safety, lobbying Israel to allow evacuations, and demanding access for foreign reporters to enter the strip.

    International correspondents typically have training on reporting from war zones, in addition to safety equipment, insurance and risk assessment procedures. However, local journalists and fixers in Gaza do not generally have access to the same protections, despite bearing the brunt of the effects of war, which includes mass starvation.

    Despite the enormous difficulties, I believe media organisations must strive to meet their employment law obligations, to the best of their ability, when it comes to local journalists and fixers. This is part of their duty of care.

    For example, research shows fixers have long been the “most exploited and persecuted people” contributing to the production of international news. They are often thrust into precarious situations without hazardous environment training or medical insurance. And many times, they are paid very little for their work.

    Local journalists and fixers in Gaza must be paid properly by the media organisations hiring them. This should take into consideration not just the woeful conditions they are forced to work and live in, but the immense impact of their jobs on their mental health.

    As the global news director for Agence France-Presse said recently, paying local contributors is very difficult — they often bear huge transaction costs to access their money.

    “We try to compensate by paying more to cover that,” he said.

    But he did not address whether the agency would change its security protocols and training for conflict zones, given journalists themselves are being targeted in Gaza in their work.

    These local journalists are literally putting their lives on the line to show the world what’s happening in Gaza. They need greater protections.

    As Ammar Awad, a local photographer in the West Bank, told me:

    “The photographer does not care about himself. He cares about the pictures, how he can shoot good pictures, to film something good.

    “But he needs to be in a good place that is safe for him.”The Conversation

    Simon Levett is a PhD candidate in public international law, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Prisoner transfer sparks new human rights concerns in West Papua

    By Susana Suisuiki, RNZ Pacific Waves presenter/producer

    A West Papuan activist says the transfer of four political prisoners by Indonesian authorities is a breach of human rights.

    In April, the men were arrested on charges of treason after requesting peace talks in the city of Sorong in southwest Papua. They were then transferred to Makassar city in Eastern Indonesia and are awaiting trial.

    Last week, protesters gathered in front of Sorong City Municipal Police HQ opposing the transferral, but the demonstrations turned violent. as protests about civil rights swept across Indonesia.

    Police had reportedly used “heavy-handed” attempts to disrupt the protest but was met with riotous responses, with tyres set on fire and government buildings being attacked.

    A 28-year-old man was seriously injured when police shot him in the abdomen.

    Seventeen people were arrested for property damage, while police are still search for former political prisoner Sayan Mandabayan accused of being the “organiser” of the protest.

    West Papuan activist Ronny Kareni told RNZ Pacific Waves the protest was initially meant to be peaceful.

    He said the four political prisoners being far from their home city had raised concerns.

    ‘Raises many concerns’
    “What the transfer really transpired, is it raises many concerns from human rights defenders and many of us arguing that the transfer violates the principles of the Article 85 of the Indonesian Procedure Code which requires trials to be held where the alleged offence occured.”

    Kareni said the transfer isolated prisoners from their families, community support and legal counsel.

    Indonesian authorities say the group were transferred due to security concerns for the trial.

    Kareni said the movement to liberate West Papua from Indonesia would continue to be seen as “treason”, even if there was peaceful dialogue.

    “There is no space for exercising your right to determine your future or determine what you feel that matters to you,” he said.

    “Just talking peace, just to kind of like come to the table to offer peace talks, is seen as treason.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • UN chief to address PNG parliament today during ‘historic’ visit

    RNZ Pacific

    The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will address Papua New Guinea’s national Parliament today.

    The UN chief is in Papua New Guinea on a four-day official state visit September 2-5.

    Prime Minister James Marape has held bilateral discussions with Guterres at his Melanesian House Office in Port Moresby yesterday.

    “We remain fully committed to the United Nations Charter and to the principles of peace and cooperation among nations,” Marape said.

    Marape said Guterres’ visit during PNG’s 50th anniversary celebrations “is historic” and “affirms our place in the global family of nations and our shared responsibility to work together”.

    He also assured the UN boss that his government is committed to implementing the outcome of the Bougainville referendum. Bougainville head to the polls on Thursday to elect their next government.

    Guterres said PNG has chosen the path of wisdom and peace when it came to their autonomous region of Bougainville.

    He said the way the government has managed the Bougainville referendum demonstrates its commitment to democracy and dialogue.

    PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said the country recognises the crucial role of the UN through collective action and cooperation among member states.

    “We have always stood firm with our colleague of member nations, as we believe in and will continue to promote bilateralism,” he wrote in a post on his official Facebook page.

    “While we also continue to be an active contributor to global dialogue, we continue to support the role of the UN as provider of humanitarian aid, and facilitator of agreements on worldwide issues such as poverty, climate change, and disease,” he added.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chris Hedges: The betrayal of Palestinian journalists

    Western reporters are full partners in the genocide. They amplify Israeli lies, which they know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel.

    ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges

    There are two types of war correspondents. The first type does not attend press conferences. They do not beg generals and politicians for interviews. They take risks to report from combat zones.

    They send back to their viewers or readers what they see, which is almost always diametrically opposed to official narratives. This first type, in every war, is a tiny minority.

    Then there is the second type, the inchoate blob of self-identified war correspondents who play at war. Despite what they tell editors and the public, they have no intention of putting themselves in danger.

    They are pleased with the Israeli ban on foreign reporters into Gaza. They plead with officials for background briefings and press conferences. They collaborate with their government minders who impose restrictions and rules that keep them out of combat.

    They slavishly disseminate whatever they are fed by officials, much of which is a lie, and pretend it is news. They join little jaunts arranged by the military — dog and pony shows — where they get to dress up and play soldier and visit outposts where everything is controlled and choreographed.

    The mortal enemy of these poseurs are the real war reporters, in this case, Palestinian journalists in Gaza. These reporters expose them as toadies and sycophants, discrediting nearly everything they disseminate. For this reason, the poseurs never pass up a chance to question the veracity and motives of those in the field.

    I watched these snakes do this repeatedly to my colleague Robert Fisk.

    Took huge hit
    When war reporter Ben Anderson arrived at the hotel where journalists covering the war in Liberia were encamped — in his words getting “drunk” at bars “on expenses,” having affairs and exchanging “information rather than actually going out and getting information” — his image of war reporters took a huge hit.

    “I thought, finally, I’m amongst my heroes,” Anderson recalls. “This is where I’ve wanted to be for years. And then me and the cameraman I was with — who knew the rebels very well — he took us out for about three weeks with the rebels.

    “We came back to Monrovia. The guys in the hotel bar said, ‘Where have you been? We thought you’d gone home.’ We said, ‘We went out to cover the war. Isn’t that our job? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’

    “The romantic view I had of foreign correspondents was suddenly destroyed in Liberia,” he went on. “I thought, actually, a lot of these guys are full of shit. They’re not even willing to leave the hotel, let alone leave the safety of the capital and actually do some reporting.”

    You can see an interview I did with Anderson here.

    This dividing line, which occurred in every war I covered, defines the reporting on the genocide in Gaza. It is not a divide of professionalism or culture. Palestinian reporters expose Israeli atrocities and implode Israeli lies. The rest of the press does not.

    Palestinian journalists, targeted and assassinated by Israel, pay — as many great war correspondents do — with their lives, although in far greater numbers.

    Israel has murdered 245 journalists in Gaza by one count and more than 273 by another. The goal is to shroud the genocide in darkness.

    No other war close
    No war I covered comes close to these numbers of dead. Since October 7, Israel has killed more journalists “than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.” Journalists in Palestine leave wills and recorded videos to be read or played at their death.

    A funeral for Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab
    A funeral for Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab. Hatab was killed, along with his family members, in an airstrike on his home in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Image: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images

    The colleagues of these Palestinian journalists in the Western press broadcast from the border fence with Gaza decked out in flak jackets and helmets, where they have as much chance of being hit by shrapnel or a bullet as being struck by an asteroid. They scurry like lemmings to briefings by Israeli officials. They are not only the enemies of truth, but also the enemies of journalists doing the real work of war reporting.

    When Iraqi troops attacked the Saudi border town of Khafji during the first Gulf War, Saudi soldiers fled in panic. Two French photographers and I watched frantic soldiers commandeering fire trucks and racing south. US Marines pushed the Iraqis back.

    But in Riyadh, the press was told of our gallant Saudi allies defending their homeland. Once fighting ended, the press bus stopped a few miles down the road from Khafji. The pool reporters clambered out, escorted by military minders. They did stand-ups with the distant sound of artillery and smoke as a backdrop and repeated the lies the Pentagon wanted to tell.

    Meanwhile, the two photographers and I were detained and beaten by enraged Saudi military police, furious that we had documented the panicked flight of Saudi forces, as we tried to leave Khafji.

    My refusal to abide by press restrictions in the first Gulf War saw the other New York Times reporters in Saudi Arabia write a letter to the foreign editor saying I was ruining the paper’s relationship with the military. If not for the intervention of R.W. “Johnny” Apple, who had covered Vietnam, I would have been sent back to New York.

    I do not fault anyone for not wanting to go into a war zone. This is a sign of normality. It is rational. It is understandable. Those of us who volunteer to go into combat — my colleague Clyde Haberman at The New York Times once quipped “Hedges will parachute into a war with or without a parachute” — have obvious personality defects.

    Pretend war correspondents
    But I fault those who pretend to be war correspondents. They do tremendous damage. They peddle false narratives. They mask reality. They serve as witting — or unwitting — propagandists. They discredit the voices of the victims and exonerate the killers.

    When I covered the war in El Salvador, before I worked for The New York Times, the paper’s correspondent dutifully regurgitated whatever the embassy fed her. This had the effect of making my editors — as well as editors of the other correspondents who did report the war– question our veracity and “impartiality.”

    It made it harder for readers to understand what was happening. The false narrative neutered and often overpowered the real one.

    The slander used to discredit my Palestinian colleagues — claiming they are members of Hamas — is sadly familiar. Many Palestinian reporters I know in Gaza are, in fact, quite critical of Hamas. But even if they have ties with Hamas, so what?

    Israel’s attempt to justify targeting journalists from the Hamas-run al-Aqsa media network is also a violation of Article 79 of the Geneva Convention.

    I worked with reporters and photographers who had a wide variety of beliefs, including Marxist-Leninists in Central America. This did not prevent them from being honest. I was in Bosnia and Kosovo with a Spanish cameraman, Miguel Gil Moreno, who was later killed with my friend Kurt Schork.

    Miguel was a member of the right-wing Catholic group Opus Dei. He was also a journalist of tremendous courage, great compassion and moral probity, despite his opinions about Spain’s fascist ruler Francisco Franco. He did not lie.

    Seeking to crush
    In every war I covered, I was attacked as supporting or belonging to whatever group the government, including the US government, was seeking to crush. I was accused of being a tool of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in El Salvador, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, Hamas, the Muslim-led government in Bosnia and the Kosovo Liberation Army.

    John Simpson of the BBC, like many Western reporters, argues that the “world needs honest, unbiased eyewitness reporting to help people make up their minds about the major issues of our time. This has so far been impossible in Gaza.”

    The assumption that if Western reporters were in Gaza the coverage would improve is risible. Trust me. It would not.

    Israel bans the foreign press because there is a bias in Europe and the United States in favour of reporting by Western reporters. Israel is aware that the scale of the genocide is too vast for Western outlets to hide or obscure, despite all the ink and airtime they give to Israeli and US apologists.

    Israel also cannot continue its systematic campaign of annihilation of journalists in Gaza if it has to contend with foreign media in its midst.

    Israeli lies amplified by Western media outlets, including my former employer The New York Times, are worthy of Pravda. Beheaded babies. Babies cooked in ovens. Mass rape by Hamas. Errant Palestinian rockets that cause explosions at hospitals and massacre civilians. Secret command tunnels and command centers in schools and hospitals. Journalists who direct Hamas rocket units. Protesters of the genocide on college campuses who are antisemites and supporters of Hamas.

    Israel ‘lies like it breathes’
    I covered the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, much of that time in Gaza, for seven years. If there is one indisputable fact, it is that Israel lies like it breathes. The decision by Western reporters to give credibility to these lies, to give them the same weight as documented Israeli atrocities, is a cynical game.

    The reporters know these lies are lies. But they, and the news outlets that employ them, prize access — in this case access to Israeli and US officials — above truth. The reporters, as well as their editors and publishers, fear becoming targets of Israel and the powerful Israel lobby.

    There is no cost for betraying the Palestinians. They are powerless.

    Call those lies out and you will swiftly find your requests for briefings and interviews with officials rebuffed. You won’t be invited by press officers to participate in staged visits to Israeli military units. You and your news organisation will be viciously attacked.

    You will be left out in the cold. Your editors will terminate your assignment or your employment. This is not good for careers. And so, the lies are dutifully repeated, no matter how absurd.

    It is pathetic watching these reporters and their news outlets, as Fisk writes, fight “like tigers to join these ‘pools’ in which they would be censored, restrained and deprived of all freedom of movement on the battlefield”.

    When Middle East Eye journalists Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz, along with Reuters photojournalist Hussam al-Masri, and freelancers Moaz Abu Taha, and Mariam Dagga — who had worked with several media outlets, including the Associated Press — were killed in a “double tap” strike — designed to kill first responders arriving to treat casualties from initial strikes — at Nasser Medical Complex, how did Western news agencies respond?

    ‘Hamas camera’
    “Israeli military says strikes on Gaza hospital targeted what it says was a Hamas camera,” the Associated Press reported.

    “IDF claims hospital strike was aimed at Hamas camera,” announced CNN.

    “Israel army says six ‘terrorists’ killed in Monday strikes on Gaza hospital,” the AFP headline read.

    “Initial inquiry says Hamas camera was target of Israeli strike that killed journalists,” Reuters said.

    “Israel claims troops saw Hamas camera before deadly hospital attack,” Sky News explained.

    Just for the record, the camera belonged to Reuters, which said Israel was “fully aware” the news agency was filming from the hospital.

    When Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and three other journalists were killed on August 10 in their media tent near al-Shifa Hospital, how was it reported in the Western press?

    Pulitzer prize-winner
    “Israel Kills Al Jazeera Journalist It Says Was Hamas Leader,” Reuters titled its story, despite the fact al-Sharif was part of a Reuters team that won a 2024 Pulitzer Prize.

    The German newspaper Bild, published a front page story headlined: “Terrorist disguised as a journalist killed in Gaza.”

    The barrage of Israeli lies amplified and given credibility by the Western press violates a fundamental tenet of journalism, the duty to transmit the truth to the viewer or reader.

    It legitimizes mass slaughter. It refuses to hold Israel to account. It betrays Palestinian journalists, those reporting and being killed in Gaza. And it exposes the bankruptcy of Western journalists, whose primary attributes are careerism and cowardice.

    Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report”. This article is republished from his X account.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Walden Bello on Gaza and the media silence: ‘It isn’t fear of the Zionists. It is far worse’

    Israel is boosting its Zionist influence in the Pacific. Australia has exposed such media influence. The media in the Philippines is now under scrutiny. And Aotearoa New Zealand?

    COMMENTARY: By Walden Bello

    When the Flores and Velasco articles and posts whitewashing Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza first came out a few days ago, I was waiting for people in the Philippine media to criticise and denounce them since they were so obviously hack pieces that did not meet the minimal standards of decent journalism.

    I waited and waited, until I realised that there were no media people or organisations that were going to speak up.

    Where were the progressive and liberal voices, apart from those of Richard Heydarian and Inday Espina Varona?

    Walden Bello's earlier article in Asia Pacific Report on August 31
    Walden Bello’s earlier article in Asia Pacific Report on August 31 exposing “hack propaganda”. Image: APR screenshot

    This was the reason I felt compelled to issue the statement condemning the sordid reporting of Flores and Velasco.

    I was not out to do an expose, but that’s what it effectively became. In my subsequent posts, I raised the question of what was the reason just two journalists were willing to challenge the stories.

    Was it a case of circling the wagons to protect errant colleagues? Was it fear of ties with the Israeli state being exposed by the Israelis in retaliation? Was it fear of physical or political reprisals by the Israelis?

    These may have played a part, but the deafening silence meant there was something bigger at work.

    This morning I received a long text from a prominent media practitioner that provided the answer. It’s not fear. It’s actually worse: agreement with Zionist ideology and policies, including genocide.

    That the person asked me not to divulge his name for fear of suffering retribution from his colleagues stunned me. OMG, is this how deep the rot is with our media? ? Here is his disconcerting revelation to me:

    ‘Most are prejudiced’
    “Yes some are scared, but honestly most of them actually are prejudiced against Muslims and side with the Zionists anytime.

    “Most believe in the US religious fascist Zionist narrative, and also cannot accept that the world has changed — that the US is no longer the unipower it was decades ago, and that Russia, China, India and BRICS are on the rise.

    “And also, you should hear them talk about how Filipino Muslims should be wiped off the face of the earth.

    “These are college graduates from UP [University of the Philippines], UST [University of Santo Tomas], Ateneo who studied media.

    “Whenever I would voice empathy for the Muslim minority here, or Palestinians, I’d be called stupid. Same also because I refused to join in the corruption.

    “Oh, and also they have the same prejudice against China and the Chinese and mistake the Japanese imperial army atrocities as something China did to us!

    “Also this is not limited to media. I have batchmates from UP Diliman, medical doctors, lawyers, engineers who also have the same prejudices.”

    He added: “Some of these journalists have won awards abroad.”

    Walden Bello is a Filipino academic and analyst of Global South issues who was awarded Amnesty International Philippines’ Most Distinguished Defender of Human Rights Award in 2023. He has also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • 250+ media ‘black out’ front pages and broadcasts to protest Israeli killing of journalists in Gaza

    Reporters Without Borders

    In an unprecedented international operation organised by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the global campaigning movement Avaaz, more than 250 news outlets from over 70 countries simultaneously blacked out their front pages and website homepages, and interrupt their broadcasting to condemn the murder of journalists by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

    Together, these newsrooms — including Asia Pacific Report, Evening Report and Pacific Media Watch — have demanded an end to impunity for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s reporters, the emergency evacuation of reporters seeking to leave the Strip and that foreign press be granted independent access to the territory.

    For the first time in recent history, newsrooms across the world have coordinated a large-scale editorial protest in solidarity with journalists in Gaza.

    The front pages of print newspapers were published in black with a strong written message.

    The Reporters Without Borders "blacked out" website home page
    The Reporters Without Borders “blacked out” website home page today. Image: RSF screenshot APR

    Television and radio stations interrupted their programmes to broadcast a joint statement.

    Online media outlets blacked out their homepages or published a banner as a sign of solidarity.

    Individual journalists have also joined the campaign and posted messages on their social media accounts.

    About 220 journalists have been killed during Israel’s current war on Gaza since it began on 7 October 2023, according to RSF data.

    However, independent analysis by Al Jazeera reveals that at least 278 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel over the past 22 months, including 10 from the network.

    On the night of August 10 alone, the Israeli army killed six journalists in a targeted strike against Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif.

    Al Jazeera's "blacked out" for Gaza journalists website home page
    Al Jazeera’s “blacked out” for Gaza journalists website home page today. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    Fifteen days later, on August 25, the Israeli army killed five journalists in two consecutive strikes.

    Parallel to these killings, the Israeli army has barred foreign journalists from entering the Strip for nearly two years, leaving Palestinian journalists to cover the war while under fire.

    “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed.,” said Thibaut Bruttin, director-general of RSF.

    “This isn’t just a war against Gaza, it’s a war against journalism. Journalists are being targeted, killed and defamed. Without them, who will alert us to the famine?

    Who will expose war crimes? Who will show us the genocides?


    “Shame on our profession for silence.”     Video: Al Jazeera

    “Ten years after the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2222, the whole world is witnessing the erosion of guarantees of international law for the protection of journalists.

    “Solidarity from newsrooms and journalists around the world is essential. They should be thanked — this fraternity between reporters is what will save press freedom.

    “Solidarity will save all freedoms.”

    The "blacked out" home page of Asia Pacific Report
    The “blacked out” home page of Asia Pacific Report today.

    In line with the call launched by RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in June, the media outlets involved in this campaign are making four demands.

    • We demand the protection of Palestinian journalists and an end to the impunity for crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against them in the Gaza Strip;
    • We demand the foreign press be granted independent access to the Gaza Strip;
    • We demand that governments across the world host Palestinian journalists seeking evacuation from Gaza; and
    • With the opening of the 80th UN General Assembly taking place in eight days, we demand strong action from the international community and call on the UN Security Council to stop the Israeli army’s crimes against Palestinian journalists

    More than 250 media outlets in over 70 countries around the world prepared to join the operation on Monday, 1 September.

    They include numerous daily newspapers and news websites: Mediapart (France), Al Jazeera (Qatar), The Independent (United Kingdom), +972 Magazine (Israel/Palestine), Local Call (Israel/Palestine), InfoLibre (Spain), Forbidden Stories (France), Frankfurter Rundschau (Germany), Der Freitag (Germany), RTVE (Spain), L’Humanité (France), The New Arab (United Kingdom), Daraj (Lebanon), New Bloom (Taiwan), Photon Media (Hong Kong), La Voix du Centre (Cameroon), Guinée Matin (Guinea), The Point (Gambia), L’Orient Le Jour (Lebanon), Media Today (South Korea), N1 (Serbia), KOHA (Kosovo), Public Interest Journalism Lab (Ukraine), Il Dubbio (Italy), Intercept Brasil (Brazil), Agência Pública (Brazil), Le Soir (Belgium), La Libre (Belgium), Le Desk (Morocco), Semanario Brecha (Uruguay), Asia Pacific Report, Evening Report and Stuff (New Zealand) and many others.

    International media have been denied free access to the Gaza Strip since the war broke out.

    A few selected outlets have embedded reporters with Israeli army units operating in Gaza under the condition of strict military censorship.

    Israel has killed at least 63,459 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

    Pacific Media Watch cooperates with Reporters Without Borders.

    One of Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie's "blacked out" social media pages
    One of Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie’s “blacked out” social media pages today. APR screenshot

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papuan civil society groups protest over brutal security forces crackdown – 17 arrests

    Asia Pacific Report

    West Papuan civil society and solidarity networks are calling for urgent action over a brutal Indonesian security forces crackdown that has led to a wave of arrests and political repression.

    Protests erupted in Sorong, in the western part of the Melanesian territory, on Wednesday over the transfer of 4 political prisoners out of the territory.

    One man, Michael Walerubun, 28, was seriously injured when police shot him in the abdomen, said activists.

    The transferred prisoners, Abraham Goram Gaman, Nikson May, Piter Robaha, and Maxi Sangkek, are facing “treason” charges, which are commonly used by Indonesian authorities against independence supporters in West Papua.

    The four men were arrested on April 28 after they requested “peace talks” in the city of Sorong.

    Transferring political prisoners to other islands in the Indonesian archipelago separates them from families and support networks, and is a common tactic used by Indonesian authorities.

    The umbrella group Pro-Democracy Papuan People’s Solidarity called for the community to protest against the four prisoners’ removal on Monday, August 25, that continued for three days.

    Enforced relocation
    Heavy-handed police attempts to disperse the protest, and the enforced relocation of all the prisoners despite community opposition, led to an escalation.

    Several spontaneous protest actions followed, with tyres set ablaze and government buildings attacked, including the governor’s private residence.

    Police have arbitrarily arrested 17 people, alleging involvement with property damage during the protests. Footage shows police discharging firearms, and armoured vehicles on patrol, through the afternoon and into the night in Sorong city and was continuing this weekend.

    Women leader and former political prisoner Sayang Mandabayan has also been targeted.

    She was accused by authorities as the so-called “organiser” of protests that followed the  August 25 action.

    Sayang Mandabayan’s home was attacked at around 4pm by heavily armed police officers who surrounded the building and shouted her name, demanding she present herself for arrest.

    Police broke down door
    Police then broke down the front door and attempted to force their way into the family’s home.

    Sayang’s mother and pregnant niece refused them entry, blocking in the doorway and demanding they leave, said a statement from the Merdeka West Papua Support Network.

    After a standoff of almost an hour, police arrested Sayang’s husband, Yan Manggaprouw, who remained in custody with 16 other members of the pro-democracy solidarity.

    The attack on Sayang Mandabayan’s home, and the arrest of her husband, marks a further escalation in the range of repressive tactics commonly used against West Papuan human rights defenders.

    “This is a deliberate campaign to criminalise political leadership, intimidate women defenders, and silence West Papua’s democratic voices,” Australia-based West Papuan rights advocate Ronny Kareni said.

    “In West Papua talking about peace is seen as treason. These raids, transfers, and arrests are not isolated. They are part of a long-standing pattern of state systemic violence designed to crush West Papua’s movement for justice.

    “Leaders like Sayang Mandabayan are not criminals — they are voices of democracy that the Pacific must defend.”

    The timing of the crackdown comes just before the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders’ Meeting in the Solomon Islands on September 8-12.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • How two Filipino ‘journalists’ took part in Israeli whitewashing of genocide

    COMMENTARY: By Walden Bello

    I am alarmed by reports that Filipino journalists were flown in by the Israeli government to participate in what is essentially a whitewashing campaign for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

    At least two articles, atrocious excuses for journalism, have come out of this trip.One is a piece by Wilson Lee Flores for The Philippine Star, entitled “Israel beyond the headlines: Where ancient stones speak.”

    By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to “the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,” Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes, akin to writing a travel blog about Nazi Germany.

    In a Facebook post, Flores further parrots Israel’s propaganda by highlighting how the brutal IDF employs both men and women to carry out atrocities, a cynical weaponisation of “feminism.”

    Even more repulsive is the piece from the Daily Tribune about “Gaza’s Fake Famine” from Vernon Velasco. It is a parody of a story, overly simplifying the famine of Gaza to a matter of food truck logistics, and uncritically quoting an IDF Officer.

    Fittingly, the article contains three photos of shipping containers but not a single photo of a human being.

    This runs counter to facts laid out by UN officials, including Joyce Msuya, the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who points out how half a million people face “starvation, destitution, and death”.

    ‘Moral failure’ over Gaza
    A study published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet points to the “moral failure” as 1-2 million people live in the most extreme food insecurity level (phase 5 or catastrophe famine) according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

    "By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to 'the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,' Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes"
    “By attempting to divert attention from the massacre of Palestinian civilians to ‘the Old City’s labyrinthine alleys,’ Flores acts as an apologist for war crimes, akin to writing a travel blog about Nazi Germany.” Image: TPS “Life” screenshot APR

    This famine unfolds as shameless journalists make food vlogs kilometres away.

    The facts are clear. At least 63,000 people have been killed and 150,000 injured, with women and children making up a significant portion of the casualties. The UN has also reported that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population (around 1.9 million people) has been displaced.

    Widespread destruction has left over 70 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed, including more than 94 percent of hospitals either damaged or destroyed. No amount of narrative spin or “complexity” can sanitise this genocide.

    As we celebrate National Press Freedom Day, I implore friends in the press to not fall for the lies of the murderous Zionist regime.

    It would be tragic for journalists to provide cover for a regime that has murdered at least 240 of their peers.

    Filipino journalists must shed the unhealthy culture of silence and non-intervention, and not hesitate to criticise errant colleagues.

    They must make it clear that these recipients of Zionist gold are a disgrace to Philippine journalism. The Philippine government must look into the activities of the Israeli Embassy and their manipulation of local media narratives to sanitise their genocide.

    Filipino journalists must stand in solidarity with their slain colleagues abroad, not with their killers.

    Walden Bello is a Filipino academic and analyst of Global South issues who was awarded Amnesty International Philippines’ Most Distinguished Defender of Human Rights Award in 2023. He has also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Bougainville 2025 election: What’s at stake?

    By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

    The dominant issue going into the next election in Bougainville next week is not much different from the last election five years ago.

    The autonomous Papua New Guinea region goes to the polls on September 4.

    In 2020, there were strong expectations Bougainville would soon be independent, given the result of an overwhelming referendum for independence just months earlier.

    That has not happened yet, and Port Moresby has yet to concede much ground.

    James Marape, second left, and Ishmael Toroama, right, during the joint moderations talks in Port Moresby on Monday. 17 March 2025
    PNG prime Minister James Marape (second left) and Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama (right) during the joint moderations talks in Port Moresby on 17 March 2025. Image: Autonomous Bougainville Government/RNZ

    Most recently, at Burnham in Christchurch in June, little progress was made, as Massey University academic Dr Anna Powles points out.

    “Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape referred to Burnham as a spiritual home of the Bougainville peace process,” she said.

    “And yet, on the other hand, you have the Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama saying very clearly that independence was non-negotiable, and setting out a number of terms, including the fact that Bougainville was to become independent by the 1st of September 2027.

    “If Papua New Guinea did not ratify that, Bougainville would make a unilateral declaration of independence.”

    Seven candidates standing
    There are seven people standing for the presidency, including long-time MP in the PNG national Parliament, Joe Lera.

    He said everyone wants independence, but he wants to see a more conciliatory tone from the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG).

    “Now, what the current government is doing is they are going outside the [Bougainville] Peace Agreement, and they are trying to shortcut based on the [referendum] result. But the Peace Agreement does not say independence will be given to us based on the result,” Lera said.

    “What it says is, after we know the result, the two governments must continue to dialogue, consult each other and find ways of how to improve the economy, the law and order issues, the development issues.

    “When we fix those, the nation-building pillars, we can then apply for the ratification to take place.”

    However, Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama has no intention of deviating from the path he has been following.

    “It gives us the opportunity whether the national government likes it or not,” he told RNZ Pacific this week.

    “It is a national constitution guarantee of the framework of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, and that is how I’m saying to them, whether we come into consultation, we have different views.

    “At least it is the constitutional guaranteed process set in by the National Constitution.”

    Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama.
    Bougainville’s incumbent President Ishmael Toroama . . . “It is the constitutional guaranteed process set by the National Constitution.” Image: Autonomous Bougainville Government/RNZ

    Achieving sovereignty as soon as possible is the driving force for the man who has been leading Bougainville’s campaign, the Independence Implementation Minister Ezekiel Masatt.

    He said the signing of the Melanesian Agreement at Burnham was pivotal.

    “We must obtain political independence in order to have some sovereign powers, in order to make some strategic economic decisions,” he said.

    “Now, given the Melanesian Agreement where Bougainville can achieve some sovereign powers I think that is a great start in the right direction.”

    Masatt is standing in the Tonsu electorate in North Bougainville.

    Ezekiel Masatt
    Bougainville’s Independence Implementation Minister Ezekiel Masatt . . . “I think that [the Melanesian Agreement] is a great start in the right direction.” Photo: PINA

    Former army officer Thomas Raivet is running for a second time. He is confident that he and his New Bougainville Party colleagues, Nick Peniai and Joe Lera, can be a formidable presence given the impact of preference votes.

    “We believe that we can make a difference, because for the last five years, nothing has really happened here and and maybe five years ago, and maybe you go back 10 years, nothing has really happened for us,” Raivet said.

    “I see this as an opportunity just to be part of the development of new Bougainville.”

    Sam Kauona, who once led the Bougainville Revolutionary Army alongside Ishmael Toroama, is another presidential candidate.

    He has run before but says this time he will win because of the Toroama governmment failure to bring independence.

    “Because the government, for the last five years, did not achieve what Bougainvilleans, what we, wanted. They were concentrating on one option only. That’s why it wasted the last five years, and we did not achieve anything.”

    The vote in Bougainville is being held over just one day for the first time, with results anticipated within a week.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Two state, deluded state – shuffling of the deck isn’t stopping Gaza genocide

    COMMENTARY: By Gordon Campbell

    Chances are, anyone whose family is dying of starvation would not be looking for New Zealand to have a prolonged debate over how they deserve to be defined.

    Yet a delay in making even the symbolic gestures seems to be all that we have to offer, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to be systematically starved to death by Israel.

    Could be wrong, but I doubt whether anyone in Gaza is waiting anxiously for news that New Zealand government has finally, finally come to the conclusion that Palestine deserves to be recognised as state.

    READ MORE:

    So far, 147 out of 193 UN member states reached that conclusion ahead of us. Some of the last holdouts — Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia — have already said they will do so next month.

    So far, none of that diplomatic shuffling of the deck has stopped the Gaza genocide. Only significant economic and diplomatic sanctions and an extensive arms embargo (one that includes military-related software) can force Israel to cease and desist.

    You don’t need to recognise statehood before taking those kind of steps. Last week, Germany — which does not recognise the state of Palestine — imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel that forbids sales of any weaponry that might be used to kill Palestinians in Gaza. Not much, but a start — given that (after the US) Germany has been the main foreign arms supplier to the IDF.

    Meanwhile, the Luxon government has yet to make up its mind on Palestinian statehood. Our government repeatedly insists that this recognition is “complex.” Really? By saying so, we are embarrassing ourselves on the world stage.

    Trying to appease Americans
    While we still furrow our brows about Palestinian statehood, 76 percent of the UN’s member nations have already figured it out. Surely, our hesitation can’t be because we are as mentally challenged as we are claiming to be.

    The more likely explanation is that we are trying to appease the Americans, in the hope of winning a trade concession. Our government must be gambling that an angry Donald Trump will punish Australia for its decision on Palestine, by lifting its tariff rate, thereby erasing the 5 percent advantage over us that Australian exporters currently enjoy.

    By keeping our heads down on Palestine, we seem to be hoping we will win brownie points with Trump, at the expense of our ANZAC mates.

    This isn’t mere conspiracy talk. Already, the Trump administration is putting pressure on France over its imminent decision to recognise Palestine statehood. A few days ago, Le Monde reported that the US ambassador to France, Charles Kushner — yes, Ivana Trump’s father-in-law — blundered into France’s domestic politics by writing a letter of complaint to French president Emmanuel Marcon.

    In it, Kushner claimed that France wasn’t doing enough to combat anti-Semitism:

    “Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France,” [Kushner] wrote.

    “In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – plain and simple.”

    Breaking every civilised rule
    Simple-minded is more like it. People who oppose the criminal atrocities being committed in Gaza (and on the West Bank) by the Zionist government of Israel are not doing so on the basis of racial prejudice. They’re doing so because Israel is breaking every rule of a civilised society.

    Any number of UN conventions and international laws forbid the targeting of civilian populations, homes, schools, ambulances and hospitals . . . not to mention the deliberate killing of hundreds of medical staff, journalists, aid workers etc.

    Not to mention imposing a famine on a captive population. Day after day, the genocide continues.

    For Kushner to claim the global revulsion at Israel’s actions in Gaza is motivated by racism is revealing. To Israel’s apologists within Israel, and in the US (and New Zealand) only Israeli lives really matter.

    Footnote: New Zealand continues to bang on about our support for the “two state” solution. Exactly where is the land on which Christopher Luxon thinks a viable Palestinian state can be built, and what makes him think Israel would ever allow it to happen?

    Thirty years ago, Israeli settlement expansion fatally undermined the Oslo framework for a Palestinian state situated alongside Israel.

    Since then, the fabled “two state solution” has become the tooth fairy of international politics. It gives politicians something to say when they have nothing to say.

    Republished with permission from Gordon Campbell’s Werewolf column in partnership with Scoop.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • There is a plot Mr Luxon: It’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians based on biblical justification

    COMMENTARY: By Ian Powell

    “Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu has ‘lost the plot’ and has condemned attacks on Gaza.

    “It is among the strongest language the New Zealand leader has used against Netanyahu and comes amid reports of intense aerial attacks on Gaza after Israel’s decision to launch a fresh military operation.”

    These are the opening two paragraphs of The New Zealand Herald coverage by political reporter Jamie Ensor of Prime Minister Luxon’s public declaration that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had lost the plot.

    His comment was in the context of the Israeli government’ genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and their increasing persecution on the Israeli occupied West Bank (August 13): Netanyahu lost the plot says Luxon.

    Spectrum of NZ government’s response to genocide
    The New Zealand government’s response to this ethnic cleansing by genocide strategy in Gaza has ranged on a spectrum between pathetically weak to callous disregard.

    Previously I’ve described this spectrum as between limp and deplorable; both have their own validity.

    Consequently, the many New Zealanders who were appalled by this response might have been somewhat relieved by Luxon’s frankness.

    Perhaps a long overdue change of direction towards humanitarianism? In the interests of confusion avoidance this is a rhetorical question.

    However, there is a big problem with Luxon’s conclusion. Quite simply, he is wrong; there is a plot and it is based on a perverse biblical origin.

    Why NZ Prime Minister Luxon got it wrong.        Video: RNZ

    Just over three weeks from the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack across the border in the Israeli occupied former Palestinian land, Netanyahu made the following broadcast,  including on You Tube (October 30): Netanyahu’s biblical justification.

    The ‘”war criminal” is explicit that there is a plot behind the ethnic cleansing through genocide strategy in Gaza. It is a dogmatically blood thirsty and historically inaccurate biblical centred plot.

    In his own words:

    “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible — and we do remember. And we are fighting — our brave troops and combatants who are now in Gaza, or around Gaza, and in all other regions in Israel, are joining this chain of Jewish heroes — a chain that started 3000 years ago, from Joshua until the heroes of the Six-Day War in 1948 [sic], the 1973 October War, and all other wars in this country.

    “Our heroic troops — they have only one supreme goal: to completely defeat the murderous enemy and to guarantee our existence in this country.”

    Netanyahu was referring to the Book of 1 Samuel (Chapter 15, Verse 3) which states:

    “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

    Samuel was a prophet through who the Jewish God Yahweh commanded one Saul to conduct a total war of annihilation against the Amalekites.

    The Amalekites were a biblical nation who, so biblical history goes, had attacked the Israelites during their “Exodus” from Egypt.

    From apartheid to ethnic cleansing to recognition of Palestine
    Previously I have published four posts on the Gaza genocide. The first (March 15) discussed it in the context of the apartheid in the South Africa of the past and apartheid as continuing defining feature in Israel since its creation in 1948: When apartheid met Zionism.

    The second (May 28) discussed what underpins the Zionist support for ethnic cleansing through genocide: Reasons for supporting ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

    This theme was followed through in the third (June 4) in the context of recognising the state of Palestine: Ethnic cleansing, genocide and Palestine recognition.

    From Netanyahu to Zelda
    In the context of the truer number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza, my fourth previous post (July 2) was more directly closer to the theme of this post: How to biblically justify 400,000 Palestinian deaths.

    I quoted a genocide supporter going by the name of “Zelda” justifying Israel’s war in similar vein to Bejamin Netanyahu:

    “Gaza belongs to Israel! This is not just a political claim; it is a sacred, unbreakable decree from Almighty God Himself. If any government from around the world recognises Palestine, the United States needs to declare it part of the Axis of Evil

    “The land was promised by divine covenant to the people of Israel, chosen by God to be His light in the darkness. No enemy, no terrorist, no foreign power can wrest it away. Those who reject this truth stand against God’s will and will face His judgment.

    “If Palestinians want aid and peace, they must recognise Israel’s God-given right and leave Gaza forever. Only under God’s blessing can this land flourish, and all who defy His plan will be cast down.”

    From Zelda to Alfred
    On July 4, I received the following email from a reader called Alfred. In his words (be warned, at the very least this is a mind-boggling read):

    “Accidentally I came across your blog on ‘How To Justify 400,000 Palestinian Deaths In Gaza: Ask ‘Zelda’ (Thursday, 3 July 2025). It was an interesting read.
    With all due respect, I would like to place before you my ‘two cents’
    Consider this history Mr Ian:
    1) Before the modern state of Israel there was the British mandate, Not a Palestinian state.
    2) Before the British mandate there was the Ottoman empire, Not a Palestinian state.
    3) Before the Ottoman empire there was the Islamic mamluk sultanate of Egypt, Not a Palestinian state.
    4)Before the Islamic mamluk sultanate of Egypt there was the Ayyubid dynasty, Not a Palestinian state. Godfrey of Bouillon conquered it in 1099.
    5) Before the Ayyubid dynasty there was the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, Not a Palestinian state.
    6) Before the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem there was the Fatimid caliphate, Not a Palestinian state.
    7) Before the Fatimid caliphate there was the byzantine empire, Not a Palestinian state. 8. Before the Byzantine empire there was the Roman empire, Not a Palestinian state.
    9) Before the Roman empire there was the Hasmonaean dynasty, Not a Palestinian state. 10) Before the Hasmonean dynasty there was the Seleucid empire, Not a Palestinian state.
    11) Before the Seleucid empire there was the empire of Alexander the 3rd of Macedon, Not a Palestinian state.
    12) Before the empire of Alexander, the 3rd of Macedon there was the Persian empire, Not a Palestinian state.
    13) Before the Persian empire there was the Babylonian empire, Not a Palestinian state.
    14) Before the Babylonian empire there was the kingdoms of Israel and Judea, Not a Palestinian state.
    15) Before the kingdoms of Israel and Judea there was the kingdom of Israel, Not a Palestinian state.
    16) Before the kingdom of Israel there was the theocracy of the 12 tribes of Israel, Not a Palestinian state.
    17) Before the theocracy of the 12 tribes of Israel there was the individual state of Canaan, Not a Palestinian state.
    In fact, in that corner of the earth there was everything but a Palestinian state!
    Interesting history isn’t it?
    Yes, I agree with Zelda’s statement that …
    ‘The land was promised by divine covenant to the people of Israel, chosen by God to be His light in the darkness.’
    Mr Ian, if you go back to the Bible to read the Old Testament history, we see that God declares time and again that they (Israelites) are His chosen people, and He will bring them back to land of Israel. (Which has started to happen, as you observe world events). He also condemns His own chosen that if they turn away from Him, he will turn away His face. And that was what He did to the 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. They were wiped out. And the sort of genocide that we see today in Gaza, was prevalent in that time, when Gentile nations were even wiped out if they stood between the Israelites and the ‘promised land’ (Israel). Even the lives of His own chosen people were not valuable to Him, and was at stake (holocaust recently) when they turned away from Him, as those many of their enemies (or opponents)!

    8000-year-old history is repeating itself now in Gaza, I believe.
    Alfred

    Mapping the success of Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

    The views of both Zelda and Alfred are not off the planet in terms of supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through genocide.

    They are thoroughly consistent with Netanyahu’s well-thought out plot. Both are part of his “echo chamber”.

    Who has really lost the plot?
    The genocide towards Palestinians will not end in Gaza. All the evidence is that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are next.

    Gaza the precursor to West Bank Palestinians.

    There the ethnic cleansing is continuing in the form of persecution and repression, including imprisonment (hostage-taking by another name).

    But it is escalating and, unless there is a change in direction, it is only a matter of time before persecution and repression morph into genocide.

    Benjamin Netanyahu has not lost the plot. However, Christopher Luxon has. His criticism of Netanyahu is a flimsy attempt to avoid doing what a humanitarian government with a “plot” should do. This includes:

    1. Recognising the Palestinian Territories as an official independent state;
    2. Sanctioning Israeli Defence Force (IDF) visitors;
    3. Close the Israel Embassy;
    4. Impose trade and bilateral sanctions; and
    5. Suspend Israel from the United Nations.

    Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda accuses Indonesia of killing West Papuans for ‘independence’ day

    Asia Pacific Report

    A West Papuan independence advocate has accused Indonesia of “continuing to murder children” while escalating its military operations across the Melanesian region.

    United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda says West Papua faces two connected crimes — ecocide and genocide.

    Two schoolchildren were killed by the occupying military in the build up to Indonesian Independence Day this month on August 17, Wenda said in a statement yesterday.

    He said security forces had killed a 14-year-old girl in Puncak Jaya, while 13-year-old Martinus Tebai was slain in Dogiyai a week earlier on August 10 after soldiers opened fire on a group of youngsters.

    “These killings are the inevitable result of the intensified militarisation that has taken place in West Papua since the election of the war criminal Prabowo [Subianto, as President, last year], Wenda said.

    Thousands of additional troops have been deployed to “terrorise West Papua”, while the new administration had also created an independent military command for all five newly created West Papuan provinces, “reinforcing the military infrastucture across our land”, he said.

    More than 100,000 civilians were still displaced, and there had been no justice for the forced disappearance of 12 villagers in Intan Jaya in May.

    Violence linked to forest destruction
    Increased violence and displacement in the cities and villages was inseparable from increased destruction in the forest, Wenda said.

    Soldiers were being sent to Merauke, Dogiyai, and Intan Jaya in order to protect Indonesia’s investment in these regions, he said.

    “We are crying out to the world, over and over again, screaming that Indonesia is ripping apart our ancestral forest, endangering the entire planet in the process,” Wenda said.

    The Merauke sugarcane and rice plantation was the “most destructive deforestation project in history — it will more than double Indonesia’s CO2 emissions”.

    A mother farewells her son in West Papua
    A mother farewells her son in West Papua, alleged to have been slain by Indonesian troops. Image: ULMWP

    Wenda asked what it would take for the global environmental movement to take a stand?

    Indonesia has shown just how fragile its grip on West Papua really is,” he said.

    Forced flag raising
    “After the ULMWP declared that no West Papuan should celebrate Indonesian Independence Day, soldiers went across the country forcing civilians to raise the Indonesian flag.

    “Indonesia is desperate. Even as they increase their violence, they know their occupation will eventually end.

    “We remember what happened in East Timor, where the worst violence took place in the dying days of the occupation.

    “West Papuans have always spoken with one voice in demanding independence. We never accepted Indonesia, we never raised the Red and White flag – we had our own flag, our own anthem, our own Independence Day.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Polls open in Samoa’s 2025 general election with one seat declared

    By Grace Tinetali-Fiavaai, RNZ Pacific reporter in Apia, Samoa

    Voting commenced in Samoa’s general election today, with more than 100,000 eligible voters heading to the polls to decide the country’s next government.

    A total of 187 candidates will contest 50 seats in Parliament, representing six political parties and 46 independents. The governing FAST Party leads the field with 58 candidates, followed closely by the HRPP with 50.

    Caretaker Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s Samoa United Party has 26 candidates, while the Samoa Labour Party has five.

    Some Samoan voters expressed happiness at being able to exercise their right to vote
    Some Samoan voters expressed happiness at being able to exercise their right to vote, while others said they prayed for God to bless the election. Image: RNZ/Mark Papalii

    The Electoral Office says over 400 polling stations have been set up, and some 1300 polling officials and around 500 police officers are on duty to maintain order.

    On the eve of voting, the villages were calm, with councils gathering for evening prayers to pray for election day.

    The RNZ Pacific team on the ground spoke to voters who cast their votes this morning.

    Some expressed happiness at being able to exercise their right to vote, while others were quite patriotic and said they prayed for God to bless the election.

    One voter said they just wanted the election to be over.

    Polling closes at 3pm local time (2pm NZT).

    Polling closes at 3pm local time (2pm NZT).
    Polling closes in Samoa at 3pm local time today. Image: RNZ/Mark Papalii

    Meanwhile, the first seat has been declared after early voting ended on Wednesday.

    The Office of the Electoral Commission announced Leatinuu Wayne So’oialo as the holder of the Faleata 2 seat.

    This is following an earlier Supreme Court decision to disqualify the other nominated candidates due to ineligibility, meaning the electoral constituancy of Faleata 2 is being marked as uncontested.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • French Overseas Minister pushes ahead with Bougival deal despite FLNKS snub

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific Correspondent French Pacific desk

    French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has ended an extended seven-day visit to New Caledonia with mixed feelings.

    On one hand, he said he was confident his “Bougival deal” for New Caledonia’s future is now “more advanced” after three sittings of a “drafting committee” made up of local politicians.

    On the other hand, despite his efforts and a three-hour meeting on Tuesday before he returned to Paris, he could not convince the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — the main component of the pro-independence camp — to join the “Bougival” process.

    The FLNKS recently warned against any attempt to “force” an agreement they were not part of, raising concerns about possible unrest similar to the riots that broke out in May 2024, causing 14 deaths and more than 2 billion euros (about NZ$3.8 billion) in material damage.

    The unrest has crystallised around a constitutional reform bill that sought to change the rules of eligibility for voters at local provincial elections. The bill prompted fears among the Kanak community that it was seeking to “dissolve” indigenous votes.

    But despite the FLNKS snub, all the other pro-independence and pro-France parties took part in the committee sessions, which are now believed to have produced a Constitutional Reform Bill.

    That bill is due to be tabled in both France’s parliament chambers (the National Assembly and the Senate) and later before a special meeting of both houses (a “Congress” — a joint meeting of both Houses of Parliament).

    Valls still upbeat
    Speaking to local reporters just before leaving the French Pacific territory on Tuesday, Valls remained upbeat and adamant that despite the FLNKS snub, the Bougival process is now “better seated”.

    “When I arrived in New Caledonia one week ago, many were wondering what would become of the Bougival accord we signed. Some said it was still-born. Today I’m going back with the feeling that the accord is comforted and that we have made considerable advances,” he said.

    "Gone" . . . the vanishing French and New Caledonian flags symbolising partnership on the New Caledonian driving licence
    “Gone” . . . the vanishing French and New Caledonian flags symbolising partnership on the New Caledonian driving licence. Image: NC 1ère TV

    He pointed out that non-political players, such as the Great Traditional Indigenous Chiefs Customary Senate and the Economic and Social Council, also joined some of the “drafting” sessions to convey their respective input.

    Valls hailed a “spirit of responsibility” and a “will to implement” the Bougival document, despite a more than three-hour meeting with a new delegation from FLNKS just hours before his departure on Tuesday.

    The FLNKS still opposes the Bougival text their negotiators had initially signed, that was later denounced following pressure from their militant base, invoking a profound “incompatibility” of the text with the movement’s “full sovereignty” and “decolonisation” goals.

    Also demands for this process to be completed before the next French Presidential elections, currently scheduled for April-May 2027.

    The Bougival deal signed on July 12 near Paris was initially agreed to by all of New Caledonia’s political parties represented at the local parliament, the Congress. However, it was later denounced and rejected “in block” by the FLNKS.

    Door ‘remains open’
    Valls consistently stressed that his door “remains open” to the FLNKS throughout his week-long stay in New Caledonia. This was his fourth trip to the territory since he was appointed to the post by French Prime Minister François Bayrou in December 2024.

    Manuel Valls (right) and his team meet FLNKS delegation on 26 August 2025 – PHOTO supplied
    Manuel Valls (right, standing) and his team met a FLNKS delegation on 26 August 2025. Image: RNZ Pacific

    He pointed out that non-political players, such as the (Great Traditional Indigenous Chiefs) Customary Senate and the Economic and Social Council, also had joined some of the “drafting” sessions to convey their input.

    In a statement after meeting with Valls, the FLNKS reiterated its categorical rejection” of the Bougival process while at the same time saying it was “ready to build an agreement on independence with all [political] partners”.

    “I will continue working with them and I also invite FLNKS to discuss with the other political parties. I don’t want to strike a deal without the FLNKS, or against the FLNKS,” he told local public broadcaster NC 1ère on Tuesday.

    He said the Bougival document was still in a “decolonisation process”.

    ‘Fresh talks’ in Paris
    Valls repeated his open-door policy and told local media that he did not rule out meeting FLNKS president Christian Téin in Paris for “fresh talks” in the “next few days”.

    Téin was released from jail mid-June 2025, but he remains barred from returning to New Caledonia as part of judicial controls imposed on him, pending his trial on criminal-related charges over the May 2024 riots.

    At the time, Téin was the leader of a CCAT (field action coordinating cell) to mount a protest campaign against a Constitutional reform bill that was eventually scrapped.

    The CCAT was set up late 2023 by one of the main components of the FLNKS, Union Calédonienne.

    While he was serving a pre-trial jail term, in August 2024, Téin was elected president in absentia of the FLNKS.

    As for FLNKS’s demand that they and no other party should be the sole representatives of the pro-independence movement, Valls said this was “impossible”.

    “New Caledonia’s society is not only [made up of] FLNKS. There still exists a space for discussion, the opportunity has to be seized because New Caledonia’s society is waiting for an agreement”.

    However, some political parties (including moderates such as Eveil Océanien (Pacific Islanders’ Awakening) and pro-France Calédonie Ensemble have expressed concern on the value of the Bougival process if it was to be pushed through despite the FLNKS non-participation.

    Other pro-independent parties, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and the UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), have distanced themselves from the FLNKS coalition they used to belong to.

    They remain committed to their signature and are now working along the Bougival lines.

    ‘There won’t be another May 13’
    Valls said the the situation is different now because an agreement exists, adding that the Bougival deal “is a comprehensive accord, not just on the electoral rules”.

    On possible fresh unrest, the former prime minister said “this time, [the French State will not be taken by surprise. There won’t be another 13 May”.

    He stressed during his visit that some 20 units (over 2000) of law enforcement personnel (gendarmerie, police) remain posted in New Caledonia.

    “And there will be more if necessary”, Valls assured.

    When the May 2024 riots broke out, the law enforcement numbers were significantly lower and it took several days before reinforcements from Paris eventually arrived in New Caledonia to restore law and order.

    Very tight schedule
    The Constitutional Reform Bill would cover a large spectrum of issues, including the creation, for the first time in France, of a “State of New Caledonia”, as well as a dual France/New Caledonia citizenship, all within the French Constitutional framework.

    Two other documents — an organic law and a fundamental law (a de facto constitution) — are also being prepared for New Caledonia.

    The organic law could come into force some time mid-October, if approved, and it would effectively postpone New Caledonia’s crucial provincial election to June 2026.

    The plan was to have the freshly-produced text scrutinised by the French State Council, then approved by the French Cabinet on September 17.

    Before the end of 2025, it would then be tabled before the French National Assembly, then the Senate, then the French special Congress sitting.

    And before 28 February 2026, the same text would finally be put to the vote by way of a referendum for the people of New Caledonia.

    French government to fall again?
    Meanwhile, Valls is now facing another unfavourable political context: the announcement, on Monday, by his Prime Minister François Bayrou, to challenge France’s National Assembly MPs in a risky motion of confidence.

    This, he said, was in direct relation to his Appropriation Bill (budget), which contains planned sweeping cuts of about 44 billion euros (NZ$87.4 billion) to tackle the “danger” of France further plunging into “over-indebtment”.

    If the motion, tabled to be voted on September 8, reveals more defiance than confidence, then Bayrou and his cabinet (including Valls) fall.

    In the face of urgent initial plans to have New Caledonia’s texts urgently tabled before French Parliament, Bayrou’s confidence vote is highly likely to further complicate New Caledonia’s political negotiations.

    Pro-France leader and former French cabinet member Sonia Backès, who is also the leader of local pro-France Les Loyalistes party, however told local media she remained confident and that even if the Bayrou government fell on September 8, “there would still be a continuity”.

    “But if this was to be followed by a dissolution of Parliament and snap elections, then, very clearly, this would impact on the whole New Caledonian process”, she said.

    “The Bougival agreement will be implemented,” Valls said.

    “And those who think that the fall of the French government would entail delays on its implementation schedule are mistaken, notwithstanding my personal situation which is not very important.

    “I will keep a watch on New Caledonia’s interests.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ media workers call for ‘decisive action’ by Luxon over Gaza journalists

    Asia Pacific Report

    About 120 journalists, film makers, actors, media workers and academics have today called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and two senior cabinet ministers in an open letter to “act decisively” to protect Gaza journalists and a free press.

    “These are principles to which New Zealand has always laid claim and which are now under grave threat in Gaza and the West Bank,” the signatories said in the letter about Israel’s war on Gaza.

    The plea was addressed to Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.

    Among the signatories are many well known media personalities such as filmmaker Gemma Gracewood, actor Lucy Lawless, film director Kim Webby, broadcaster Alison Mau, and comedian and documentarian Te Radar, and journalist Mereana Hond.

    The letter also calls on the government to urgently condemn the killing of 13 Palestinian journalists and media workers this month as the death toll in the 22-month war has reached almost 63,000 — more than 18,000 of them children.

    Global protests against the war and the forced starvation in the besieged enclave have been growing steadily over the past few weeks with more than 500,000 people taking part in Israel last week.

    Commitment to safety
    The letter urged Luxon and the government to:

    1. Publicly reaffirm New Zealand’s commitment to the safety of journalists worldwide and make clear this protection applies in every conflict zone, including Gaza.

    2. Reiterate the Media Freedom Coalition call for access for international press, ensuring safety, aid and crucial reporting are guaranteed; paired with New Zealand’s existing call for a ceasefire and safe humanitarian access corridors.

    3. Back international action already underway, by publicly affirming support for ICC investigations into attacks on journalists anywhere in the world, and by advocating that the United Nations adopt an international convention for the safety of journalists and media workers so that states parties meet their obligations under international law.

    4. Formally confirm that New Zealand’s free press and human rights principles apply to Palestinian journalists and media workers, as they do to all others.

    The letter said these measures were “consistent with New Zealand’s values, our history of independent foreign policy, and the rules-based international order we have always claimed to champion, and for which our very future as a country is reliant upon”.

    It added: “They do not require us to choose sides and they uphold the principle that a free press and those who embody it must never be targeted for doing their jobs.”

    Condemn the killings
    The recent deaths brought the number of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to at least 219 at the time of writing, said the letter.

    “Many more are injured and missing. Many of those killed were clearly identified as members of the press. Some were killed alongside their families,” it said.

    The letter called on the government to urgently condemn the killings of:

    ● Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, along with freelance journalist Mohammad Al-Khalidi and freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa, who were targeted and killed in, or as a result of, an August 10 airstrike on their tent in Gaza City.

    ● Correspondents Hussam al-Masri, Hatem Khaled, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Azi and Moaz Abu Taha, all killed in a strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on August 25.

    ● Journalist and academic Hassan Douhan, killed in Khan Younis on August 25.

    “From Malcolm Ross to Margaret Moth, Peter Arnett to Mike McRoberts, New Zealand has a proud history of war correspondents. The same international laws that have protected them are meant to protect all journalists, wherever they work,” said the letter.

    “Today, those protections are being violated with impunity.

    “Our media colleagues are being murdered, and we have a duty to speak up.”

    As journalists, editors, producers, writers, documentary-makers, media workers and storytellers, said the letter, “we believe in the essential role of a free press.

    “These killings are in violation of international rules-based order, including humanitarian law, and are intended to erase witnesses to the truth itself. These media professionals are doing their jobs under extremely challenging conditions, and are civilians worthy of protection under human rights laws.

    “This is not only a matter of professional solidarity, this is a matter of principle. Journalists are civilians. They are witnesses to history. They deserve the same protection anywhere in the world.”

    “We urge you to lead, knowing you have the voices of Aotearoa’s storytellers and history-keepers standing with you.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • A ‘scathing’ report on RNZ’s performance obscures the good news – and the challenge of serving many audiences

    ANALYSIS: By Peter Thompson, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    The recent internal report on RNZ’s performance, variously described as “scathing” and “blunt” in news coverage, caused considerable debate about the state broadcaster’s performance and priorities — not all of it fair or well informed.

    The report makes several operational recommendations, including addressing RNZ National’s declining audience share by targeting the 50+ age demographic and moving key programme productions from Wellington to Auckland.

    But RNZ’s diminishing linear radio audience has to be understood in the context of its overall expansion of audience reach online, and audience trends across the radio sector in general.

    Total audience engagement with RNZ content on third-party platforms (including social media, YouTube and content-sharing partners who are permitted to republish RNZ material) now exceeds the reach of its radio audience.

    There has also been a steady but significant decline in the daily reach of linear radio overall. NZ On Air audience research shows that in 2014, 67 percent of New Zealanders listened to linear broadcast radio every day. A decade later, this had dropped to 42 percent.

    RNZ National’s share of the total 15+ audience peaked at 12 percent in 2021, following the initial pandemic period. By 2024, this had declined to 7 percent, having been overtaken by Newstalk ZB on 8 percent (also down from 9 percent in 2021).

    But using comparative audience reach and ratings data to gauge the performance of a public service media operator does not capture the quality or diversity of audience engagement, or the extent to which its charter obligations are being met.

    Nor do audience data reflect the positive structural role RNZ plays in supporting other media through its content-sharing model, the Local Democracy Reporting scheme or its RNZ Pacific service.

    Clashing priorities
    Data provided by RNZ show the decline in RNZ National’s audience to be primarily in the 60+ age groups. How much that reflects recent efforts to appeal to a more diverse demographic through changed programming formats is unclear.

    The RNZ report also suggests staff are uncertain about what audiences their programmes are aiming at. If so, this could explain the departure of some older listeners.

    But that doesn’t necessarily support the report’s conclusion that RNZ National should stick to its radio knitting and double down on the 50+ audience, especially in Auckland, to compete with Newstalk ZB.

    In fact, prioritising the 50+ audience at the expense of a broader appeal might reinforce RNZ’s brand image as a legacy service for older listeners — a prospect its commercial rivals would doubtless welcome.

    Between 2007 and 2017, RNZ was subject to a funding freeze and was pressured by successive National-led governments to justify any claim for future increases with evidence of improved performance. Its Queenstown, Tauranga and Palmerston North offices all closed during this period of austerity.

    In the 2017 budget, RNZ eventually received an extra NZ$11.4 million over four years. Its statement of intent that year acknowledged funding increases were premised on achieving a wider audience and that budgets needed to make “operational expenditure available for new online initiatives and updated technology”.

    Given that expanding the online arm of RNZ would affect investment in its radio service, it would be surprising if operational priorities didn’t sometimes clash. While commercial broadcasters prioritise their most lucrative demographics, public service operators have the perennial challenge of providing something for everyone.

    The risk of pleasing no one
    The online reach of RNZ’s website and app is now comparable to the reach of its linear broadcasts. Critics might frame that as under-performance on the radio side, but it also shows audience reach has grown beyond the older-skewing linear radio demographic.

    According to RNZ’s 2024 audience research, 80 percent of New Zealanders engage with its content every month. Meanwhile, amid growing concern about declining trust in news, RNZ ranked top in the 2025 JMAD survey on trust in media.

    None of this supports the narrative of a failing legacy operator that has lost its way.

    Some of the issues raised in the RNZ report may simply reflect the reality of modern media management: maintaining the character, quality and demographic appeal of existing radio services while trying to reach broader demographics on new platforms.

    Meeting that challenge was perhaps made more realistic when the previous Labour government increased RNZ’s baseline funding by $25.7 million in 2023. So the current government’s recent decision to cut RNZ’s budget by $18 million over the next four years represents a real setback.

    RNZ’s charter obliges it to serve a diverse range of audiences, something the data show it achieves with a broad cross-section across all platforms.

    If it were to now prioritise the 50+ or even 60+ radio audience at the expense of expanding online services and audience diversification, there would likely be more criticism and calls for further defunding from the broadcaster’s political and commercial enemies.

    Rather like the moral of Aesop’s fable about the man, the boy and the donkey, if RNZ is expected to please everyone, it runs the risk of pleasing no one.The Conversation

    Dr Peter Thompson is associate professor in media and communication, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.