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Category: Media

  • Australian Reporter Wins Suit Against ABC Over ‘Anti-Semitic’ Post

    A judge in a federal court in Sydney, Australia has ruled against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for wrongly dismissing a radio presenter after she shared an instagram post from Human Rights Watch that accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon in Gaza.

    Judge Darryl Rangiah awarded journalist Antoinette Lattouf AU$70,000 and possibly more in damages on Wednesday in a case that undermines an organized campaign in Australia, like in many countries today, that is attacking legitimate critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza as being anti-semitic.

    Senior ABC executives had testified at trial that they had been flooded with complaints — even though none of the contested content had been discussed on air — and that pressure had mounted to get rid of the presenter, which they did.

    The post Australian Reporter Wins Suit Against ABC Over ‘Anti-Semitic’ Post appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Chinese ship conducts survey off Vietnam but Hanoi’s state media stays silent

    A Chinese survey ship has been repeatedly circling within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea since mid-June, raising concerns of a potential maritime standoff.

    The vessel, named Bei Dao 996, was first tracked by SeaLight, which uses commercially available technology to monitor and expose so-called “gray zone” activities — meaning coercive activities at sea that stop short of triggering a military response. China is often accused of adopting such tactics to assert its sweeping claims over the disputed waters in the South and East China Seas.

    On his X account, Ray Powell, director of SeaLight, revealed that the ship came close to Vietnam’s coastline. In response, Vietnam’s fishery surveillance vessel Kiem Ngu 471 closely shadowed the Chinese ship. The two vessels came as close as 80 meters apart, according to Powell, who warned that the encounter carries a “risk of prolonged escalation” between the two countries.

    According to calculations by researcher Phan Van Song, area surveyed so far is nearly 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) — about 1,100 square kilometers (425 square miles) of which lies within Vietnam’s EEZ, with the remainder falling within the country’s extended continental shelf.

    An EEZ extends 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from the coast. It is where a country has sole rights to explore resources but must allow free passage to shipping.

    This particular stretch of water of Vietnam is considered sensitive as it lies near Cam Ranh, the nation’s most important naval base and home to its submarine fleet. The survey ship is suspected of conducting dual-purpose activities – scientific research and military intelligence, according to SeaLight.

    The Vietnamese government has yet to respond to China’s actions, and state-run media have not reported on the incident.

    Article 248 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that when conducting marine scientific research in the exclusive economic zone or on the continental shelf of a coastal state, the researching party is obligated to provide the coastal state with full information about the project no later than six months prior to the intended start date of the research.

    It appears unlikely that China would notify Vietnam before sending a survey ship. Beijing claims about 80 percent of the South China Sea as its own – an area roughly demarcated by the so-called nine-dash line which overlaps with waters claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. It also overlaps with waters inside the EEZ of Indonesia, although that country does not consider itself a South China Sea claimant.

    Speaking to RFA, Phan Van Song, the contributor to the South China Sea Research Foundation, said “no matter what actions Vietnam takes, China will certainly continue its blatant and illegal survey activities.” The foundation was established by Vietnamese experts who focus on UNCLOS and the South China Sea.

    In recent years, China has repeatedly sent survey ships into the waters of other countries in the region. According to SeaLight, which was set up by volunteers from Stanford University, these vessels are largely state-owned and typically operate under the guise of civilian or scientific missions, but often engage in covert intelligence gathering or strategic signaling.

    During May and June 2024, the Chinese survey ship Xiang Yang Hong 10 remained for nearly a month in Vietnam’s oil and gas fields. In April this year, another vessel, Song Hang, was seen zigzagging between the islands of the Philippines. China also sent a survey vessel into Malaysia’s EEZ in the southern part of the South China Sea in 2023.

    These surveys are used to gather intelligence, including seafloor mapping, monitoring foreign military and commercial activities, and improving China’s operational awareness for current and future contingencies, according to an analysis by SeaLight.

    Experts say China’s gray-zone tactics have proven successful, allowing Beijing to advance its maritime claims while disguising its activities as civilian operations. This approach helps avoid direct military confrontation and limits the ability of other countries to respond effectively.

    A good way to counter China’s tactics is through “maritime transparency,” according to Powell, who believes that exposing China’s actions as they occur helps clarify their gray-zone strategies and their impact on regional security.

    Translated by Truong Son. Edited by Mat Pennington.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Du Lan for RFA Vietnamese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Insufficient Press Coverage of Big Data Surveillance

    As the second Trump administration is dispatching its minions to stalk US streets, smashing citizens’ First Amendment rights, in partnership with unregulated Big Tech, it also surveils online, helping itself to citizens’ personal identifiable information (PII).

    In the age of surveillance capitalism, information is a hot commodity for corporations and governments, precipitating a multi-billion-dollar industry that not only profits from the collection and commodification of citizens’ PII, but also puts individuals, businesses, organizations, and governments at risk for cyberattacks and data theft.

    Social security numbers, location details, health information, student loan and financial data, purchasing habits, library borrowing and internet browsing history, and political and religious affiliations are just some of the personal information that data brokers buy and sell to advertisers, banks, insurance companies, mortgage brokers, law enforcement and government agencies, foreign agents, and even spammers, scammers, and stalkers. Over time, that information often ends up changing hands again and again.

    As an example, and to the alarm of civil liberties experts, the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), “a shady data broker” owned by at least eight US-based commercial airlines, including Delta, American, and United, has been collecting US travelers’ domestic flight records and selling them to Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security; and as part of the deal, government officials are forbidden to reveal how ARC sourced the flight data.

    Online users should know that many data brokers camp out on Facebook and at Google’s advertising exchange, drawing from such sources as credit card transactions, frequent shopper loyalty programs, bankruptcy filings, vehicle registration records, employment records, military service, and social media posting and web tracking data harvested from websites, apps, and mobile and wearable biometric devices to “craft customized lists of potential targets.” Even when gathered data is de-identified, privacy experts warn that this is not an irreversible process, and the risk of re-identifying individuals is both real and underestimated.

    Government’s misuse and abuse of citizens’ privacy

    Many Americans do not realize that the United States is one of the few advanced economies without a federal data protection agency. If the current administration continues on its path of eroding citizen privacy, the scant statutory protections the United States does have may prove meaningless.

    The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1970 was enacted to protect consumers from government overreach into personal identifiable data, and has been promoted as the primary consumer privacy protection. However, in 2023, attorney and internet privacy advocate Lauren Harriman warned how data brokers circumvent the FCRA, for instance, “pay[ing] handsome sums to your utility company for your name and address.” Data brokers then repackage those names and addresses with other data, without conducting any type of accuracy analysis on the newly formed dataset, before then selling that new dataset to the highest third-party bidder.

    Invasion of the data snatchers

    Though the “gut-the-government bromance” between the president and Elon Musk appears to be on the rocks just six months into Trump 2.0, the Department of Government Efficiency’s unfettered access to data is concerning, especially after the June 6, 2025, Supreme Court ruling that gave the Musk-led DOGE complete access to confidential Social Security information irrespective of the privacy rights once upheld by the Social Security Act of 1935. The act prohibits the disclosure of any tax return in whole or in part by officers or employees of the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Nevertheless, DOGE has commandeered the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services systems and those of at least fifteen other federal agencies containing Americans’ personal identifiable information without disclosing “what data has been accessed, who has that access, how it will be used or transferred, or what safeguards are in place for its use.”

    Since DOGE infiltrated the Social Security Administration, the agency’s website has crashed numerous times, creating interruptions for beneficiaries. In June, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden issued a letter to the SSA’s commissioner, detailing their concerns about DOGE’s use of PII. Warren told Wired that “DOGE staffers hacking away Social Security’s backend tech with no safeguards is a recipe for disaster…[and] risks people’s private data, creates security gaps, and could result in catastrophic cuts to all benefits.”

    Likewise, the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 (updated in 1986) was enacted to ensure data protection, prohibiting—with rare exceptions—the release of taxpayer information by Internal Revenue Service employees. According to the national legal organization Democracy Forward, “Changes to IRS data practices—at the behest of DOGE—throw into question those assurances and the confidentiality of data held by the government collected from hundreds of millions of Americans.”

    Equally troubling is that Opexus, a private equity-owned federal contractor, maintains the IRS database. Worse still is that two Opexus employees—twin brothers and skilled hackers with prison records for stealing and selling PII on the dark web—Suhaib and Muneeb Akhter, had access to the IRS data, as well as to that of the Department of Energy, Defense Department, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.

    In February 2025, approximately one year into their Opexus employment, the twins were summoned to a virtual meeting with human resources and fired. During that meeting, Muneeb Akhter, who still had clearance to use the servers, accessed an IRS database from his company-issued laptop and blocked others from connecting to it. While still in the meeting, Akhter deleted thirty-three other databases, and about an hour later, “inserted a USB drive into his laptop and removed 1,805 files of data related to a ‘custom project’ for a government agency,” causing service disruptions.

    That investigations by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies are underway does little to quell concerns about the insecurity of personal identifiable information and sensitive national security data. And although the Privacy Act of 1974, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 were all established to protect PII, the June Supreme Court ruling granting DOGE carte blanche data access dashes all confidence that laws will be upheld.

    Americans don’t know what they don’t know

    Perhaps most disconcerting in this whole scenario is that too few citizens realize just how far their online footprints travel and how vulnerable their private information actually is. According to internet culture reporter Kate Lindsay, citizen ignorance comes not only from a lack of reporting on how tech elites pull government strings to their own advantage, but also from fewer corporate news outlets covering people living with the consequences of those power moves. Internet culture and tech, once intertwined topics for the establishment press, are now more separately focused on either AI or the Big Tech power players, but not on holding them to account.

    The Tech Policy Press argues that the government’s self-proclaimed need for expediency and efficiency cannot justify flouting data privacy policies and laws, and that the corporate media is largely failing their audiences by not publicizing the specifics of how the government and its corporate tech partners are obliterating citizens’ privacy rights. “To make matters worse, Congress has been asleep at the switch while the federal government has expanded the security state and private companies have run amok in storing and selling our data,” stated the senator from Silicon Valley, Ro Khanna.

    A 2023 Pew Research Center survey of Americans’ views on data privacy found that approximately six in ten Americans do not bother to read website and application policies. When online, most users click “agree” without reading the relevant terms and conditions they accept by doing so. According to the survey, Americans of all political stripes are equally distrustful of government and corporations when it comes to  how third parties use their PII. Respondents with some higher education reported taking more online privacy precautions than those who never attended college. The latter reported a stronger belief that government and corporations would “do the right thing” with their data. The least knowledgeable respondents were also the least skeptical, pointing to an urgent need for critical information literacy and digital hygiene skills.

    Exploitation of personal identifiable information

    After Musk’s call to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), approximately 1,400 staff members were fired in April, emptying out the agency that was once capable of policing Wall Street and Big Tech. Now, with the combined forces of government and Big Tech, and their sharing of database resources, the government can conduct intrusive surveillance on almost anyone, without court oversight or public debate. The Project on Government Oversight has argued that the US Constitution was meant to protect the population from authoritarian-style government monitoring, warning that these maneuvers are incompatible with a free society.

    On May 15, 2025, the CFPB, against the better judgment of the ​​Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and wider public, quietly withdrew a rule, proposed in 2024, that would have imposed limits on US-based data brokers who buy and sell Americans’ private information. Had the rule been enacted, it would have expanded the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) data protections for citizens. However, in February, Russell Vought, the self-professed White nationalist and Trump 2.0 acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and the CFPB, demanded its withdrawal, alleging the ruling would have infringed on financial institutions’ capabilities to detect and prevent fraud. Vought also instructed employees to cease all public communications, pending investigations, and proposed or previously implemented rules, including the proposal titled “Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices.”

    The now-gutted CFPB lacks both the resources and authority needed to police the widespread exploitation of consumers’ personal information, says the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the privacy rights advocacy agency.

    Double standards for data privacy

    Although the government’s collection of PII has always been a double-edged sword, with Big Tech on the side of Trump 2.0, data surveillance of law-abiding citizens has soared to worrying heights. Across every presidency since 9/11, government surveillance has become increasingly more extensive and elaborate. Moreover, Big Tech is all too willing to pledge allegiance to whichever party happens to be in power. According to investigative journalist Dell Cameron, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, and Customs and Border Protection are among the largest “federal agencies known to purchase Americans’ private data, including that which law enforcement agencies would normally require probable cause to obtain.”

    Meanwhile, it’s a Big Tech and data broker free-for-all. DOGE’s and the feds’ activities are shrouded in secrecy, often facilitated by the Big Tech lobbying money that seeks to replace legitimate privacy laws with “fake industry alternatives.” Banks, credit agencies, and tech companies must adhere to consumer privacy laws. “Yet DOGE has been granted sweeping access across federal agencies—with no equivalent restrictions,” said business reporter Susie Stulz.

    Know your risks

    Interpol has warned that scams known as “pig butchering” and “business email compromise” and those used for human trafficking are on the rise due to an increase in the use of new technologies, including apps, AI deepfakes, and cryptocurrencies. Hacking agents, humans, and bots are becoming more sophisticated, while any semblance of data privacy guardrails for citizens has been removed.

    Individual choices matter. At minimum, when using technology, consider if a website or app’s services are so badly needed or wanted that you are willing to give up your personal identifiable information. Standard advice to delete and block phishing and spam emails and texts remains apropos, but only scratches the surface of online protection.

    Privacy advocates assert that DOGE’s access to personal identifiable information escalates the risk of exposure to hackers and foreign adversaries as well as to widespread domestic surveillance. Trump’s latest contract with tech giant Palantir to create a national database of Americans’ private information raises a big red flag for civil rights organizations, “that this could be the precursor to surveillance of Americans on a mass scale.” Palantir’s involvement in government portends to be the last step “in transforming America from a constitutional republic into a digital dictatorship armed with algorithms and powered by unaccountable, all-seeing artificial intelligence,” wrote constitutional law and human rights attorney John W. Whitehead.

    A longtime J.D. Vance financial backer, Palantir’s Peter Thiel, the South African, White nationalist billionaire and right-wing donor, is credited with catapulting Vance’s political career. Unsurprisingly, the Free Thought Project reported that since Trump’s return to the White House, “Palantir has racked up over $100 million in government contracts, and is slated to strike a nearly $800 million deal with the Pentagon.” Palantir, incidentally, is also contracted with the Israeli government, as is Google.

    Know your rights

    The right to privacy is enshrined in Article 12 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” Article 17 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights asserts the same, and in 1992, the United States ratified the treaty, thereby consenting to its binding terms.

    But is privacy actually a protected civil right in the United States? According to legal scholars Anita Allen and Christopher Muhawe, the history of US civil rights law shows limited support for conceptualizing privacy and data protection as a civil right. Nonetheless, civil rights law is a dynamic moral, political, and legal concept, and if privacy is interpreted as a civil right, privacy protection becomes a fundamental requirement of justice and good government.

    Protection from surveillance needs to be top-down through legal and policy limits on data collection, and bottom-up by putting technological control of personal data into the hands of consumers, i.e., the targets of surveillance.

    As long as the public is uninformed and the corporate press remains all but silent, the more likely it is that these unconstitutional practices will not only continue but will become normalized. Until the United States is actually governed by and for the people, we the people can start practicing surveillance self-defense now. Although constitutional lawyers are typically considered the first responders to assaults on the Constitution and privacy rights, a constellation of efforts over time is required to, as much as possible, keep private data private.

    Ultimately, though, the safeguarding of data cannot be left to the government or corporations, or even the lawyers. For that reason, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s tips and tools for customizing individualized digital security plans are made available to everyone. By implementing such plans and possessing strong critical media and digital literacy skills, civil society will be better informed and more empowered in the defense of privacy rights.

    The post Insufficient Press Coverage of Big Data Surveillance first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Violence In Costa Rica And The Rush To Blame Nicaragua

    Traditionally regarded as safe for visitors, Costa Rica has recently become Central America’s second most dangerous country, with 400 homicides recorded so far this year. The violence is attributed to an epidemic of drug-related crime, as the country has become a major staging post for narcotics smuggled to Europe. Costa Rica just detained a former security minister and ex-judge for drug trafficking following a US extradition request. Even the US State Department warns of the danger of “armed robbery, homicide, and sexual assault” in Costa Rica.

    This month the violence claimed a Nicaraguan victim, Roberto Samcam, one of several Nicaraguans killed in Costa Rica in recent years.

    The post Violence In Costa Rica And The Rush To Blame Nicaragua appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • News18, social media users share 2-month old visuals of blast in Iranian city as footage from June conflict with Israel

    A 17-second clip showing a cloud of smoke emanating from an explosion in an urban area is viral on social media with claims that it shows Iran being bombarded by Israel. Some claim the video of the explosion is from Ahvaz in Iran, while others claim it shows an explosion at the Bushehr airport.

    The conflict between the two escalated after Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear and military structures from warplanes and drones on June 13; Iran soon retaliated with strikes. Since then, several unverified visuals have been circulating on social media platforms with claims they are from either of the two countries .

    A June 22 report by News18 titled, “Bushehr Airport Hit By Israel As Explosion Rocks Iran Province Housing Nuclear Site,” featured a screengrab from the above clip. (Archive)

    X user Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) also posted the same video on June 22, claiming that the visual depicted an explosion in Ahvaz. (Archive)

    Several other users on X, such as @mog_russEN, @World_At_War_6, @thecsrjournal, and news outlet EurAsia Daily, used the viral clip claiming it showed footage of an explosion in Iran amid the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    After breaking down the clip into multiple keyframes, we ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to an Instagram carousel post by an account @qatarday from April 26, 2025. The fourth slide in the carousel, has the now-viral clip.

    The caption of the post reads, “Four dead, over 500 injured as ‘massive’ explosion hits Iran’s Bandar Abbas”. Bandar Abbas is a port city on the southern coast of Iran.

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Qatar Day (@qatarday)

    We also found the video shared by X account, @JasonMBrodsky, on April 26, which also said the explosion was from Iran’s Bandar Abbas.

    Taking a cue from the above posts, we checked for news reports with relevant keywords from that time and found that several outlets had covered it.

    According to an April 27 report by the BBC, nearly 28 individuals were killed and 800 injured in the explosion in Shahid Rajaee in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas. The report carried a video captured by an individual who recorded it from his car when the explosion took place. It has the same smoke pattern as is seen in the viral clip.

    Al Jazeera also used a clip from the same location, recorded at a different angle. Here, too, the smoke pattern is the same.

    Below is a comparison of the visuals aired by BBC and Al Jazeera with the viral clip. As can be seen, in all three screenshots, the smoke pattern is similar.

    Thus it was clear that the viral clip of the explosion is neither from Ahvaz nor from Bushehr but an explosion that happened in Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas city in Iran two months before the June conflict.

    However, it should be noted that Iranian cities Ahvaz and Bushehr did suffer from Israeli strikes.

    The post News18, social media users share 2-month old visuals of blast in Iranian city as footage from June conflict with Israel appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Initial US Intelligence Assessment: US Didn’t Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Sites

    CNN reported on Tuesday that an initial US intelligence assessment has found that the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites didn’t destroy the core components of the sites and likely set back the nuclear program by only a few months.

    The assessment was prepared by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was based on a battle damage assessment from US Central Command, and it could change as the US gathers more intelligence. “So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” a source told CNN.

    The report also said that the US strikes didn’t destroy Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, and the centrifuges were largely “intact.”

    The post Initial US Intelligence Assessment: US Didn’t Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Sites appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Live coverage of protests banned in Kenya, at least 2 journalists injured

    Nairobi, June 25, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Kenyan authorities’ Wednesday ban on live coverage of deadly protests, in which at least two journalists were injured, and the shutdown of at least three broadcasters.

    Protesters took to the streets in most of Kenya’s 47 counties to mark the one-year anniversary of anti-tax demonstrations, in which at least 60 people were killed.

    Several people were killed in Wednesday’s violence.

    “Restricting protest coverage sends a clear message that President William Ruto’s government is not committed to democratic values or the constitutional freedoms he has vowed to protect,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal. “Authorities must investigate attacks on journalists, ensuring accountability, rescind the ban on live coverage, and desist from further censorship.”

    In a directive, reviewed by CPJ, the Communications Authority of Kenya ordered “all television and radio stations to stop any live coverage of the demonstrations” or face unspecified “regulatory action.” The information technology regulator cited constitutional provisions that prevent freedom of expression involving “propaganda for war” and “incitement to violence.”

    Police and Authority officials then switched off the broadcast signal of several privately owned media houses, including NTV, K24, and KTN, which continued to share content online and on social media.

    Civil society organizations including the Kenya Editors’ Guild challenged the ban, citing a November High Court ruling that the Authority did not have the constitutional mandate to set or enforce media standards.

    Late Wednesday, the Law Society of Kenya secured High Court orders, reviewed by CPJ, directing broadcast signals to be restored immediately.

    NTV reporter Ruth Sarmwei was treated in hospital after being hit on the leg by an unknown projectile while interviewing protestors in the city of Nakuru, Joseph Openda, chairperson of the Nakuru Journalists Association, told CPJ. Standard Media Group said its photojournalist David Gichuru was “struck by a stone hurled by a protestor” in the capital Nairobi. 

    CPJ’s requests for comment via email to the Communications Authority of Kenya and via messaging app to its director general David Mugonyi did not receive replies.

    Police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga declined to comment by phone. 


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • 8 journalists given lengthy jail terms as Azerbaijan crushes free press

    New York, June 23, 2025— Eight Azerbaijani journalists have received prison sentences ranging from 7 ½ to 15 years, as part of an ongoing series of media trials likely to obliterate independent reporting in the Caucasus nation.

    In a closed-door trial on Monday, columnist and peace activist Bahruz Samadov was sentenced by a court in the capital Baku to 15 years in prison for treason, after going on a hunger strike and attempting suicide the previous week.

    On Friday, six journalists from Abzas Media, widely regarded as Azerbaijan’s most prominent anticorruption investigative outlet, were found guilty of acting as an organized group to commit multiple financial crimes, including currency smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion, linked to alleged receipt of illegal Western donor funding:

    • director Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi (Abbasova), journalist Hafiz Babali – sentenced to 9 years
    • reporters Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova – sentenced to 8 years
    • project coordinator Mahammad Kekalov – sentenced to 7 ½ years

    In addition, journalist Farid Mehralizada from U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani service received a 9-year sentence as part of the same trial.

    “The heavy sentences meted out to seven journalists in the Abzas Media case and to columnist Bahruz Samadov signal Azerbaijani authorities’ intent to wipe out what remains of independent coverage,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Reports that Samadov has attempted suicide are particularly concerning. Authorities should ensure Samadov’s wellbeing and immediately release all wrongly jailed journalists.”

    Abzas Media told CPJ in a statement that the charges against their staff were “absurd and fabricated” and their “only ‘offense’ was exposing corruption, abuse of power, and informing the public of inconvenient truths.”

    RFE/RL condemned Mehralizada’s sentence as a “sham” and “unnecessarily cruel.”

    Treason case shrouded in secrecy

    More than 20 leading Azerbaijani journalists have been jailed on charges of receiving funds from Western donors since late 2023, amid a decline in relations with the West and a surge in authoritarianism following Azerbaijan’s recapture of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, ending decades of separatist Armenian rule. 

    Azerbaijan was the world’s 10th worst jailer with 13 journalists behind bars in CPJ’s latest annual prison census on December 1, 2024.

    Full details of the charges against Samadov, who contributes to Georgia-based OC Media and U.S.-based Eurasianet and was detained by state security officers while visiting his family in Azerbaijan in 2024, have not been made public. Authorities classified as secret the case against Samadov, a prominent advocate for peace with neighboring Armenia and a doctoral student in the Czech Republic.

    Pro-government media, which receive regular “recommendations” from authorities on what to publish, have denounced Samadov for writing “subversive” articles for the “anti-Azerbaijan” Eurasianet. His reporting, reviewed by CPJ, focuses on growing Azerbaijani militarism and authoritarianism.

    ‘Absurd’ charges in reprisal for corruption reporting

    As the June 20 verdicts were read out, Abzas Media journalists turned their backs on the judges and held up posters of the outlet’s corruption investigations into senior officials, including the president’s family.

    President Ilham Aliyev took over from his father in 2003 and won a fifth consecutive term in 2024.

    Abzas Media continues to operate from exile.

    Western-funded ‘spies’

    Amid a major state media campaign against Western-funded “spies,” police raided Abzas Media’s office in November 2023 and said they found 40,000 euros (US$45,900), accusing U.S., French, and German embassies of funding the outlet illegally.

    Police arrested the six journalists over the following three months. In 2024, Mehralizada was also detained, though he and Abzas Media denied that he worked for the outlet.

    Azerbaijani law requires civil society groups to obtain state approval for foreign grants, which authorities accuse Abzas Media of failing to do.

    Defense arguments, reviewed by CPJ, said that such an omission was punishable by fines, not criminal sanctions, and prosecutors did not provide evidence the journalists engaged in criminal activity. Rights advocates accuse Azerbaijan of routinely withholding permission for foreign grants and refusing to register organizations that seek them.

    In February, Aziz Orujov, director of independent broadcaster Kanal 13, was sentenced to two years in prison on illegal construction charges. In December, Teymur Karimov, head of independent broadcaster Kanal 11 was sentenced to eight years in prison.

    Five journalists from Toplum TV and 10 with Meydan TV face trial on similar foreign funding allegations.

    Editor’s note: This text has been amended in the ninth paragraph to correct the number of journalists facing charges of receiving funds from Western donors.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NZ Greens call on state to condemn US over ‘dangerous’ attack on Iran

    Asia Pacific Report

    New Zealand’s opposition Green Party has called on the government to condemn the United States for its illegal bombing of Iran and inflaming tensions across the Middle East.

    “The actions of the United States pose a fundamental threat to world peace,” said Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson in a statement.

    “The rest of the world — including New Zealand– must take a stand and make it clear that this dangerous escalation is unacceptable.

    “We are calling on the New Zealand government to condemn the United States for its attack on Iran. This attack is a blatant breach of international law and yet another unjustified assault on the Middle East from the US.”

    Davidson said the country had seen this with the US war on Iraq in 2003, and it was happening again with Sunday’s attack on Iran.

    “We are at risk of a violent history repeating itself,” she said.

    “[Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon needs to condemn this escalation from the US and rule out any participation in this conflict, or any of the elements of the AUKUS pact.

    Independent foreign policy
    “New Zealand must maintain its independent foreign policy position and keep its distance from countries that are actively fanning the flames of war.”

    Davidson said New Zealand had a long and proud history of standing up for human rights on the world stage.

    “When we stand strong and with other countries in calling for peace, we can make a difference. We cannot afford to be a bystander to the atrocities unfolding in front of our eyes.”

    It was time for the New Zealand government to step up.

    “It has failed to sanction Israel for its illegal and violent occupation of Palestine, and we risk burning all international credibility by failing to speak out against what the United States has just done.”

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister Luxon said New Zealand wanted to see a peaceful stable and secure Middle East, but more military action was not the answer, reports RNZ News.

    The UN Security Council met in emergency session today to discuss the US attack on the three key nuclear facilities.

    UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the US bombing marked a “perilous turn” in a region already reeling.

    Iran called on the 15-member body to condemn what it called a “blatant and unlawful act of aggression”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • On Being Trump’s Director of National Intelligence

    On 17 June, a member of the media asked Trump: “Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.”

    Trump brusquely responded, “I don’t care what she said. I think they are very close to having one.”

    This is just another instance of the rudeness, arrogance, and imbecility of Trump. First, Trump chose Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence.

    Second, the assessment of Iran having a nuclear weapon program or not is not Gabbard’s assessment. It is, as she testified, on the “Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community”: “the collective assessment of the 18 U.S. intelligence elements making up the U.S. Intelligence Community and draws on intelligence collection, information available to the IC from open-source and the private sector, and the expertise of our analysts.”

    During the 25 March threat assessment, Gabbard testified:

    The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

    Third, since Gabbard, the messenger, was belittled by Trump as “wrong,” then the U.S. Intelligence Community must likewise be held by Trump to be wrong. People are then left with Trump’s uncertainty, revealed by his “I think…,” as to Iran working on developing nuclear weapons. That begs the question of whether Americans want to see their sons and daughters go to war based on what Trump thinks over the assessment of 18 intelligence agencies?

    Nonetheless, Gabbard has tried to regain Trump’s good graces by, like Trump, discrediting the media. She posted on X.com:

    However, if one watches the linked source above, it corroborates that the media, in this case, accurately reflected the intelligence community’s assessment as related by Gabbard. Thus, Gabbard’s X post makes her come across as sycophantic. Not a good look for a politician or non-politician.

    If the ins and outs of politics is Gabbard’s bag — and it certainly seems to be — then she is in a tough spot. She already was forced, more-or-less, to leave the Democratic Party. And besides the Republican Party, there is no other major party to join in the United States,

    Part 2: Nonetheless, Tulsi Gabbard still has her supporters in some independent media circles.

    The post On Being Trump’s Director of National Intelligence first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Starving Gaza civilians toll climbs at Israeli humanitarian ‘death traps’

    Pacific Media Watch

    BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem

    Kia ora koutou,

    I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.

    Israeli forces killed over 200 Palestinians in Gaza over the last 48 hours, injuring over 1037. Countless more remain under the rubble and in unreachable zones. 450 killed seeking aid, 39 missing, and around 3500 injured at the joint US-Israeli humanitarian foundation “death traps”.

    Forty one  killed by Israeli forces since dawn today, including three children in an attack east of Gaza City. Gaza’s Al-Quds brigades destroyed a military bulldozer in southern Gaza.

    *

    Settlers, protected by soldiers, violently attacked Palestinian residents near the southern village of Susiya last night, including children. The West Bank siege continues with Israeli occupation forces severely restricting movement between Palestinian towns and cities. Continued military/settler assaults across the occupied territories.

    *

    Iranian strikes targeted Ben Gurion airport and several military sites in the Israeli territories. Israeli regime discuss a 3.6 billion shekel defence budget increase.

    *

    400 killed and 3000 injured by Israel’s attacks on Iran, in the nine days since Israel’s aggression began. Iranian authorities have arrested dozens more linked to Israeli intelligence, and cut internet for the last three days to prevent internal drone attacks from agents within their territories.

    Israeli strikes have targeted a wide range of sites; missile depots, nuclear facilities, residential areas, and reportedly six ambulances today.

    Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Israel blocks Gaza aid organisations’ access to fuel, hospitals running out

    BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem

    Kia ora koutou, 

    I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.

    Sixty nine people killed in Gaza, 12 while seeking aid, and 221 injured (172 seeking aid). 11 killed by Israeli airstrike on a house in central Gaza. Qassam Brigades carried out a “complex” ambush against Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Israel are preventing humanitarian organisations from accessing fuel storage sites in the enclave, hospital supplies last for just three days.

    *

    Iranian authorities report five hospitals damaged in targeted Israeli strikes, have arrested 16 agents allegedly linked to Israel, and offered Israeli “collaborators” a pardon if they surrender their drones by July 1.

    *

    Two US destroyers have arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, bringing the total to five in the region and two in the Red Sea.

    *

    An Israeli drone targeted a car in southern Lebanon, violating the existing ceasefire and Lebanese sovereignty yet again.

    *

    Israeli leaders double down on their accusations that Iran is developing nuclear bombs, despite the international watchdog, IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], saying there is no sufficient evidence. 18 injured by Iranian missile in the southern Israeli territories, 17 in Haifa. Strikes targeted Israel’s Channel 14 news stations as threatened, after Israeli forces struck Iran’s state broadcaster two days ago. 100 million shekel pledged by Israeli regime to build 1000 new bomb shelters in some areas; the regime is known for under-investment in Palestinian neighbourhoods.

    *

    More checkpoints and barriers installed across the West Bank. Ambulance movement continues to be disrupted by gas shortages in Bethlehem. Despite the war, Israeli occupation forces continue extensive home demolitions in Nour Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Settlers crush and uproot Palestinian olive trees near Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Occupation bulldozers dug up roads south of Jenin. Palestinian residents were shot at by settlers while trying to extinguish fires west of Bethlehem.

    *

    Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza continues, with minimal political intervention to prevent it.

    Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • CPJ joins landmark mission to the Philippines supported by the Media Freedom Coalition

    Manila, June 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists and partner organizations have completed a joint mission to the Philippines, a first-of-its-kind effort supported by the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), a grouping of 51 member states committed to defending press freedom worldwide.

    During the June 16-20 mission, CPJ, Reporters Without Borders, and Free Press Unlimited took part in a series of high-level engagements, including meeting Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Jose Torres Jr., head of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, as well as hosting discussions with local media, journalists, and their families.

    CPJ, represented by Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi, and the groups raised several key cases at those meetings, including advocating for the release of journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and for full justice to be served in the murders of broadcasters Gerry Ortega in 2011 and Percival Mabasa in 2022.

    The three press freedom groups are members of the MFC’s consultative network, which advises the MFC on the coalition’s work and facilitates selection of cases that it believes require state intervention.

    Read the full statement here.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Media outlets link visuals of Chinese fire drill from 2015 to Iranian strikes on Israeli power station

    Amid the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict, which began after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites on June 13, in which several civilians were killed, a video of a huge explosion in what looks like a power plant has gone viral. Social media users sharing the video claimed it is from Israel and that oil refineries in the port city of Haifa were blown up Iranian missiles.

    News outlets ABP News Hindi and InKhabar used screengrabs from the viral video in their reports on Iran firing hypersonic missiles on Israel’s power station. (Archived links: 1, 2)

    Click to view slideshow.

    X user @Niharik43914213 posted the viral video on June 18, with a Hindi caption that Iran blew up an oil refinery. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 200,000 views and was amplified widely. (Archive)

    Another X user, @SilentlySirs. posted the viral video, claiming it showed the destruction of the Bazan Oil Refinery in Israel’s Haifa. This has also seen massive traction, with close to 500,000 views at the time of this article being written. (Archive)

    The same video was shared with similar claims across X by several other users, such as @AuctionMirza, @AAPka_Manojk, @AhsanPti786, and others. (Archived links: 1, 2, 3)

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    First, we checked to see if the Bazan oil refinery had been destroyed by Iranian missiles in the ongoing conflict, as claims on social media suggested.

    A Reuters report from June 17 said that the Bazan group shut down all refineries after one of its power stations was hit in Iranian attacks on June 16.

    To verify whether the viral video corresponds to the same attack, we broke it down into key frames, and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a YouTube video uploaded on November 19, 2015. The viral clip appears around the 00:25-minute timestamp.

     

    Taking cue from the caption of the YouTube video, which said “Chinese chemical plant explosion,” keyword search led us to a post on Weibo—a Chinese social media platform—by the Sichuan Fire Department, from November 13, 2015.

    Based on this, we gathered that the visuals are from a drill carried out by the Sichuan fire department on November 12, 2015, and they match the structures seen in the viral video. Below is a comparison.

    This was also reported by a Chinese news website on November 12, 2015. Below are screenshots translated in English.

     

    In conclusion, a video from 2015, showing a fire drill in the Sichuan province of China, has been amplified by social media users with false claims that it shows oil refineries in Israel being hit by Iranian missiles. Even ABP Hindi and InKhabar used visuals from the Chinese drill in their stories on an Israeli power station being hit by Iranian strikes. While a power station attached to an oil refining group (Bazan) was hit in the strikes, the video is unrelated to the incident.

    The post Media outlets link visuals of Chinese fire drill from 2015 to Iranian strikes on Israeli power station appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NY Times and Roger Cohen Promote War Again

    The NY Times has been a major promoter of US “regime change” operations for decades. Today, while President Trump considers directly involving a US attack on Iran, the NYT is again performing this role despite many readers being skeptical or opposed.

    A June 19 NYT news/analysis is titled “An Islamic Republic With Its Back Against the Wall” by Roger Cohen. It seems written to pave the way for yet another US backed or directed “regime change”. The first sentence asserts without providing evidence that the Tehran government is “an umpopular and repressive regime”. An “Iran expert” is quoted saying, “The Islamic Republic is a rotten tooth waiting to be plucked, like the Soviet Union in its latter years.”

    When Israel bombed the Iranian TV broadcast station as a female news anchor was reading the news, Cohen writes that “Some Iranians were overjoyed”. Cohen uses Netanyahu’s description that Israel’s attacks on Iran are “pre-emptive” and designed to “stop Iran usings its enriched uranium to race for a bomb.” He does not mention that even the US intelligence agencies agree that Iran does NOT have a nuclear weapon program.

    Cohen goes on to quote former Blackrock executive and now German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz: “This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.” Iran has invaded no countries while the US has invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria while Israel has attacked Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and now Iran.

    After suggesting some causes for caution, Cohen closes with his core message: the Tehran government may fall like the Berlin Wall. He quotes the “Iran expert” again: “The Islamic Republic is a zombie regime.”

    A Persistent War Promoter

    Roger Cohen has been an influential participant in NYT distortions and lies. In 2002, he became NYT foreign editor during the crucial run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As stated at his Wikipedia page, “He supported the invasion.” The deceit about the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” was under Cohen’s direction.

    In early March, 2011, Roger Cohen he was against Western intervention in Libya. Two weeks later, he urged the West to be “ruthless” and to kill the Libyan leader. This has turned out to be yet another disaster. The Libyan people are still paying the price while Roger Cohen has forgotten about it.

    Roger Cohen, representative of the Times, consistently finds a few voices of opposition, claims without evidence they represent a large group or the civilian majority, then promotes intervention, violence and “regime change”. He did this with Iraq, then Libya, now Iran.

    Many NY Times Readers are Critical

    Judging from the most popular reader comments, many NYT readers are critical of this “news analysis”. The most popular comment has 1600 endorsements. Dr. Finn Majlergaard from France says, “What right do you (Americans) think you have to decide who should be in power in sovereign countries when you can’t even deal with your own domestic dictator and the US regime’s gestapo methods against foreigners?”

    The second most popular comment is from Florence Massachusetts. The reader asks, “Will it be okay if a truly democratic nation bombs the United States in order to encourage regime change away from our current authoritarian rulers?”

    The vast majority of reader comments are critical of the drive to attack and possibly overthrow yet another government. Apparently they have learned from past foreign policy failures while the NY Times and foreign policy establishment have not. Another disaster based on false assumptions and arrogance lays ahead.

    The post     NY Times and Roger Cohen Promote War Again first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Eugene Doyle: How centrifugal forces have been unleashed in Iran

    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    The surprise US-Israeli attack on Iran is literally and figuratively designed to unleash centrifugal forces in the Islamic Republic.

    Two nuclear powers are currently involved in the bombing of the nuclear facilities of a third state. One of them, the US has — for the moment — limited itself to handling mid-air refuelling, bombs and an array of intelligence.

    If successful they will destroy or, more likely, destabilise the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz and possibly the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, causing them to vibrate and spin uncontrollably, generating centrifugal forces that could rupture containment systems.

    Spinning at more than 50,000 rpm it wouldn’t take much of a shockwave from a blast or some other act of sabotage to do this.

    There may be about half a tonne of enriched uranium and several tonnes of lower-grade material underground.

    If a cascade of bunker-busting bombs like the US GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators got through, the heat generated would be in the hundreds, even thousands, of degrees Celsius. This would destroy the centrifuges, converting the uranium hexafluoride gas into a toxic aerosol, leading to serious radiological contamination over a wide area.

    The head of the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, warned repeatedly of the dangers over the past few days. How many people would be killed, contaminated or forced to evacuate should not have to be calculated — it should be avoided at all cost.

    Divided opinions
    Some people think this attack is a very good idea; some think this is an act of madness by two rogue states.

    On June 18, Israeli media were reporting that the US had rushed an aerial armada loaded with bunker busters to Israel while the US continued its sham denials of involvement in the war.

    Analysts Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares warned this week of “Israel bringing the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon in pursuit of its illegal and extremist aims”.  They point out that for some decades now Netanyahu has warned that Iran is weeks or even days away from having the bomb, begging successive presidents for permission to wage Judeo-Christian jihad.

    In Donald Trump — the MAGA Peace Candidate — he finally got his green light.

    The centrifugal forces destabilising the Iranian state
    The other — and possibly more significant — centrifugal force that has been unleashed is a hybrid attack on the Iranian state itself.  The Americans, Israelis and their European allies hope to trigger regime change.

    There are many Iranians inside and outside the country who would welcome such a development.  Other Iranians suggest they should be careful of what they wish for, pointing to the human misery that follows, as night follows day, wherever post 9/11 America’s project to bring “democracy, goodness and niceness” leads.  If you can’t quickly think of half a dozen examples, this must be your first visit to Planet Earth.

    . . . ABut after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back presenting the news
    Iranian news presenter Sahar Emami during the Israeli attack on state television which killed three media workers . . . Killing journalists is both an Israeli speciality and a war crime. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    Is regime change in Iran possible?
    So, are the Americans and Israelis on to something or not? This week prominent anti-regime writer Sohrab Ahmari added a caveat to his long-standing call for an end to the regime.  Ahmari, an Iranian, who is the US editor of the geopolitical analysis platform UnHerd said:  “The potential nightmare scenarios are as numerous as they are appalling: regime collapse that leads not to the restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty and the ascent to the Peacock Throne of its chubby dauphin, Reza, but warlordism and ethno-sectarian warfare that drives millions of refugees into Europe.

    “Or a Chinese intervention in favour of a crucial energy partner and anchor of the new Eurasian bloc led by Beijing . . .  A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on the Persian Gulf monarchies.”

    Despite these risks, there are indeed Iranians who are cheering for Uncle Bibi (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).  Some have little sympathy for the Palestinians because their government poured millions into supporting Hamas and Hezbollah — money that could have eased hardship inside Iran, caused, it must be added, by both the US-imposed sanctions and the regime’s own mismanagement, some say corruption.

    As I pointed out in an article The West’s War on Iran shortly after the Israelis launched the war: the regime appears to have a core support base of around 20 percent.  This was true in 2018 when I last visited Iran and was still the case in the most recent polling I could find.

    I quoted an Iranian contact who shortly after the attack told me they had scanned reactions inside Iran and found people were upset, angry and overwhelmingly supportive of the government at this critical moment.  Like many, I suggested Iranians would — as typically happens when countries are attacked — rally round the flag.  Shortly after the article was published this statement was challenged by other Iranians who dispute that there will be any “rallying to the flag” — as that is the flag of the Islamic Republic and a great many Iranians are sick to the back teeth of it.

    Some others demur:

    “The killing of at least 224 Iranians has once again significantly damaged Israel’s claim that it avoids targeting civilians,” Dr Shirin Saeidi, author of Women and the Islamic Republic, an associate professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, told The New Arab on June 16.  “Israel’s illegal attack on the Iranian people will definitely not result in a popular uprising against the Iranian state. On the contrary, Iranians are coming together behind the Islamic Republic.”

    To be honest, I can’t discern who is correct. In the last few of days I have also had contact with people inside Iran (all these contacts must, for obvious reasons, be anonymous).  One of them welcomed the attack on the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps).  I also got this message relayed to me from someone else in Iran as a response to my article:

    “Some Iranians are pro-regime and have condemned Israeli attacks and want the government to respond strongly. Some Iranians are pro-Israel and happy that Israel has attacked and killed some of their murderers and want regime change, [but the] majority of Iranians dislike both sides.

    They dislike the regime in Iran, and they are patriotic so they don’t want a foreign country like Israel invading them and killing people. They feel hopeless and defenceless as they know both sides have failed or will fail them.”

    Calculating the incalculable: regime survival or collapse?
    Only a little over half of Iran is Persian. Minorities include Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Balochis, Turkmen, Armenians and one of the region’s few post-Nakba Jewish congregations outside of Israel today.

    Mossad, MI6 and various branches of the US state have poured billions into opposition groups, including various monarchist factions, but from a distance they appear fragmented. The Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) armed opposition group has been an irritant but so far not a major disruptor.

    The most effective terrorist attacks inside Iran have been launched by Israel, the US and the British — including the assassination of a string of Iranian peace negotiators, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, nuclear scientists and their families, and various regime figures.

    How numerous the active strands of anti-regime elements are is hard to estimate. Equally hard to calculate is how many will move into open confrontation with the regime. Conversely, how unified, durable — or brittle — is the regime? How cohesive is the leadership of the IRGC and the Basij militias? Will they work effectively together in the trying times ahead? In particular, how successful has the CIA, MI6 and Mossad been at penetrating their structures and buying generals?

    Both Iran’s nuclear programme and its government — in fact, the whole edifice and foundation of the Islamic Republic — is at the beginning of the greatest stress test of its existence.  If the centrifugal forces prove too great, I can’t help but think of the words of William Butler Yeats:

    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

    The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Peace and prosperity to all the people of Iran.  And let’s never forget the people of Palestine as they endure genocide.

    Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz

  • More Carnival Than Warzone: The LA Protests Aren’t What You’ve Heard

    If you believe President Trump, you’d think Los Angeles is in ruins. In a speech to the military at Fort Bragg, he referred to recent protests against immigration raids as “a foreign invasion” wielding Molotov cocktails and “concrete bombs” to reduce the City of Angels to “a trash heap with entire neighborhoods under the control of transnational gangs.” Trump used this narrative to justify deploying 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to “liberate Los Angeles.”

    Early footage of the protests, especially from Fox News, seemed to support Trump’s summary of the situation. Images of burning cars, graffiti-covered federal buildings, protesters throwing bottles at authorities, and looters breaking into a convenience store went viral online.

    The post More Carnival Than Warzone: The LA Protests Aren’t What You’ve Heard appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Egyptian crackdown on Gaza blockade busters but Kiwi activists vow to ‘defeat genocide’

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Saige England in Ōtautahi and Ava Mulla in Cairo

    Hope for freedom for Palestinians remains high among a group of trauma-struck New Zealanders in Cairo.

    In spite of extensive planning, the Global March To Gaza (GMTG) delegation of about 4000 international aid volunteers was thwarted in its mission to walk from Cairo to Gaza to lend support.

    The land of oranges and pyramids became the land of autocracy last week as peace aid volunteers — young, middle-aged, and elderly — were herded like cattle and cordoned behind fences.

    Their passports were initially seized — and later returned. Several New Zealanders were among those dragged and beaten.

    While ordinary Egyptians showed “huge support” for the GMTG, the militant Egyptian regime showed its hand in supporting Israel rather than Palestine.

    A member of the delegation, Natasha*, said she and other members pursued every available diplomatic channel to ensure that the peaceful, humanitarian, march would reach Gaza.

    Moved by love, they were met with hate.

    Violently attacked
    “When I stepped toward the crowd’s edge and began instinctually with heart break to chant, ‘Free Palestine,’ I was violently attacked by five plainclothes men.

    “They screamed, grabbed, shoved, and even spat on me,” she said.

    Tackled, she was dragged to an unmarked van. She did not resist, posed no threat, yet the violence escalated instantly.

    “I saw hatred in their eyes.”

    Egyptian state security forces and embedded provocateurs were intent on dismantling and discrediting the Global March
    Egyptian state security forces and embedded provocateurs were intent on dismantling and discrediting the Global March activists. Image: GMTG screenshot APR

    Another GMTG member, a woman who tried to intervene was also “viciously assaulted”. She witnessed at least three other women and two men being attacked.

    The peacemakers escaped from the unmarked van the aggressors were distracted, seemingly confused about their destination, she said.

    It is now clear that from the beginning Egyptian State forces and embedded provocateurs were intent on dismantling and discrediting the GMTG.

    Authorities as provocateurs
    The peace participants witnessed plainclothed authorities act as provacateurs, “shoving people, stepping on them, throwing objects” to create a false image for media.

    New Zealand actor Will Alexander
    New Zealand actor Will Alexander . . . “This is only a fraction of what Palestinians experience every day.” GMTG

    New Zealand actor Will Alexander said the experience had inflated rather than deflated his passion for human rights, and compassion for Palestinians.

    “This is only a fraction of what Palestinians experience everyday. Palestinians pushed into smaller and smaller areas are murdered for wanting to stand on their own land,” he said.

    “The reason that ordinary New Zealanders like us need to put our bodies on the line is because our government has failed to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

    “Israel has blatantly breached international law for decades with total impunity.”

    While the New Zealanders are all safe, a small number of people in the wider movement had been forcibly ‘disappeared’,” said GMTG New Zealand member Sam Leason.

    Their whereabouts was still unknown, he said.

    Arab members targeted
    “It must be emphasised that it is primarily — and possibly strictly — Arab members of the March who are the targets of the most dramatic and violent excesses committed by the Egyptian authorities, including all forced disappearances.”

    The Global March to Gaza activists
    Global March to Gaza activists being attacked . . . the genocide cannot be sustained when people from around the world push against the Israeli regime and support the people on the ground with food and healthcare. Image: GMTG screenshot APR

    This did, however, continuously add to the mounting sense of stress, tension, anxiety and fear, felt by the contingent, he said.

    “Especially given the Egyptian authorities’ disregard to their own legal system, which leaves us blindsided and in a thick fog of uncertainty.”

    Moving swiftly through the streets of Cairo in the pitch of night, from hotel to hotel and safehouse to safehouse, was a “surreal and dystopian” experience for the New Zealanders and other GMTG members.

    The group says that the genocide cannot be sustained when people from around the world push against the Israeli regime and support the people on the ground with food and healthcare.

    “For 20 months our hearts have raced and our eyes have filled in unison with the elderly, men, women, and children, and the babies in Palestine,” said Billie*, a participant who preferred, for safety reasons, not to reveal their surname.

    “If we do not react to the carnage, suffering and complete injustice and recognise our shared need for sane governance and a liveable planet what is the point?”

    Experienced despair
    Aqua*, another New Zealand GMTG member, had experienced despair seeing the suffering of Palestinians, but she said it was important to nurture hope, as that was the only way to stop the genocide.

    “We cling to every glimmer of hope that presents itself. Like an oasis in a desert devoid of human emotion we chase any potential igniter of the flame of change.”

    Activist Eva Mulla
    Activist Eva Mulla . . . inspired by the courage of the Palestinians. Image: GMTG screenshot APR

    Ava Mulla, said from Cairo, that the group was inspired by the courage of the Palestinians.

    “They’ve been fighting for freedom and justice for decades against the world’s strongest powers. They are courageous and steadfast.”

    Mulla referred to the “We Were Seeds” saying inspired by Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos.

    “We are millions of seeds. Every act of injustice fuels our growth,” she said.

    Helplessness an illusion
    The GMTG members agreed that “impotence and helplessness was an illusion” that led to inaction but such inaction allowed “unspeakable atrocities” to take place.

    “This is the holocaust of our age,” said Sam Leason.

    “We need the world to leave the rhetorical and symbolic field of discourse and move promptly towards the camp of concrete action to protect the people of Palestine from a clear campaign of extermination.”

    Saige England is an Aotearoa New Zealand journalist, author, and poet, member of the Palestinian Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA), and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    *Several protesters quoted in this article requested that their family names not be reported for security reasons. Ava Mulla was born in Germany and lives in Aotearoa with her partner, actor Will Alexander. She studied industrial engineering and is passionate about innovative housing solutions for developing countries. She is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA).

    New Zealand and other activists taking part in the Global March to Gaza
    New Zealand and other activists with Tino Rangatiratanga and Palestine flags taking part in the Global March To Gaza. Will Alexander (far left) is in the back row and Ava Mulla (pink tee shirt) is in the front row. Image: GMTG screenshot APR

  • Professor Reveals the Truth behind South China Sea Conflict

    Why is the South China Sea such a flashpoint between China, the U.S., and Southeast Asia? In this eye-opening video, Professor Kishore Mahbubani breaks down the deeper truth behind the conflict that mainstream media often overlooks. With decades of diplomatic experience and sharp geopolitical insight, he explains what’s really at stake—and why the West’s narrative may not tell the full story. Watch till the end to understand the hidden forces shaping this critical region.

    The post Professor Reveals the Truth behind South China Sea Conflict first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Rise of Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fiji police probe Commission of Inquiry report over sacked anti-corruption chief Barbara Malimali

    RNZ Pacific

    Fiji police have commenced investigations into a Commission of Inquiry report on the appointment of the country’s now sacked head of the anti-corruption office.

    Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka stood down Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) commissioner Barbara Malimali last month after a months-long inquiry was completed.

    Malimali was appointed as FICAC chief in September last year despite being under investigation by the anti-corruption office.

    Opposition figures at the time slammed it as “unbelievable” but the government backed her appointment.

    The 648-page inquiry report, prepared by the Commissioner of Inquiry and Supreme Court Judge David Ashton-Lewis, has rocked Rabuka’s coalition government in recent weeks, with one political expert calling it a “full-blown crisis”.

    The report, which has now been leaked online, includes allegations not only against Malimali, but senior government officials and lawyers, including the nation’s highest judicial officer and the head of the Law Society.

    Local media are reporting that the inquiry found a “systematic failure of integrity” across Fiji’s governance and justice systems.

    They report that the inquiry states the appointment process for Malimali was “legally invalid” and “ethically reprehensible”.

    Investigations started
    Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu confirmed via a statement on Wednesday that investigations into the Commission of Inquiry Report findings commenced after the police received a formal letter of referral from President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalau.

    “A formal letter of referral was sent to the Fiji Police Force and the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption, to investigate the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry and persons of interests, and where warranted, prosecution,” he said.

    Tudravu said he had met with the FICAC acting Commissioner Lavi Rokoika, alongside senior Fiji police officers “to discuss the specific areas of investigation to be undertaken by our respective institutions, to avoid duplication, and ensure efficiency of the investigation process”.

    He has given his assurance for a thorough independent investigation by the team of senior investigators from the Criminal Investigations Department.

    “A Commission of Inquiry report into the appointment of Barbara Malimali as head of the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption has cost the country’s Attorney-General Graham Leung his job, embroiled Fiji’s Law Society in an acrimonious feud and exacerbated tensions in the governing coalition,” Victoria University of Wellington’s political science professor John Fraenkel wrote for the DevpolicyBlog on Tuesday.

    Among the accused
    “The country’s Chief Justice Salesi Temo is allegedly among those accused by the COI (though, at the time of writing, the report has not been publicly released).

    “Worryingly, given Fiji’s history of coups in 1987, 2000 and 2006, military chief Jone Kalouniwai has visited the Prime Minister’s office reminding the nation of his constitutionally-bequeathed responsibility for the ‘wellbeing of Fiji and its people’.”

    According to Fraenkel, the inquiry controversy comes at a critical juncture, with the Supreme Court due to rule on the legal status of the country’s 2013 Constitution in August and with Fiji drawing closer to the next election, scheduled for 2026 or, at the very latest, February 2027.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indian media picked up Apple user’s satiric tweet, ‘reported’ team behind newly launched UI had been fired

    A day after Apple introducing new user interface (UI) feature Liquid Glass at its worldwide developers conference in California, an X user by the name Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) shared a tweet on June 10 stating he and his entire team had been fired by Apple even though they worked tirelessly for 18 months. 

    Several Indian media outlets picked up the story and began reporting on it. Republic Bharat, News24, IndiaTV, and Ahmedabad Mirror published reports claiming that Apple had fired the chief designer behind the Liquid Glass UI and his entire design team, and that this termination happened just a few hours after the official announcement of iOS 26. However, after the story began receiving scrutiny, all the outlets either updated their articles to correct the information or deleted them altogether.

    Click to view slideshow.

    NDTV Profit and Gadget 360 Hindi, both owned by the Adani Group, also published similar stories amplifying the same claims. The report published by NDTV was also republished by MSN.com.

    Click to view slideshow.

    ‘Intended as Satire’

    Alt News conducted a search of Jon Yongfook’s profiles on X as well as LinkedIn. Upon examining his professional history, we found no confirmation indicating he had ever been employed by Apple. His X profile bio however, clearly states that he is the founder of BannerBear, which is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform for the automatic generation of images, social media visuals, ecommerce banners and more. Furthermore, according to the job history listed on his LinkedIn profile, Yongfook is a former employee of Aviva.

    In addition, Yongfook later posted a clarification on his X account in a follow-up tweet. He explained that his original post had been intended as satire. He wrote, “I have been an Apple user for more than 20 years, this is the worst UI I have seen, I hope Apple will make some changes to it.”

    To sum up, X user Jon Yongfook is not an Apple employee but rather an Apple user who posted a satirical comment on social media. The post was amplified as ‘news’ by several media outlets including Republic Bharat, NDTV Group, and News24 seemingly without any verification. These outlets falsely reported that Apple had fired the lead designer and the team behind Liquid Glass UI.

    The post Indian media picked up Apple user’s satiric tweet, ‘reported’ team behind newly launched UI had been fired appeared first on Alt News.

    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

  • 95 lawyers demand stronger NZ stand over Israel amid Middle East tensions

    Asia Pacific Report

    Ninety-five New Zealand lawyers — including nine king’s counsel — have signed a letter demanding Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and two other ministers urge the government to take a stronger stand against Israel’s “catastrophic” actions in Gaza.

    The letter has been sent amid rising tensions in the region, following Israel’s surprise attacks on Iran last Friday, and Iran’s retaliatory attacks.

    A statement by the Justice For Palestine advocacy group said the letter’s signatories represented all levels of seniority in the legal community, including senior barristers, law firm partners, legal academics, and in-house lawyers.

    The letter cited the 26 July 2024 joint statement by the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand which acknowledged: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.”

    “But it has continued,” said the letter.  “The plight of the civilian population in Gaza has significantly deteriorated, featuring steadily escalating levels of bombardment, forced displacement of civilians, blockades of aid and deliberate targeting of hospitals, aid workers and journalists.”

    The same month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had declared Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be unlawful.

    Obligations under international law
    In September last year, New Zealand voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on all UN member states to comply with their obligations under international law and take concrete steps to address Israel’s ongoing presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the Justice For Palestine statement.

    At the time, New Zealand had noted it expected Israel to take meaningful steps towards compliance with international law, including withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The letter stated that Israel had done nothing of the sort.

    Part of the lawyers' letter appealing to the NZ government
    Part of the lawyers’ letter appealing to the NZ government for a stronger stance over Israel. Image: J4P

    The letter points out that last month independent UN experts had demanded immediate international intervention to “end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza.”

    UN experts have observed more than 52,535 deaths, of which 70 percent continue to be women and children, said the statement.

    The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, had called for a response “as humanitarians” urging “Humanity, the law and reason must prevail”.

    The Justice For Palestine letter urged the government to consider a stronger response, including:

    • condemning Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
    • reviewing immediately all diplomatic and political and economic ties with Israel, and
    • imposing further sanctions after New Zealand had imposed sanctions on two extremist Israeli politicians.

    Rising concern over Israeli breaches
    One of the letter’s signatories, barrister Max Harris, said:

    “This letter reflects rising concern among the general community about Israel’s breaches of international law.

    “The Government has tried to highlight red lines for Israel, but these have been repeatedly crossed, and it’s time that the Government considers doing more, in line with international law,”

    Aedeen Boadita-Cormican, another barrister, who signed the letter, said: “The government could do more to follow through on how it has voted at the United Nations and what it has said internationally.”

    “This letter shows the depth of concern in the legal community about Israel’s actions,” she added.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Greta Thunberg and the Merchants of Smear

    If there’s one thing the ‘impartial’, ‘independent’ ‘free press’ can’t stand, it’s someone – citizens, journalists, politicians, celebrities, anyone – protesting the West’s wars.

    The one-size-fits-all smear deployed to define and dismiss the concerns of these troublemakers – people who often pay a high price for their dissent – is ‘narcissist’.

    Consider the case of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which last week attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade to deliver baby formula and food to Gaza’s starving population. And that, by the way, is not hyperbole. In May, the World Health Organisation reported that ‘half a million people’ in Gaza were ‘in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death’. The flotilla was led by the UK-flagged vessel Madleen, with renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg onboard.

    Perhaps shaken by his recent, uncharacteristic display of principled moral outrage, the eponymous host of Piers Morgan Uncensored, last week wrote on X:

    ‘Oh shut up, @GretaThunberg – you attention-seeking narcissist. What an insult to the actual hostages in Gaza who really WERE kidnapped. This stupid stunt is all about your ego, and will make zero difference to the plight of innocent Palestinians caught up in this dreadful war.’

    In the Telegraph, Brendan O’Neill felt Morgan’s pain in a piece titled, ‘Greta Thunberg’s narcissism has escalated to terrifying levels.’

    The ‘terrifying’ Thunberg, no less! O’Neill opined:

    ‘Of all the smug stunts of the faux-virtuous activist class, this is surely the most preposterous. The idea that 12 woke fainthearts from Europe might “liberate” Gaza would be funny if it were not so dangerous.’

    That was not the intention at all, of course. The intention was to raise awareness of Israel’s genocide in Gaza – in that aim, the flotilla was a great success.

    The Mirror noted that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs had branded the Madleen a ‘selfie yacht’. By eerie coincidence, much of the ‘mainstream’ media followed suit.

    In the Daily Mail, Sam Greenhill’s headline read: ‘Israeli forces storm Greta’s “selfie yacht” and make her watch Hamas terror footage.’ (Greenhill, Daily Mail, 10 June 2025). Greenhill commented:

    ‘Critics suggested it had been a “gap-year protest”, and the Israeli government said Ms Thunberg had been “feeding her ego” rather than the people of Gaza.’

    What could be more natural, more ‘mainstream’, than passing on, with approval, a slur supplied by a government committing genocide?

    If ‘kidnapping’ won’t do for Piers Morgan, let’s try ‘hijacking’. Journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News commented:

    ‘Let’s be clear: Israel, an occupier, has no authority under international law to board or divert the Madleen.

    ‘This is a hijacking, plain and simple. A hijacking of a UK-registered ship, with multiple *European* citizens on board.’

    Hasan invited readers to imagine the Western response if Iran had rammed and hijacked a boat full of European citizens in international waters in the same way.

    Morgan’s fiercely expressed idea that Thunberg was merely engaged in an attention-seeking ‘stunt’ reverses the truth. Narcissists do not seek attention by taking on a genocidal army that has devastated both Gaza and previous vessels attempting the same journey. On X, Alonso Gurmendi of the London School of Economics noted that there had been five similar flotillas prior to the Madleen’s voyage. Israel used force against four of them:

    ‘2010: 10 killed

    ‘2011: no incidents

    ‘2015: crew detained for 6 days

    ‘2018: crew tasered

    ‘2025: drones shot at the ship’

    In the 2010 attack on the Mavi Marmara, 10 activists were killed by Israeli forces with dozens wounded. Last month, the Conscience, a vessel carrying human rights activists and humanitarian aid for Gaza, organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was attacked by Israeli drones in international waters off the coast of Malta:

    ‘The Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported that the ship was struck twice by drones at around 00:23 (CEST), with both attacks targeting the vessel’s generators at the front of the ship. The strikes caused a fire and a breach in the hull, placing the vessel at imminent risk of sinking.’

    Given the genocidal actions of the Israeli army over the last 20 months – including ‘at least 220 journalists killed’ since 7 October 2023, as Channel 4’s Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson noted last week on X – no-one on the Madleen had any compelling reason to feel safe. Far from being an attention-seeking ‘stunt’, Thunberg and her companions showed real courage.

    In the Telegraph, former Guardian journalist Suzanne Moore pumped bile:

    ‘What matters above all are the images of the selfie-yacht and the attention they can garner. Being boarded and detained (or, as she puts it, “kidnapped”) by Israeli forces gave her exactly what she had hoped for to kick against…’

    Thunberg’s ‘stunt’, it seems, had been ‘self-aggrandising and vacuous’. In a comment that typifies the tendency of hard-right merchants of smear to overreach, Moore added:

    ‘Watching footage of this climate activist and her mates all chucking their expensive phones into the sea as they were about to be taken by the Israelis showed that, of course, when the chips were down, environmental concerns went out of the window.’

    And, as ever, the young and compassionate – people who aren’t just banking a salary, people who care – are just naïve fools blundering in the dark:

    ‘The omnicause burns itself out in the end because it has no actual strategy. It simply signifies tribal loyalty. It gobbles everything up and spits out its participants, who simply move on to the next “wrong” thing.’

    But it is right to protest Israel’s genocide, which is wrong, just as the insane indifference to the destabilisation of the climate is wrong. In 42 seconds, in this video on X, Thunberg explains why it is absolutely coherent to protest both of these crimes.

    When working for the Guardian, Moore distinguished herself by tweeting of Julian Assange in 2012:

    ‘He really is the most massive turd.’

    Moore then commented to a colleague:

    ‘I never met him. Did you?’

    Moore later wrote in the New Statesman:

    ‘O frabjous day! We are all bored out of our minds with Brexit when a demented looking gnome is pulled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the secret police of the deep state. Or “the met” as normal people call them.’

    Jake Wallis Simons, who writes regularly for the Jewish Chronicle (JC), which he edited from December 2021 until January 2025, has been busy smearing Thunberg in the Daily Mail and Telegraph with damning articles titled:

    ‘Greta Thunberg is deeply immature, lacks all shame … and there is a dark truth about her crusade to Gaza’ (Daily Mail, 7 June 2025)

    ‘It’s staggeringly offensive of Thunberg to claim she’s been “kidnapped” when we know what real kidnap looks like’ (Daily Mail, 10 June 2025)

    ‘Greta’s blind eye to murder’ (The Telegraph, 10 June 2025)

    In September 2024, when Wallis Simons was editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, no dissident, wrote an open letter to him on social media, under the comment:

    ‘I have today told the editor of the Jewish Chronicle that I can no longer continue my relationship with the paper.’

    Freedland’s reasoning:

    ‘Too often, the JC reads like a partisan, ideological instrument, its judgements political rather than journalistic.’

    Jonathan Cook commented:

    ‘One such example was a tweet (since deleted) from Wallis Simons last December, when Israel had already killed thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. Over a video of a huge explosion killing untold numbers of Palestinians in Gaza City, the JC’s editor wrote: “Onwards to victory.”’

    It seems Wallis Simons has Thunberg all worked out:

    ‘Let’s stop beating around the selfie yacht. It was never truly about the climate, any more than it was truly about the conflict in the Middle East. Closing her eyes to the October 7 footage crystallised the sustaining principle of Greta Thunberg: she is absorbed in a world of her own. It is a world that began with hating her teachers; went on to hating the establishment; and has ended with hating the Jews and the West, powered by endless selfies.’

    Without a trace of evidence, then, Thunberg is reflexively smeared as an anti-semite. Cook noted the sudden obsession with selfies:

    ‘Strangely, journalists who had barely acknowledged the tsunami of selfies taken by Israeli soldiers glorifying their war crimes on social media were keenly attuned to a supposed narcissistic, selfie culture rampant among human-rights activists.’

    Ricky Hale said it best on X:

    ‘Amazing that we live in a time when starving people are being lured into the open to be gunned down by Israel and the media thinks the villain of the story is a tiny autistic woman who tried to feed them.’

    Of Tans and Byronic Haircuts

    Thus, if it was not already the case, Thunberg has joined the long list of dissidents dismissed as self-aggrandising ‘narcissists’.

    In 2013, Bloomberg Businessweek featured an article entitled, ‘The Unbearable Narcissism of Edward Snowden.’

    In 2016, Labour MP Chris Evans noted Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘self-indulgence, egotism, arrogance and narcissism’.

    Janice Turner commented on Corbyn in The Times:

    ‘He’s beloved of narcissists and conspiracists, such as Julian Assange, George Galloway, John Pilger and Ken Livingstone …’

    Narcissists all! In the Observer, Charles Jennings described how Pilger’s narcissism was obvious from ‘his tan, his Byronic haircut, his trudging priestly delivery and his evident self-love’. (Jennings, The Observer, 24 January 1999) We knew Pilger well; he was one of the most generous, compassionate people we have met. What was so striking, even startling, about him was his willingness to risk his access to ‘mainstream’ media by exposing their lethal propaganda – he savaged the hands that fed him. That is forbidden, of course, and it cost him his columns in the Guardian and the New Statesman. None of his critics would be willing to pay a fraction of that price.

    In 2020, Andrew Rawnsley wrote in the Observer of the conspicuously humble and selfless Jeremy Corbyn:

    ‘Many things have been said about his character over the years, but one thing has not been said enough: he is a narcissist.’

    Julian Assange, of course, has been endlessly labelled the same way. A typical headline from the Daily Mail in 2011 read:

    ‘The WikiFreak: In a new book one author reveals how she got to know Julian Assange and found him a predatory, narcissistic fantasist’

    In the Sunday Times, Katie Glass described Russell Brand as ‘an exhibitionistic narcissist obsessed with celebrity’. (Katie Glass, ‘The ultimate Marmite Brand,’ Sunday Times, 22 September 2013)

    And according to the Guardian, the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was a peddler of ‘strutting and narcissistic populism’.

    Readers might wonder where that leaves us at Media Lens. Alas, in his Guardian column, then Associate Editor Michael White observed that Media Lens ‘betrays the narcissism of small difference that is so destructive on the left’.

    The post Greta Thunberg and the Merchants of Smear first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • As Israeli attacks draw tit-for-tat missile responses from Iran and shuts Haifa refinery, Gaza genocide continues

    A New Zealand journalist on the ground in the Middle East summarises events from the occupied West Bank.

    UPDATES: By Cole Martin in Occupied Bethlehem

    Fifty six Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza today, 38 of them while seeking aid, while five were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli attack on aid workers northwest of Gaza City.

    Al-Qassam Brigades reportedly blew up a house in southern Gaza where a number of Israeli soldiers were operating from.

    Israel’s forced starvation and indiscriminate targeting of civilians continues.

    Israeli media report that Iranian missile strikes on Haifa oil refinery yesterday killed 3 people and closed down the installation.

    The Israeli death toll has risen to 24, with 400 injured and more than 2700 people displaced.

    Israeli authorities report 370 missiles fired by Iran in total, 30 reaching their targets. Iranian military report they have carried out 550 drone operations.

    224 killed in Iran
    Two hundred and twenty four people have been killed by Israeli attacks on Iran, with 1277 hospitalised.

    The state radio and television building was targeted by Israeli strikes twice — while broadcasting live — with the broadcast back online within 5 minutes despite the attack.

    In response, Iran has issued a warning to evacuate the central offices of Israeli television channels 12 and 14.

    An Israeli attack on a Red Crescent ambulance in Tehran resulted in the deaths of two relief workers.

    Israel’s Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich, who is accused of being a war criminal and the target of sanctions by five countries including New Zealand, claims they have hit 800 targets in Iran, with aircraft flying freely in the nation’s airspace.

    In the West Bank, the tension continues, with business continuing at a subdued level, everyone waiting to see how the situation will unfold.

    Israel’s illegal siege continues, cutting off cities and villages from one another, while blocking ambulances and urgent medical access in several locations today.

    Israeli and Iranian strikes are expected to continue, and potentially escalate, over the coming days.

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues.

    Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    Iranian missiles raining down on Tel Aviv as seen from the occupied West Bank
    Iranian missiles raining down on Tel Aviv as seen from the occupied West Bank. Image: CM screenshot APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Attack on Iran’s state media – Israel bombs IRIB building in new war crime

    Pacific Media Watch

    Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV.

    The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news broadcast was underway.

    The transmission was briefly interrupted before Hassan Abedini, IRIB’s news director and deputy for political affairs, appeared on air to condemn the “terrorist crime”.

    At the time of the attack, news anchor Sahar Emami was presenting the news. Despite the building trembling under the first strike, she stood her ground and continued the broadcast.

    “Allah o Akbar” (God is Great), she proclaimed, drawing global attention to the war crime committed by Israel against Iran’s national broadcaster.

    Moments later, another blast filled the studio with smoke and dust, forcing her to evacuate. She returned shortly after to join Abedini and share her harrowing experience.

    “If I die, others will take my place and expose your crimes to the world,” she declared, looking straight into the camera with courage and composure.

    Casualties unconfirmed
    While the number of casualties remains unconfirmed, insiders reported that several journalists inside the building had been injured in the bombing.

    Israel’s war ministry promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the aggression on the state broadcaster as a “war crime” and called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the regime.

    . . . ABut after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back presenting the news
    . . . But after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back courageously presenting the news and denouncing the attack. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the attack and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable for its assault on the media.

    “The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB’s office during a live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Baghaei wrote on X.

    The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also condemned the bombing of the IRIB news building, labeling it an “inhuman, criminal, and a terrorist act.”

    CPJ ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack
    The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state TV channel while live on air.”

    “Israel’s killing, with impunity, of almost 200 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region,” Sara Qudah, the West Asia representative for CPJ, said in a statement after the attack on an IRIB building.

    The Israeli regime has a documented history of targeting journalists globally. Since October 2023, it has killed more than 250 Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.

    The regime launched its aggression against the Islamic Republic, including Tehran, early on Friday, leading to the assassination of several high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.

    In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones late Friday night, followed by more retaliatory operations on Saturday and Sunday as part of Operation True Promise III.

    In Israel, 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since hostilities began. In Iran, 224 people have been killed.

    Plumes of black smoke billowing after an Israeli attack against Iran's state broadcaster
    Plumes of black smoke billowing after an Israeli attack against Iran’s state broadcaster yesterday. Image: PressTV

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • CPJ, partners denied visit to jailed Philippine journalist 

    Philippine authorities on Monday refused to allow the Committee to Protect Journalists and a coalition of press freedom organizations to visit jailed journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio during a joint mission aimed at asking authorities to end her more than five-year detention.

    CPJ and the groups had submitted a formal request May 5 to visit Cumpio, a 26-year-old who has been held in the Tacloban City jail since she was arrested and charged in 2020 with possessing illegal firearms and financing terrorism. Her case continues in court.

    The delegation was backed by the Media Freedom Coalition, a group of more than 50 countries pledged to support press freedom at home and abroad. It released a joint press statement on Monday.

    “It is indefensible and inhumane to hold journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio any longer,” said CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi, from Tacloban City. “She has languished behind bars for more than five years even though she has not been convicted of any crime. The Philippines must live up to its reputation as a democracy and stop silencing critical reporting.”

    After lengthy discussions with prison authorities, the coalition was able briefly to see Cumpio only from a distance, separated by three layers of prison bars. Through guards, Cumpio passed a letter addressed to Irene Khan, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, while the delegation handed over some essential items that included medication and handwritten notes.

    Prison officials at the Tacloban City jail told CPJ and the international delegation that they needed to obtain approvals from the presidential office and the court before they are granted a visit. Since 2023, CPJ has made repeated attempts to visit Cumpio, all unsuccessful.

    The delegation — which includes Reporters Without Borders, Free Press Unlimited, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and the Altermidya network of independent media groups — had previously raised serious concerns over Cumpio’s pretrial detention and allegations  that authorities had planted the weapons that led to her arrest in February 2020. 

    If convicted, Cumpio faces up to 40 years in prison.


    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.

  • Israel strikes Iranian media outlet live on air


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • For Media, Unruly Protesters Are Bigger Problem Than Police State

    In the early morning of Friday, June 6, several federal agencies carried out militarized immigration raids across Los Angeles (Al Jazeera, 6/7/25). Armed and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI and DEA, tore through these neighborhoods in unmarked vehicles, carrying out a new method of targeted raids in workplaces like Home Depot, Ambiance Apparel and car washes (Washington Post, 6/8/25, 6/12/25, LA Times, 6/10/25).

    Later that morning, demonstrations formed in front of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and Metropolitan Detention Center, where detainees were believed to be held (Al Jazeera, 6/11/25).

    The post For Media, Unruly Protesters Are Bigger Problem Than Police State appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Is genocide the new normal? Could Israel and the US destroy Iran?

    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    “Just do it, before it is too late,” US President Donald Trump said.

    The Western media described Trump’s and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats after the first wave of attacks on Iran as “warnings”. They were, in fact, expressions of genocidal intent.

    “The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come.

    “And they know how to use it. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire … JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

    As Pascal Lottaz and a number of other analysts pointed out on Friday, preemptive war or just war theory requires imminent threats not conceptual ones. As I also pointed out on Friday, the United States’ own intelligence agencies have consistently determined that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons programme and there has been no change to the regime’s position since the Grand Ayatollah issued a fatwa against such weapons in 2003.

    Israel and the US may now have forced a change in that theology or calculus.

    What we are witnessing is a war of aggression designed to trigger regime change and destroy Iran — to reduce it to the kind of chaos that Israel and the US have inflicted on Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and many other countries.

    This is only possible because of the collusion of the Collective West. At the core of this project of endless violence towards non-white people is racism: contempt for people who are not like us.

    Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds.
    Today an overwhelming majority of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians — one of the very definitions of genocide — not just from Gaza but from Israel itself. Nearly half of Israelis support the army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, a recent US Penn State University poll finds.

    Genocide has been normalised in Israel. Yet our political leaders and much of our media tell us we share values with these people.

    One of the sickest, most profoundly tragic ironies of history is that the long suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of Western racism has culminated in a triumphalist Jewish State doing to the Palestinians what the Plantagenets and the Popes, the Medicis and the Russian boyars, the Italian Fascists and the Nazis did to the Jews.

    Europeans perpetrated the Holocaust not the Palestinians or the Iranians. Israel, dominated as it is by Ashkenazi Jews, has now been incorporated into the Western project to maintain global hegemony.

    They are today’s uber Aryans lording it over the untermenschen. It is the grim fulfillment of what the Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned back in the 1980s was Israel’s incipient slide into what he termed “Judeo Nazism”.

    ‘We, the Israelis, are the victims’
    Isn’t it time we woke from our deep slumber? Generations of people in Western countries were lied to for generations about the Zionist project. We were bombarded with propaganda that the Israelis were the victims, the plucky battlers; the Palestinians were somehow a nation of terrorists in their own land.

    So too, the propaganda goes, are pretty much all of Israel’s neighbours, particularly Iran.

    The propaganda shredded our minds, particularly people of my generation. It made most of our populations and all of our governments totally indifferent to the constant killing, repression and land thieving by generations of Israelis.

    “We, the Israelis, are the victims.” They weep for themselves as they rape Palestinian prisoners — and call themselves heroes for doing so. In researching stories like this I had the unpleasant experience of watching videos of both the rape of Palestinians prisoners at Sde Temein (gloatingly shared by the perpetrators) and the repellent sight of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rabbi blessing one of these rapists and praising him for his work.

    We are repeatedly told we share values with these people. I believe our governments really do share those values. I do not.

    ‘Hath not a Palestinian eyes? If you prick an Iranian do they not bleed?’
    I’m a student of Shakespeare and have spent hours every month reading, watching and studying his plays. The Merchant of Venice, a complex play with highly contested interpretations, can be viewed as a masterful exploration of a dominant society enforcing its own double standards on a Hated Other.

    The last time I watched it was a Royal Shakespeare Company performance with Palestinian actor Makram Khoury in the role of Shylock (the Jew).

    Over the centuries Shylock had morphed from a pantomime villain, to an arch-villain to, in the 19th Century, a figure of pathos, dignity and loss, through to 20th Century interpretations of him as a powerful, albeit highly flawed, figure of resistance in the face of a supremacist society.

    Palestinian Makram Khoury’s performance capped this transition and was an eloquent plea to see our common humanity whether we be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other slice of humanity.

    “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

    How would our reading of this passage change if we changed “Jew” to “Palestinian” or “Iranian”?

    Only an utterly incoherent and damaged mind can continue to believe the propaganda coming out of the White House, the Pentagon, and out of the mouths of psychotic madmen like Netanyahu, Smotrich and the rest of Team Genocide.

    It’s time to wake up. If not, we ourselves become victims. Only a hollowed-out heart and mind could content themselves with turning a blind eye to genocide, to turn a blind eye to the war of aggression just launched against Iran.

    How will this end?

    Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz.

  • LAPD Running Amok, Dishing out Numerous Injuries to Protesters and Journalists in LA

    Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

    On 11 June, the Substack, Closer to the Edge, penned a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department, and the opening graph says it all:

    You shot a journalist on live television. You struck another in the forehead while he was standing alone under a freeway. You sent one man into emergency surgery after punching a hole in his leg with a “less-lethal” round. You bruised a New York Times reporter’s ribcage. You gassed a foreign correspondent while she was wearing a press badge. You shot a 74-year-old woman in the back. You nailed a man in the chest with a 40mm grenade while he was holding a phone. And you left a woman bleeding from the skull in the middle of the street while people begged your officers to call an ambulance—and they didn’t.

    And now you’re “investigating.”

    Closer to the Edge maintains it has “completed a full, verified investigation of eight people injured by law enforcement during the protests in Los Angeles. Seven were journalists. One was a protester. All of them were harmed under your watch.”

    The Substack notes that it is “publishing” the stories of the victims of police violence “[w]ith verified quotes. With real names. With witness footage, medical updates, and your own damn statements when available. You told the public you’re investigating? Then we’ll do it faster, better, and with the one thing your officers seem allergic to: accountability.”

    Reuters is reporting that there has been over 30 incidents of police violence against journalists as tracked by the LA Press Club. According Reuters Helen Coster, “Journalists have been among those injured during protests” in recent days.

    Among the injured were Lauren Tomasi (Nine News Australia) who was struck by a rubber-bullet projectile; Toby Canham, freelance photojournalist for the New York Post, was hit in the forehead by a “hard rubbery” projectile; Nick Stern, a British photojournalist, was shot in the thigh with a projectile and required emergence surgery.

    The post LAPD Running Amok, Dishing out Numerous Injuries to Protesters and Journalists in LA first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.