Staff+Writer&sentence=sentence&in_blogs=6">Press TV Staff Writer
PressTV

A major European rights body recounts in harrowing detail the atrocities that have been carried out for the past 43 days by the Israeli regime against Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip.

Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor provided the information in a report on Monday.

The report showed how the Israeli military has been subjecting the Gazans to direct killings, extrajudicial executions, mass starvation, and ethnic cleansing “with no justification whatsoever” as part of its now-13-month-old genocidal war on the coastal sliver.

Israeli forces, the report noted, have been committing the crimes by bombing homes with residents inside, committing mass killings against displaced civilians in shelters, and targeting gatherings and vehicles.

‘Largest campaign of forced displacement in modern history’—The forces have also embarked on bringing about “the largest cases of forced displacement in modern history” against the targeted civilians, it said.

The period in question, throughout which the Israeli military has markedly intensified its deadly aggression against northern Gaza, has seen it “conducting its third incursion and military offensive” against the targeted areas and “committing heinous atrocities,” the body stated.

The combined killing and displacement routine was being carried out with the aim of “terrorizing civilians” among other things, it said.

‘They executed them in front of me’—The body cited Tamam Abdel Maqadmeh, one of the civilians, as describing some of the atrocities that the forces committed in the city of Beit Lahia.

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Staff+Writer&sentence=sentence&in_blogs=6">Press TV Staff Writer
PressTV

Marco Rubio, a Republican foreign policy hawk tapped by Donald Trump to lead the US Department of State in his new administration, is known for his confrontational stance toward Iran and close ties with anti-Iran groups.

A staunch ally of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Rubio has even advocated for a direct attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by the Israeli regime, saying such an attack "would have been successful."

In a 2015 interview, he asserted that the Tel Aviv regime "has a right to act in its self-defense, which it did in the past when it struck facilities in Syria and other places."

The Florida senator is an ardent and self-proclaimed Zionist who supports the Tel Aviv regime’s settler-colonialism project and land grabs in the occupied West Bank, as well as ongoing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.

Like Trump and Biden, Rubio is fiercely opposed to the truce and blames all civilian casualties on the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, for which he even employs dehumanizing vocabulary. He was heard recently referring to Palestinian resistance fighters as "vicious animals."

Trump's pick for Secretary of State is among the Israeli lobby's biggest recipients of donation, receiving at least $1,013,563 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the top Zionist lobby group in the US that exerts considerable influence in US power corridors.

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Glenn Diesen
Glenn’s Substack

The Economist reports that "Russia is slicing through Ukrainian defenses" and Ukraine is subsequently "struggling to survive".[1] Across the Western media, the public is prepared for defeat and painful concessions in future negotiations. The media is changing the narrative as reality can no longer be ignored. Russia's coming victory has been obvious since at least the summer of 2023, yet this was ignored to keep the proxy war going.

We are witnessing an impressive demonstration of narrative control: For more than two years, the political-media elites have been chanting “Ukraine is winning” and denounced any dissent to their narrative as “Kremlin talking points” that aim to reduce support for the war. What was “Russian propaganda” yesterday is now suddenly the consensus of the collective media. Critical self-reflection is as absent as it was after the Russiagate reporting.

Similar narrative control was displayed when the media reassured the public for two decades that NATO was winning, before fleeing in a great rush with dramatic images of people falling off an airplane.

The media deceived the public by presenting the stagnant frontlines as evidence that Russia was not winning. However, in a war of attrition, the direction of the war is measured by attrition rates – the losses on each side. Territorial control comes after the adversary has been exhausted as territorial expansion is very costly in such high-intensity warfare with powerful defensive lines. The attrition rates have throughout the war been extremely unfavourable to Ukraine, and they continuously get worse. The current collapse of the Ukrainian frontlines was very predictable as the manpower and weaponry had been exhausted.

Why has the former narrative expired? The public could be misled by fake attrition rates, yet it is not possible to cover up territorial changes after the eventual breaking point. Furthermore, the proxy war was beneficial to NATO when the Russians and Ukrainians were bleeding each other without any significant territorial changes. Once the Ukrainians are exhausted and begin to lose strategic territory, it is no longer in the interest of NATO to continue the war.

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staff&sentence=sentence&in_blogs=6">Staff, Alahed News

Hezbollah issued the following statement: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. "Let those who would sacrifice this life for the Hereafter fight in the cause of Allah. And whoever fights in Allah’s cause—whether they achieve martyrdom or victory—We will honor them with a great reward." Allah Almighty has spoken the truth.

His Eminence, the Master of the Resistance and the righteous servant has passed away to be with his Lord, who is pleased with him as a great martyr and a heroic, courageous, brave, wise, insightful, and faithful leader. He has joined the caravan of martyrs of the eternal, luminous Karbala in the divine path of faith in the footsteps of the prophets and martyred imams.

His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, has joined his great immortal martyred comrades, whose path he led for over thirty years. During this period, he led them from one victory to another, from succeeding the Master of the Martyrs of the Islamic Resistance in 1992 until the liberation of Lebanon in 2000 to the glorious divine victory in 2006, to all the battles of honor and sacrifice, and to the battle of support and heroism in support of Palestine, Gaza, and the oppressed Palestinian people.

We offer our condolences to the Master of the Age [Imam Mahdi], the Guardian of the Muslims, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the great religious references, the mujahideen, the faithful, the nation of resistance, our patient and struggling Lebanese people, the entire Islamic nation, all the free and oppressed people in the world, and his honorable and patient family.

We congratulate His Eminence, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on receiving the highest divine medal – Imam Hussein’s medal. He has fulfilled his most precious wish and the highest ranks of faith and pure belief – becoming a martyr on the path of Al-Quds and Palestine. We offer our condolences and congratulations to his martyred companions, who joined his pure and holy procession following the treacherous Zionist raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

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Sasha Latypova
Due Diligence and Art

(Making bread, watercolor, 9x12 in)

Moderna cuts R&D budget by $1.1B, Charles River lays off 3% staff.

According to Endpoint News, Moderna is in financial trouble. They are not even “break-even”, i.e. not generating positive cash flow from operations! This is after Trump’s Operation Warp Speed showered $10B+ on them in a span of about 18 months. Where did all this money go? Swiss vaults? Secret underground bases in Antarctica where Bancel is planning to hide out for the duration of Armageddon? I don’t know, I am not well versed in these conspiracies.

💬 To kick off its annual R&D day in New York, Moderna said Thursday that it will slash its annual spending on research and development by $1.1 billion by 2027. The biotech will also stop developing five early-stage programs, place other drugs on the backburner and focus on a handful of late-stage mRNA medicines.

Simultaneously, Moderna overhauled its long-term financial projections, and it now forecasts the company’s break-even point in 2028 instead of 2026. The shake-up will not include major layoffs, Bancel told Endpoints News, and he envisions the company staying around its 6,000-employee headcount for the next three to five years.

But, you see, according to Bancel, this is because “it’s working!”, just like your beautiful mRNA shot is working as promised…

💬 “It’s a moment of evolution, in the sense the platform is working, which is the most important thing,” Bancel said. “We just want to be responsible and financially disciplined.”

Moderna’s stock price $MRNA has fallen over 80% over the past three years, erasing about $150 billion in market value from its all-time, pandemic highs. The Wall Street is not impressed:

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Daniele Ganser
Journal of 9/11 Studies

The “Strategy of Tension” in the Cold War Period *

[06/02/14] Historians today and in the coming years face a challenging task: they must write the history of the events of September 11, 2001. What they write will be taught in history classes. But what will they write? Will they write that Osama Bin Laden sent 19 Muslims to launch a surprise attack on the U.S.? Or will they write that the administration of President George W. Bush was responsible for the attack, either constructing it or deliberately permitting it in order to shock the U.S. population and to create a pretext for increasing military spending and attacking Afghanistan and Iraq?

Having examined much of the data related to the 9/11 events, I am convinced a new and thorough investigation is needed. But when I have questioned the official narrative of 9/11 in my native Switzerland I have encountered vigorous objections from people. Why would any government in the world, they have asked, attack its own population or, only slightly less criminal, deliberately allow a foreign group to carry out such an attack? While brutal dictatorships, such as the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, are known to have had little respect for the life and dignity of their citizens, surely a Western democracy, the thinking goes, would not engage in such an abuse of power. And if criminal elements within a Western democracy, in North America or in Europe, had engaged in such a crime, would not elected officials or the media find out and report on it? Is it imaginable that criminal persons within a government could commit terrorist operations against innocent citizens, who support the very same government with the taxes they pay every year? Would nobody notice? These are difficult questions, even for academics who specialize in the history of secret warfare. But in fact, there are historical examples of such operations being implemented by Western democracies.

In this essay, I will not deal directly with 9/11 but will look at what we can learn from history. I will report on some of the newest academic data about secret warfare during the Cold War. A secret military strategy that targets domestic populations with terrorism does indeed exist. It is called the “strategy of tension.” And it was implemented by Western democracies.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are in the midst of converging crises caused by the failed counteroffensive, the forcible conscription policy, and Zelensky’s Kursk blunder, which are leading to more desertions, defeats, and ultimately more desperation.

CNN carried out a rare act of journalistic service with their detailed report about how “Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion”. It candidly describes the numerous problems afflicting the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) at this pivotal moment in the conflict as they continue to occupy part of Kursk but are still losing ground in Donbass. Their story begins by introducing a battalion commander who lost most of the around 800 men under his control.

This figure couldn’t take it anymore and thus transferred to a cushy military administrative job in Kiev. He and the five others who CNN spoke to when researching their report informed them that “desertion and insubordination are becoming a widespread problem, especially among newly recruited soldiers.” In the words of one commander, “Not all mobilized soldiers are leaving their positions, but the majority are…They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army.”

The reader is then informed that these troops are forcibly conscripted, thus adding context to why they desert, but they also claimed that morale problems began to infect the armed forces’ ranks during the now-resolved impasse over more American aid to Ukraine. While that likely played a role, CNN conspicuously omits to mention last summer’s failed counteroffensive, which proved that Ukraine is unable to reconquer its lost lands despite all the hype and the aid that it received up until that point.

Moving along after having clarified the real reason behind the UAF’s plunging morale over the past year, drones have made the battlefield more unbearable than before, and the amount of time between rotations has grown since some troops simply can’t leave their positions without risking their lives. CNN then added that “In just the first four months of 2024, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against almost 19,000 soldiers who either abandoned their posts or deserted”.

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Semyon Boykov (Семен Бойков)
Izvestia

How the West now is helping the Ukrainian military

The operation of the AFU in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of special services of the USA, Great Britain, and Poland. This was reported to Izvestia by the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service. They added that the units involved in the attack had undergone combat alignment in training centers in Britain and Germany. Experts emphasize that the Ukrainian attack is essentially doomed to failure. Moreover, Moscow will not negotiate with Kyiv now because of its aggressive actions. About why the West decided to enter the Russian region, and how advisers of the North Atlantic Alliance countries are now helping the AFU, [is covered below based on the information obtained by] “Izvestia”.

Who was preparing Ukraine for an attack on the Kursk Region?

The Foreign Intelligence Service has reliable information about the participation of NATO countries in preparing and carrying out a terrorist attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the border areas of the Kursk Region, the SVR press bureau has told Izvestiya. They specified that due to the deteriorating situation of the Ukrainian troops at several sections of the line of contact in the SVR zone, Western handlers have been actively pushing Kyiv in recent months to move military operations deep into Russian territory, including to provoke an upsurge in anti-government sentiments and destabilize the internal political situation in Russia.

💬 “According to available information, the AFU operation in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of special services of the United States, Great Britain, and Poland. The units involved in it underwent combat training in training centers in Great Britain and Germany. Military advisers from NATO countries are providing assistance in the management of AFU units invading the territory of Russia and in the use by Ukrainians of Western models of military equipment. The alliance countries also provide the Ukrainian military with satellite recon-naissance data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of the operation,” the SVR said.

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Komnenos B. (Κομνηνός Β.)
War News 24/7

Russians: "American generals planned the Ukrainian operation"

The grip on the Ukrainian invasion force tightens as the Russian Army's air force, artillery, and drones destroyed over 220 tanks with Kyiv's losses now exceeding 2,000 men.

The situation is gradually beginning to stabilise with Russian forces attempting to cut off and encircle the Ukrainian invasion force.

The upper hand, slowly and steadily, seems to be taken by Russian forces in the areas invaded last week by Ukrainian and Western well-trained commandos.

💬 "There is no stable front line in the Kursk region: the enemy is trying to gain territory in some areas, but Ukrainian troops have been successfully blocked," an official very close to the governor of Russia's Kursk province made known. He added: "The situation remains difficult but manageable and controllable. Individual groups of enemy troops are being destroyed and fighting continues in several areas."

Ukraine has lost up to 420 troops and 55 armored vehicles in the last 24 hours in the Kursk region, according to the Russian defense ministry. The Russian MoD added that Ukraine's total losses in the area amounted to 2030 soldiers, 35 tanks, more than 220 other armored vehicles, and four air defense systems.

Earlier today the commander of the special forces unit "Akhmat", Apty Alaudinov, announced that most of the first echelon of Ukrainian troops and resources that entered Russia's Kursk province last week have been destroyed and the situation is under control.

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Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian military
intelligence services (© Serhiy Morgunov for WaPo via Getty)

The US’ internal policymaking dynamics have shifted since the start of Russia’s special operation.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the Rossiya 1 TV channel that the US heeded his country’s demand last month to force Ukraine to call off a major provocation that his country believed had American backing and which would have dramatically escalated tensions if it happened. He strongly hinted that this was supposed to be an assassination attempt against Putin and new Defense Minister Andrey Belousov at St. Petersburg’s Naval Day Parade on 28 July in order to generate a “media effect”.

Ryabkov’s remarks follow Belousov’s call to his American counterpart Lloyd Austin on 12 July, the content of which was first reported by the New York Times (NYT) on 26 July, where he conveyed Russia’s demand for the US to force Ukraine to call off its plans. One day later on 13 July, which was coincidentally the same day that an assassination attempt was made against Trump, Ukrainian military-intelligence chief Kirill Budanov confirmed that his country had indeed tried to kill Putin in the past but obviously failed.

His candid admission prompted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to accuse the US of funding such attempts and allege that Western countries had also directly participated in them. This scandalous development wasn’t given the attention that it deserved due to the fallout from Trump’s attempted assassination, which took priority in the global media cycle, hence why most observers weren’t even aware of Budanov’s admission and Zakharova’s response.

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