🚨HORRIBLE: Israeli forces assassinated journalist Hassan Esleih @hassaneslayeh in a strike on the burns unit inside the reception building of Nasser Medical Complex, as he was receiving treatment from a previous Israeli attack.

Hassan was a legend a symbol of honest, fast… pic.twitter.com/UqIcIzJqVm

— Nour Naim| نُور (@NourNaim88) May 13, 2025

The killing of Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih inside Nasser Hospital underscores "Israel's" systematic targeting of the press, sparking global outrage and urgent demands for accountability.
Listen | In the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces bombed the burn unit of Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killing several Palestinians, including renowned journalist Hassan Eslaih, whose powerful and unflinching photography has brought global attention to the harrowing massacres committed since the onset of the Israeli genocide. ● Eslaih had been undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in a prior Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent housing multiple journalists, making his assassination a stark symbol of the ongoing targeting of media professionals in the Strip. ● Eslaih’s killing adds to the growing toll of journalists killed in Gaza, underlining the high risks facing media workers amid the ongoing Israeli genocide.

■ Israeli strike kills Palestinian journalist receiving treatment in Gaza hospital (MEE)

HAMZA YUSUF | Journalists from five British media outlets have criticised the way their own organisations cover Israel-Palestine | Journalists working at Britain’s most prestigious newspapers and TV channels have expressed concern at pro-Israel bias inside their organisations. Speaking exclusively to Declassified, half a dozen current and former staff at the BBC, Sky, ITN, the Guardian and the Times have disclosed the extent of anti-Palestinian prejudice in their newsrooms. ■ All of the journalists requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisals. Despite working for a range of outlets from across the political spectrum, they painted a consistent picture of the obstacles faced by reporters who want to humanise Palestinians or scrutinise Israeli government narratives.

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on a controversial bill that proposes fines or prison terms for Americans participating in boycotts of Israel or Israeli settlements, promoted by international governmental organizations such as the UN or EU. | The House is scheduled to vote Monday on the contentious anti-boycott act, which seeks to penalize American citizens with fines up to $1 million or prison terms as long as 20 years for boycotting the Israeli regime. ● Sponsored by pro-Israel congressmen Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer, the bill will broaden the US anti-boycott law by targeting voluntary, values-based political actions undertaken by American citizens. ● The underlying objective is to shield the Israeli regime from non-violent international pressure campaigns, notably the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS). ● Rights groups warned that the legislation will criminalize constitutionally protected political expression. ● The move, according to rights groups, is part of a broader push by the US government to suppress opposition to Israeli genocide, apartheid, and illegal settlement expansion, under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism.

■ Israeli war on Gaza: 77 new martyrs in 24 hours (Al Mayadeen)
■ Israeli Strikes Kill 17 in Gaza as Children Starve Under Blockade (Antiwar)

"The political system based on democratic principles, such as competition, free expression of people’s will, rights and freedoms, has become a thing of the past," speaker of the Russian State DumaVyacheslav Volodin said | European countries are turning into totalitarian regimes led by unpopular politicians and parties, speaker of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin said, commenting on the designation of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as "right-wing extremist."

💬 "Today, popular politicians in Germany, France, Romania, and Moldova are prosecuted, and parties are banned. European countries are turning into totalitarian regimes led by unpopular politicians and parties," he wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that what is happening there can be described as a "collapse of democracy in Europe." ■ "As soon as the leader of France’s National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, became the most popular politician having outstripped incumbent President [Emmanuel] Macron in ratings, she was deprived of electoral rights for five years and brought to criminal responsibility," he noted.

He also pointed to the annulment of the November 2024 election in Romania, which were won by opposition politician Calin Georgescu, who was barred from taking part in a new election. Apart from that, Evghenia Gutsul, the head of Moldova’s Gagauz autonomy, who refused to support the Moldovan authorities’ course toward European integration, was arrested ahead of parliamentary elections, he recalled.

💬 "The political system based on democratic principles, such as competition, free expression of people’s will, rights and freedoms, has become a thing of the past," he emphasized.

■ Germany is ‘tyranny in disguise’ – Rubio (RT) (Rubio on X)

In a stunning revelation with implications for free speech and government overreach, Secretary of State Marco Rubio disclosed on April 30, 2025, that the Biden administration’s State Department maintained secret dossiers labeling American citizens as “vectors of disinformation.” | Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that the Biden administration’s State Department maintained secret files labeling U.S. citizens, including a Trump-era official, as "vectors of disinformation," raising concerns about government overreach and censorship. ■ Originally created under Obama to combat foreign disinformation, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) expanded to target domestic critics, funding groups like the Global Disinformation Index to blacklist conservative outlets (e.g., Newsmax, NY Post) as "high risk."

Kit Klarenberg | Across the United States and much of the West, criticism of Israel and solidarity with Palestine are increasingly being criminalized—a project long championed by Israel’s government and its powerful lobbying networks. | In February 2020, Israeli leader and internationally wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu proudly declared that Tel Aviv had “promoted laws in most U.S. states” to punish those who boycott Israel, offering a rare glimpse into the foreign forces eroding free speech in the American heartland. ■ Since then, anti-boycott laws have quietly spread to dozens of states, forcing public institutions, businesses, and even individual contractors to pledge loyalty to Israel—or risk losing jobs, contracts, and funding. What began as a niche effort to shield Tel Aviv from grassroots criticism has rapidly escalated into a sweeping assault on free speech across the Western world. ■ The overwhelming majority of states now boast laws making it illegal for local entities, including hospitals and schools, to work with individuals or companies that boycott Israel. For example, in 2016, Indiana’s Senate unanimously passed a law calling for mandatory divestment by state agencies, commercial enterprises, and nonprofit organizations—including universities—from any firm involved in “the promotion of activities to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel.”

✅ Facing Prison Time in Germany for Criticizing an Israeli Journalist: The Case of Hüseyin Dogru (Alan Macleod)

Leo’s Newsletter | LEGENDARY BRITISH JOURNALIST: You've been 'fed steady diet of propaganda rubbish' about Ukraine and 'the invented Russian menace'. Not since the Iraq War and those notoriously elusive 'weapons of mass destruction' have the people of America and Europe been told bigger lies by their warmongering political leaders. | Peter Hitchens, in an Op-Ed published by the Daily Mail, says he learned long ago that governments specialize in lying and in getting others, especially the mainstream corporate media, to lie for them. “It is what they do,” he writes. And yet, seldom has he seen such a massive cloud of lies as we face now with regard to the war in Ukraine.

💬 “There has been nothing like it since we were all lied to about the Iraq invasion, with bilge about fictional ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’. The liars were caught. And they learned from it. They learned to lie more skillfully.”

Former health secretary being sued by ex-MP Andrew Bridgen over post on X in January 2023 | Matt Hancock, a former health secretary, is being sued by Andrew Bridgen over a post on X in January 2023. Mr Bridgen, the former North West Leicestershire MP, shared a link to an article concerning data about deaths and other adverse reactions linked to Covid vaccines, stating: 💬 "As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust." Hours later, Mr Hancock shared a video of him asking a question in the Commons, captioned:

💬 “The disgusting and dangerous anti-Semitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories spouted by a sitting MP this morning are unacceptable and have absolutely no place in our society." (Source)

He unsuccessfully asked a judge to throw out the case last year, and at a hearing in March asked the court in London to rule in his favour before a trial. Mr Bridgen opposed the application, with his barristers calling it a “desperate last throw of the dice”.

In another attempt to restrict freedom of speech and democracy the European Union decided to block the access for its citizens to the web page of Strategic Culture. The decision will take effect from April 8. To bypass the Internet censorship of the European Union and get an accurate and objective view on the latest events around the world please use VPN services where you can choose any country except for the members of the European Union.

Jonathan Cook | Once again the UK state broadcaster goes missing in action – this time at the discovery of a mass grave of emergency workers executed by Israel | The BBC’s news verification service, Verify, digitally reconstructed a residential tower block in Mandalay earlier this week to show how it had collapsed in a huge earthquake on March 28 in Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia largely cut off from the outside world. The broadcaster painstakingly pieced together damage to other parts of the city using a combination of phone videos, satellite imagery and Nasa heat detection images.

■ Global Day of Action: Pro-Palestine rallies sweep cities worldwide (Al Mayadeen)
■ Dhaka Reporters Unity Condemns Israeli Atrocities in Gaza and Rafah, Calls for Global Action (pressenza)
✅ UN Exposes Systematic Israeli Rape of Palestinians (Kit Klarenberg)

■ US bypassing law to fund 'Israel' despite rights abuses, lawsuit says (Al Mayadeen)
⚡ WELCOME TO HELL: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps (B'Tselem)
■ Horrendous photos from Megiddo Concentration Camp (10/14/24)
■ 1,200 Palestinians endure systematic torture in Israeli prisons (09/26/24)
■ 'Everyone was naked and bleeding': Israeli torture of Palestinians exposed (08/07/24)
■ 'Israel' used waterboarding, unleashed dogs on Gaza detainees: UN (08/02/24 )
■ Israeli lawmaker defends anal rape of Palestinian captives (08/01/24)
■ Mohammad Al-Sabbar 8th Palestinian Detainee Martyred behind ‘Israeli’ Bars since Oct.7 (02/09/24)

Kit Knightly | The UK’s Online Safety Act officially came into force two weeks ago, and they have wasted no time using it. | It’s a bland piece of dishonesty by omission, pretending to objectivity even as it hides behind language. They only specifically mention child porn and terrorism and other criminal behaviour as “illegal content”, but don’t mention that the act is about far more than child porn and drugs. ■ It has entire sections dedicated to “false communication offenses” – meaning publishing material the state has deemed “misinformation”, and a second section specifically and explicitly giving newspapers and media companies immunity from those offences.

Alan MacLeod | Betar has regularly attempted to intimidate or shut down movements or gatherings protesting Israeli crimes. | A far-right, pro-Israel group with a history of support for terror and genocide is working closely with the Trump administration, preparing dossiers on thousands of pro-Palestine figures it wants deported from the United States. Betar U.S. is known to have had several meetings with senior government officials and has claimed credit for the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the nationwide anti-genocide student demonstrations that began at Columbia University last year. ■ Ross Glick, the group’s executive director until last month, noted that he met with a diverse set of influential lawmakers, including Democratic senator John Fetterman and aides to the Republican senators Ted Cruz and James Lankford, and that all supported Betar U.S.’ campaign to rid the country of thousands of “terror supporters.” ■ Shortly after Glick’s trip to Washington, D.C., Trump signed an executive order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” that promises “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws,” to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation,” and to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”

A 14-year-old was also killed in the attack that killed staff from Russia’s Izvestia newspaper and Zvezda TV channel. | A Ukrainian rocket attack killed six people, including three Russian state media workers, in eastern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region, according to Russian news organisations and officials. ● The attack on Monday killed war correspondent Alexander Fedorchak, a journalist from Russia’s main pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper, as well as a camera operator, Andrei Panov, who worked for Russian television channel Zvezda, and the channel’s driver, Alexander Sirkeli, the Moscow-appointed governor of the Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said.

After reporting for months from Donbass, TV9 editor Manish Jha shared his perspective of covering the conflict with RT | Indian journalist Manish Jha, Editor at TV9 Network, spoke to RT following his recent trip to the Zaporozhye region, including a visit to the embattled Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Drawing on months of on-the-ground reporting in Donbass, Jha offered a critical take on how major global media outlets have covered the conflict in Ukraine.

💬 Most mainstream media – be it CNN, The Washington Post, or Reuters – are treated like the Bible,” Jha said. “But when I came here, when I visited places in Donbass, Zaporozhye, Kherson – I started realizing how they lie to the entire world.” ● Recalling one particularly harrowing incident, Jha said: “I was in Donetsk when it was heavily shelled. A rocket hit a bus right in front of me, and eight people were burned alive. I witnessed it while doing live reporting for my network. The next morning, I checked international media to see what they reported – and not a single line. That moment I realized we need to be independent and tell the truth to the world.”

■ Russia Urges World to Condemn Ukrainian Deadly Attack on Russian Journalists (Sputnik)

Israeli strikes killed Hossam Shabat, a reporter for Al Jazeera, and Mohammad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today TV | On Monday, the Israeli military killed two journalists in Gaza in separate attacks, continuing the IDF’s rampant targeting of Palestinian reporters. ● Mohammad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today TV, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a home near the southern city of Khan Younis. Two women were also killed by the attack. ● In northern Gaza, 23-year-old Hossam Shabat, a reporter for Al Jazeera, was killed by an Israeli strike on his car. Shabat was also a contributor to the American news site Drop Site News. He was previously put on a kill list by the IDF, which accused him of being a “terrorist” without providing evidence. [...] Al Jazeera reported that Israeli attacks on Gaza on Monday had killed at least 65 Palestinians, a number that’s expected to rise as relentless Israeli strikes continue.

Exclusive: Former IDF chief of staff met with Britain’s top journalists to promote Israel’s war on Gaza. | Israel’s former top military officer, General Aviv Kohavi held private meetings with the editors of major British news organisations one month after the Gaza bombing began, Declassified can reveal. The meetings took place with Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Richard Burgess, director of news content at the BBC, and Roula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times.

The slain reporter, Jamie White, was on a Ukrainian “hit list,” his colleague Alex Jones has claimed | Jamie White, a senior editor for InfoWars, was shot and killed outside his Austin, Texas, apartment on Sunday night, in what police and his family believe to be a “tragic accident.” The Austin Police Department reported that White, 36, was found with gunshot wounds in the parking lot of his apartment complex shortly before midnight on Sunday. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead approximately 20 minutes later. Investigators believe White interrupted suspects attempting to burglarize his vehicle, prompting them to open fire. The suspects fled the scene, and no arrests have been made. ● Alex Jones mourned his “brutally murdered” colleague, blaming White’s death in part on the policies of Soros-backed Austin District Attorney José Garza. He also recalled that White had been included in a Ukrainian “enemy” list, suggesting the possibility of a more complex motive behind the killing.

Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira died behind bars in Ukraine in January 2024 | The fact that only Moscow cared about the fate of US blogger Gonzalo Lira, who died in a Ukrainian prison last year, is a sign of the “deepest crisis” affecting the international bodies that are supposed to protect journalists, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Lira, a Chilean-American citizen, passed away behind bars in Ukraine in January 2024, while awaiting trial for “systematically justifying the Russian aggression.” ● Zakharova recalled the ordeal of the US journalist during a conference on the development of modern media at the Moscow School of Economics (MSE) on Tuesday. “Has anyone else talked about Gonzalo Lira? An American journalist, He had a US passport. Has anyone talked about him besides Russia? Try to remember. Nobody did,” she insisted. When asked about Lira’s incarceration, the White House and the US State Department replied with “strategic silence, generously paid for by USAID, an American agency that supposedly promotes international development. It is ridiculous,” the spokeswoman stressed.

■ Worthy vs. Unworthy Victims: Study Reveals Media’s Selective Coverage of Navalny and Lira (02/29/24)
■ The US government has allowed Ukraine to kill an American journalist who criticised ‘dictator’ Zelensky (01/14/24)
■ Gonzalo Lira - Dead (01/12/24)
■ From Gonzalo Lira - Out of Prison - Escaping . . . (08/01/23)
■ Gonzalo Lira arrested by Ukronazis (05/07/23)

On the EU's authoritarian censorship law—the Digital Services Act—under which Elon Musk was just put on formal notice for permitting "disinformation" on X:

"This is a pure censorship regime. There's no other way to describe it. No drama is needed, no hyperbole.

This is a… pic.twitter.com/g1ucpcOJyl

— System Update (@SystemUpdate_) October 11, 2023

Hamza Yusuf | Journalists from five British media outlets have criticised the way their own organisations cover Israel-Palestine. | Journalists working at Britain’s most prestigious newspapers and TV channels have expressed concern at pro-Israel bias inside their organisations. Speaking exclusively to Declassified, half a dozen current and former staff at the BBC, Sky, ITN, the Guardian and the Times have disclosed the extent of anti-Palestinian prejudice in their newsrooms.

Glenn Diesen | My Encounter with these “NGOs” ■ USAID, NED and other NGOs also operate in countries allied with the US to prevent dissent and preserve bloc discipline. The Ukraine Crisis Media Centre wrote an entire article smearing me in its project of “shady horses of Russian propaganda”, which listed false accusations such as being a “defender of Russia’s aggression”. The evidence for the absurd accusations included my conversations with Professor John Mearsheimer and former US Senator Ron Paul, which are labelled Kremlin “mouthpieces” by this NGO.[2] The Norwegian government (my own government) is also listed as a donor to this project of intimidation and smears. ■ The US foreign ministry, the National Endowment for Democracy, and my own government also finance the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, another “human rights NGO”, which has pursued a project of systematic intimidation against me for the past 4 years. Their tactics against me include regular smear pieces in the media, almost weekly tweets labelling me a propagandist for Russia, letters and phone calls to the head of my university to end my position as a professor, calls on other academics to go against me, efforts to cancel me from events where I have been invited to speak, etc. After successfully whipping up hatred in the public, the police advised me to hide my address and phone number. At this point, an employee at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee published a picture of my house on social media. These are the activities that my own government finances under the guise of supporting an “NGO” that promotes democracy and human rights. In response to the purge of academic freedom, I am now in the process of acquiring another citizenship to relocate to a country where civil society is not outsourced to fake NGOs pushing war propaganda and censorship.

Prime minister viktor orban has announced plans to disclose foreign funding to organizations that undermine his government. | Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared that he will implement measures ensuring the transparency of aid from the United States to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media outlets critical of his government. Speaking on state radio on Friday, Orban emphasized the need to “eliminate these foreign networks” that meddle in the country’s domestic affairs, referencing US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs. ● An ally of US President Donald Trump, Orban highlighted the Trump administration’s plan to integrate USAID into the State Department, aligning it with the “America First” policy.

Moon of Alabama | What is the meaning of 'independent' in English language? | Following the recent revelations that many outlets and journalist are financed directly or indirectly by U.S. government organization like USAID or NED the mainstream media have set out to redefine the meaning of 'independent'. 'Independent' now seem to be anyone how gets his paycheck from the U.S. while producing reports or rumors designed to fit U.S. policy narratives.

I told you guys you’d go nuts when you see this 😂 https://t.co/BbdmIIxHxm pic.twitter.com/8zYFSzfY36

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 8, 2025

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, "Internews Network" (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and "training” over…

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

Wikipedia was largely neutral in its early years, but by 2006, Sanger says, it had begun shifting toward “leftist propaganda.” | Wikipedia has shed its veneer of neutrality, becoming a liberal propaganda machine - a fact acknowledged by its co-founder Larry Sanger and even Wikipedia itself.

Natacha Rey has been prosecuted in France for alleging that Brigitte Macron underwent a sex change | The journalist who claimed that the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron was actually born a man is reportedly seeking political asylum in Russia. In an interview with Izvestia, Natacha Rey and her lawyer, Francois Danglehant, have cited “persecution” in France as the reason for her decision. ● Rey alleged in 2021 that Brigitte Macron is actually the transgender identity of her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux. Rey spent three years researching Macron’s supposed secret and later published a video on her findings on social media. Since then, she has been the subject of judicial action in France. ● Explaining her decision to seek asylum in Russia, Rey described the country as a great democracy compared to France, which, in her view, persecutes the political opposition and restricts freedom of speech.

In the aftermath of the Capitol riot, Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts, citing his use of the platform to spread false claims of election fraud and repeatedly insist he had won the 2020 election. | Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit with US President Donald Trump, stemming from the company's decision to suspend his accounts following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. ● The settlement, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by a Meta spokesperson, resolves the legal dispute initiated by Trump in 2021. ● According to The Wall Street Journal, the majority of the settlement—$22 million—will be allocated to funding Trump’s presidential library. The remaining amount will cover legal fees and compensate other plaintiffs involved in the case. ● Trump's lawsuit against Facebook, now under its parent company Meta, was one of several legal actions he took against social media companies in response to their actions after January 6.

Eloise Goldsmith | "Physically dragging out a reporter from the State Department briefing room while preaching press freedom to the rest of the world is the perfect example of the Biden administration's love affair with double standards and duplicity," said one foreign policy observer. | Two journalists were removed from Secretary of State Antony Blinken's final news conference on Thursday after interrupting Blinken's remarks to heckle him about the United States' policy toward Gaza, a day after a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel was announced. One of the reporters, independent journalist Sam Husseini, was physically carried out of the briefing room by security. ■ Less than two minutes into Blinken's remarks, as he was thanking the reporters in the attendance for "asking tough questions," Max Blumenthal, the editor in chief of The Grayzone—an independent news—addressed Blinken, saying loudly in reference to the cease-fire deal:"300 reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs. Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?" On Wednesday, President Biden announced the breakthrough, saying that “this is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring." ■ "Why did you sacrifice the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism," Blumenthal continued, before being led to the door. "How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?" he yelled. Blumenthal also called out State Department Spokesman Matt Miller, who is briefly visible in a video filmed by the journalist, who charged that Miller "smirked through a genocide."

■ ‘Why Aren’t You in The Hague?’: Journalist Sam Husseini Gets Dragged Out of Blinken’s Last Press Conference

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told the Israeli Knesset that the kind of "genius" behind the Jewish state's pager attack on Lebanon is now needed to fight "antisemitism." | From The Intercept, "ADL Chief Invokes Pager Attack as Inspiration for Taking on Internet Trolls": [According to Greenblatt,] Israel's backers need to think like Israeli spies who secretly installed bombs in electronics all over Lebanon, killing dozens and wounding thousands. 💬 "We need the kind of genius that manufactured Apollo Gold Pagers and infiltrated Hezbollah for over a decade to prepare for this battle," Greenblatt said. "This is the kind of ingenuity and inventiveness that have always been a hallmark of the State of Israel, that have always been a characteristic of the Jewish people. I know we can do it." [...]