Crooked Bough News Round-up

— Iran Launches Surprise Attacks On US Bases As Trump Covers Up Soldier Casualties

 

at 9/23/26 8:06am

Iran’s IRGC has been striking various US targets and an average of two to three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on a daily basis, as gas prices hit working class Americans where it hurts. On this episode of The Target stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh explains how these blows have been compounded by revelations that the Pentagon is concealing its Iran War casualties. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out another ballistic missile attack against what they would later state was a US military base in Jordan, in the latest edition of The Target we cover the story before it was officially announced and put it together with a broader series of strikes on American military targets that are no longer even being acknowledged by US Central Command. Tehran’s preemptive operations are not receiving much attention in the corporate media, despite visual confirmation of them occurring, alongside on the ground reports and later confirmations from Iranian military officials. Combined with the fact that multiple vessels are being targeted in the Strait of Hormuz by the IRGC’s naval forces on a daily basis, this spells a new regional equation. So long as the Iranian attacks are not on a larger scale as to demand a response, the US military is simply pretending as if they are not happening at all. The previously announced equation was that Iran’s civilian infrastructure would be targeted each and every time a tanker is struck in the Persian Gulf. Compounding the US’s declining hegemony and military embarrassments have been reports that the Pentagon has deliberately hid the deaths of a number of American military personnel. According to a bombshell report from the Washington Post, five sources who are familiar with the US’s casualty figures claimed that they knew about four deaths that were not publicly registered by the Pentagon, an additional source said that number could be five. Meanwhile, gas prices are burdening working class Americans who are growing increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos Poll, published this Monday, found that only 17% of US citizens say that they are happy with the federal governments management of the economy. Although it has remained largely out of the mainstream spotlight, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen continues to backfire as it faces new rounds of ballistic missile and drone strikes against their oil infrastructure. The Yemeni Armed Forces continue to liberate territory from Saudi-proxy forces, as airstrikes based upon intelligence granted to Riyadh by officials in Tel Aviv have resulted in a growing number of civilian massacres. Also on the stream, Robert Inlakesh takes an in depth look at the Lebanon front and what its weapons arsenal could mean during the upcoming regional escalation, analysing the Israeli predicament on southern Lebanese occupied lands. Hezbollah had proven it possessed a large range of weapons during its 2024 war with Israel. In 2026, the Party has chosen not to use its strategic arsenal so far, indicating that it is following a carefully calibrated escalation ladder. The post Iran Launches Surprise Attacks On US Bases As Trump Covers Up Soldier Casualties appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarallah, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Middle East, MintPress News, Robert Inlakesh, United States, US-Israel War on Iran, West Asia, Yemen]

— Robert Kraft: The Billionaire Friend of Netanyahu Pulling The Strings Behind the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran Blow Up

 

at 9/17/26 10:37am

The world of pop culture is ablaze with fury, as billionaire plutocrat Robert Kraft successfully pressured Ed Sheeran into dropping Macklemore from his North American tour over the rapper’s pro-Palestine statements.  The incident has ignited widespread outrage, and blown up in the Israel Lobby’s face, and caused all of his supporting artists to quit in protest, and brought worldwide attention to both Israel’s crimes and its attempts to silence dissent across the world.  But who is Robert Kraft? MintPress exposes the American oligarch’s funding of the pro-Israel Lobby, the network of organizations he has built to shut down pro-Palestine activism, and his extremely close personal, political, and financial relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.  Netanyahu’s Right-Hand Man “Israel does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft,” Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the 2019 Genesis Prizes, an Israeli government-backed ceremony that honors prominent individuals (such as Kraft) that have advanced Jewish or Israeli interests with a $1 million prize.  Netanyahu is right. The 85-year-old American businessman and owner of the New England Patriots NFL franchise has dedicated his entire life to advancing the Zionist cause. Kraft married his wife in Israel in 1962 and has made well over 100 trips to the country since, including leading dozens of P.R. missions there, bringing a host of celebrities and sports stars with him. Kraft not only maintains a close personal friendship with Netanyahu, he very likely funded his political rise. His name appears on the “Netanyahu’s Millionaires” document – a leaked, handwritten list penned by the prime minister himself, detailing his wealthiest patrons and those he could most steadfastly rely on to bankroll his political career. Ninety-eight percent of Netanyahu’s funding came from abroad.  When it comes to American politics, Kraft is no less influential, using his monetary power to push the Israeli agenda in Washington. In addition to directly funding Donald Trump, he has spent vast sums bankrolling virtually every group constituting the U.S. Israel Lobby, including:  The American Friends of the Israel Museum The American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) The Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces The Israel Project The Jewish Agency for Israel The Jewish National Fund StandWithUs Robert Kraft, in other words, is the Israel Lobby. Israel’s Big Money Backer He also personally created the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), an extremely well-funded group that purports to be an anti-racist non-profit fighting prejudice across the country. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the FCAS is simply another pro-Israel group using the language of anti-racism to crush grassroots opposition to Israeli actions abroad.  Firstly, many of its key figures are former Israeli officials or lobbyists. For example, the organization’s Director of Partnerships and Strategy, Clara Schwartz, previously served as a secretary to multiple Israeli Ambassadors to the United States. Meanwhile, Maya Buki Dabby, FCAS’ Chief Philanthropy Officer, is the former director of AIPAC, the principal Israel lobbying institution in the United States. Secondly, the FCAS equates anti-Zionism as in the same bracket as support for or denial of the Holocaust, one of the many reasons why its in-house “antisemitism tracker” notes a massive spike in incidents in recent years.   It is difficult to overstate how well-funded and polished this operation is. In one December 2023 pledge alone, Kraft donated $100 million to the organization. Today, Kraft’s Gillette Stadium – which was to host the Sheeran/Macklemore concert until he personally intervened – is home to an enormous command center where vast numbers of staff track anti-Israel, pro-Palestine sentiment across the world and on social media. Critics have dubbed the institution a “massive Zionist surveillance and propaganda center inside Gillette Stadium.” The FCAS has spent enormous amounts of money on high-profile pro-Israel advertising campaigns, including producing numerous ads played during successive Super Bowls. One 2024 commercial features Clarence B. Jones, the former advisor to Martin Luther King, who drafted his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Jones’ message is that there is a growing tidal wave of racist intolerance in America. Not from the likes of Trump (who Kraft donated $1 million to in 2017), but against Jews. The commercial ends by telling viewers to reject anti-Semitism and visit the FCAS project, StandUpToJewishHate.com.   The next year, it was back with another Super Bowl ad, this time featuring Snoop Dogg bemoaning the rise in “hatred,” which, in context, is a reference to opposition to the State of Israel’s policies in West Asia. Numerous commenters quipped that this was the most embarrassing thing the celebrity rapper has ever done for money.  As their content suggests, the commercials were part of a wider FCAS attempt to target black Americans, who are, according to polls, far less likely to support Israel’s genocide and more likely to side with Palestine than the general population. The FCAS, in their own words, see these efforts as part of their plan to “develop social change initiatives and continuously improve the Black-Jewish alliance.”  Silencing Critics of Apartheid Another way in which Kraft has attempted to shape U.S. politics is by trying to keep pro-Palestine voices out of Congress by funding right-wing Democrats standing against progressives and advocates for justice in Palestine. In 2021, for example, he donated to little-known but staunchly pro-Israel candidate Shontel Brown in her contentious face-off for Ohio’s 11th congressional district against Nina Turner, a democratic socialist, national co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 election campaign, and an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies. Vast amounts of pro-Israel money flowed into Brown’s campaign, helping her to defeat Turner. In her acceptance speech, Brown praised Israel and later thanked the Jewish community for “help[ing] me get over the finish line.” Kraft has also given money to pro-Israel Democrats, including David Cicilline; Juan Vargas; Ted Deutch; Jake Auchincloss and Ritchie Torres. His actions, donations and public pronouncements have drawn condemnation from some who have followed them. Sports journalist Dave Zirin, for example, wrote that: “He appears to think that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. For Kraft, it is Jews like myself, rabbis, and Holocaust survivors calling for a ceasefire and a free Palestine that are part of the problem. And Kraft seems to think that opposition to Israel, the IDF, and the AIPAC agenda is antisemitism.” Kraft has been just as ruthless against student opponents of genocide. Amid unprecedented nationwide campus protests for Palestine in 2023 and 2024 (in which estimated 10% of all U.S. students actively participated) the billionaire worked both publicly and privately to crush them.  The epicenter of this movement was Columbia University, where students occupied buildings and set up encampments calling for an end to the college’s complicity in Israeli actions. An angry Kraft sprang into action, publicly announcing that he was cutting the university off from his lavish funding due to its failure to suppress the protests effectively enough. “I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country,” he said in a statement, claiming that Columbia was not protecting its Jewish students. The turning point, Kraft said, was watching a publicity stunt by Shai Davidai, an Israeli-American academic at Columbia, who claimed his access to campus was revoked. Davidai had previously called the student protestors “Nazis” and “terrorists” and called for the National Guard to be set upon the encampment, obliquely referencing the Kent State University Massacre while doing so. Kraft is one of Columbia’s most important donors, giving the institution millions of dollars, including a single $3 million donation to fund the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life. He also vented his frustration on MSNBC, denouncing students taking part as supporters of terrorism. “It’s horrible to me that a group like Hamas can be respected and people in the United States of America can be carrying flags or supporting them … Hamas is preaching the eradication of all Jewish people from the Earth” he said.  In the end, Kraft got his wish, and the protests were ruthlessly stamped out in actions that made headlines across the world. Hundreds of students were arrested, dozens were expelled, and some of its ringleaders were abducted by ICE and faced deportation.  A Coward Choosing Between Two Different Types of Cowardice Kraft and the Israel Lobby have been able to cut down the flowers, but they have not been able to keep the spring from coming. Nationwide disillusionment with Israel and sympathy with Palestine continues to grow, and has manifested in popular culture, including with big acts like Macklemore, who have spoken out against the ongoing genocide. Tens of thousands of impressionable fans heard the rapper speak up every night.  But, like with the Columbia protests, Kraft (with an estimated net worth of over $15 billion) found a way to use his influence to shut down pro-Palestine activism. He organized his fellow stadium owners into intimidating Sheeran, presenting him with an ultimatum: either drop Macklemore from the tour, or be blocked from performing at their stadiums.  In a statement, Kraft described Macklemore’s actions as “deeply offensive” and insinuated – like he did with the Columbia protestors – that he supports terrorist organizations. The ultimatum was presented as a necessary response to stop anti-Semitism. The fact that many of these same stadiums are currently hosting and promoting the tour of Ye (aka Kanye West), a self-identified Nazi who recently released the song, “Heil Hitler,” casts doubt on this sincerity, however.  Kraft leant in to his personal relationship with Sheeran, who attended and even played at his 2022 wedding.  The English pop star immediately folded, agreeing to throw Macklemore under the tour bus. On Tuesday, he released a bizarre, inaccurate, and much panned statement on Instagram explaining his actions – one that has been widely characterized as a spineless post hoc justification for capitulation. Sheeran’s statement begins with a literal both-sidesing of the genocide. “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy,” he wrote, suggesting the level of violence and distress is somehow equal.  He then went out of his way to distance himself from Macklemore  – his close friend of 13 years – claiming that the rapper was only appearing with him because “he asked to join my tour last year and I agreed.” He described Macklemore’s activism as mere “shouting,” before adding that, “If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change.” His statement almost hinted at a relief or an approval that Macklemore was gone, noting that his own music was about “bring[ing] people from all backgrounds and cultures together,” and that “those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum.” “I do not use my professional platform for politics,” he concluded.  This, however, is clearly untrue. He filmed the music video for his song, “2Step” in Ukraine, and subsequently released a remix in collaboration with local group, Antytila, whose members are actively serving in the Ukrainian military. He has appeared on stage carrying an enormous Ukrainian flag and raised money for various Ukrainian charities.  The difference between Ukraine and Palestine, of course, is that with the former, virtually the entire Western establishment supports it, rendering it safe and “apolitical.” Sheeran has also publicly endorsed the Labour Party on multiple occasions, slammed the Conservative U.K. government for their handling of Brexit, and urged Congress to pass pro-LGBT legislation.  Furthermore, he has not even been absent on the Israel/Palestine issue, and has allowed himself to be used in official Israeli government propaganda. In September 2024, he met with Noa Argamani, an Israeli captured by Hamas during the October 7 attacks. The meeting, and Sheeran’s smiling face, was posted to the State of Israel’s official social media channels, with no public pushback from the singer.  Sheeran also tried to wash his hands of any agency in the matter, insisting that, “Macklemore coming off the tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.” Thus, he presents himself as a powerless bystander in the affair, as if, in his position as the headline act and a global superstar, he could not have stood up for his friend and co-worker if he was inclined to.  Anticipating that some might challenge this, Sheeran presented the act as a fait accompli, and insisted that he was morally obligated to continue, as a service to all the other poor artists on the tour whose livelihoods depended on its continuation. “I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living,” he explained.  This seemingly courageous decision was quickly undermined however, as every single support act – four separate acts plus Sheeran’s own live band – announced in unison that they would be pulling out of the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and the Palestinian people. This, despite the fact that few of them have even 0.1% of the estimated $400 million net worth of Sheeran.  Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed, said Finneas. Meanwhile, Beoga condemned what they described as “the silencing of Macklemore by Zionist lobbies.” Sheeran appeared to try to head off any accusations by personally and publicly absolving himself, concluding that: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.” Yet the statements of the support artists all made clear that it was precisely because they felt their inaction would make them complicit in Israel’s crimes, hence their decision to withdraw from the tour.  Standing Up For What Is Right Sheeran’s much-mocked statement stands in stark contrast to Macklemore’s, which has been praised for its graciousness, even describing Sheeran as a “friend” and a “brother,” despite Sheeran’s notable coolness to him, and his decision to betray him. First of all, he states, “I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim,” adding: “The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don’t lose sight of that.” Even as he explained Sheeran’s treachery, Macklemore was magnanimous, and made excuses for his behavior. “Ed was in a fucked up position,” he said, noting that “He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with [i.e. Kraft].” Indeed, Sheeran comes off across better in Macklemore’s statement than he does his own.  Sheeran told him that he “doesn’t take sides.” Macklemore, however, explained that: “[T]here is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.” The rapper also succinctly explained exactly why pro-Israel billionaires like Kraft fear him and his cultural power so much. “If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that’s why this time it became so important to silence me.” A Tipping Point For now, Sheeran’s decision to appease Kraft and the Israel Lobby appears to have completely backfired – for both parties. Sheeran has gone viral for the wrong reasons, with dozens of parody songs mocking his actions. Having lost every supporting artist (including his own live band), his tour is in a shambles, and he faces the prospect of having to fill a multi-hour show with nothing but himself and a guitar.  In effect, then, in one fell swoop, he has nuked his own tour, destroyed his credibility and his “good guy” reputation, and stabbed his longtime friend in the back, all to appease an octogenarian Zionist Epstein-adjacent billionaire.  The issue has escaped contagion from the mere political realm and has shot to prominence to become the number one trending story worldwide, with pop stars from across the planet weighing in on Sheeran’s perceived obsequiousness to power. In Ireland, a country Sheeran strongly associates with due to his heritage, the phrase “He’s English” trended on social media – a measure of the widespread rejection the singer is facing. “Ed Sheeran should never feel welcome in Ireland ever again,” ran the headline of one article in The Irish Mirror.  The acts who did withdraw, however, are gaining massive new followings online, while other artists have already been emboldened by the incident to speak up for Palestine on stage.  Kraft, meanwhile, openly played his hand and tried to use his influence as a power play. Never has there been a clearer example that pro-Israel billionaires really do control our media and culture, and attempt to suppress free speech.  And the fact that Ye is performing at many of the same venues Macklemore is banned from makes it more obvious than ever that this has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. In effect, then, Kraft has Streisanded himself in order to stop a few pro-Palestine messages slipping through. He may have been able to suppress college protestors, but he did not count on the pushback from the music community, who have elevated his actions into international headlines.  In an effort to stem the torrent of bad publicity, Kraft announced that he and Sheeran would donate millions to unspecified aid efforts in the Middle East “region.” But without specifying even a destination country for the money, let alone an organization, this was immediately publicly interpreted as another cash transfer to Israel under the guise of helping Palestinians.  Ultimately, what this story underlines is that power operates best when it is hidden in the shadows. Kraft, however, has inadvertently shone a worldwide spotlight on his own operations, on Israel’s crimes, and on how pro-Israel billionaires silence free speech in the U.S. His miscalculation risks becoming a monumental cultural tipping point where pro-Palestine activism goes truly mainstream, and supporting Israel becomes untenable.    Alan Macleod Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post Robert Kraft: The Billionaire Friend of Netanyahu Pulling The Strings Behind the Macklemore/Ed Sheeran Blow Up appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Front Page: National, Investigations, National, News, Top Story]

— Iran Targets US Warships In Shock Clashes Ongoing In Strait Of Hormuz-Saudi Gas Pipeline Eliminated

 

at 9/15/26 3:12pm

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continue to target US vessels and tankers violating the Strait of Hormuz blockade, as its advanced weapons program has aided its allies in Yemen to become the regions second most feared ballistic missile power. On this episode of The Target Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh looks at the latest developments inflicting major blows on the international oil market. After managing to capture the entire West Coast of Yemen last week, the Ansarallah-led government’s forces continue to close in on the strategically important cities of Marib and Taiz, largely considered the stepping stones to a takeover of Aden in the south. If the Yemeni Armed Forces succeed, they could either advance upon or negotiate to seize control of the most vital Port City currently under the control of Saudi Arabia’s proxy forces. The city of Aden, if it falls into the hands of the Ansarallah-led government, will mean the de facto end of the Saudi-Yemen war that has been raging on since 2015. Already, the liberation of all the key islands and territory surrounding the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has spooked the Israeli leadership in Tel Aviv. According to Israeli Hebrew media reports, Tel Aviv has not only been aiding Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting data, but is also considering being part of a joint air campaign against the Yemeni Armed Forces. Israeli media pundits and security officials have been repeatedly stressing the need to push Yemen’s Army away from Bab al-Mandab, arguing that their newly acquired ability to close it with such ease could have catastrophic consequences on them. In this Monday’s edition of The Target, we also run through the latest footage surfacing from the battles raging on inside Yemen, including documentation of the capture of Mokha and other coastal cities. Robert Inlakesh runs us through the consequences of the ongoing retaliatory ballistic missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s military and oil infrastructure. The vital East-West Pipeline has been at least temporarily severed after extensive attacks on at least three separate pumping stations, integral to the pipelines function, one of which was totally destroyed. Without this pipeline, Riyadh is unable to export any gas via the Red Sea. Yemen’s government in Sana’a previously announced a counter-blockade on Saudi ports, which dramatically reduced the export of oil through the Red Sea, now this process of cutting off some 6 million barrels per day of oil exports has been completed. Yet, it is not just Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure that is taking repeated hits, burdening the already struggling global oil market, its air bases are consistently being saturated with drone and missile salvos. According to Citi Research, the projections for the price of oil is that they will rise to roughly $150 a barrel, if the attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz persist. So far, the United States has strayed away from directly participating in Riyadh’s war this time around, however, if US President Donald Trump chooses to back up his Israeli allies further down the line then the Bab al-Mandab Strait could also be closed, triggering an even sharper rise in gas prices. The Target Stream also focuses on the excuses being provided for the current US-backed administration in Damascus that is facing nationwide protests. Demonstrations in Syria have reached a peak that has not been witnessed since the reign of deposed President Bashar al-Assad. Protesters initially reacted to a 40% spike in the price of diesel overnight, yet have escalated the complaints and are now focusing on various other elements of Syria’s ever declining economy. The post Iran Targets US Warships In Shock Clashes Ongoing In Strait Of Hormuz-Saudi Gas Pipeline Eliminated appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarallah, Iran, Israel, Jordan, MintPress News, Robert Inlakesh, United States, US-Israel War on Iran, West Asia, Yemen]

— Iran’s Electro-Optical Missiles Take Out F-15s & Warships – Yemen Offensive Shocks Israel

 

at 9/14/26 8:46am

Ansarallah-led government forces have liberated the entire west coast of Yemen from Saudi-backed forces, triggering an Israeli media meltdown. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have taken out a series of US assets and began firing new-generation electro-optical missiles at American warships. In this episode of the Target Stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh breaks down the latest developments in West Asia’s regional war, walking the audience through battle footage and evidence of major strategic breakthroughs for the Iranian led-Axis of Resistance. Major blows are being dealt to the US-led imperialist power structure, undermining the decades old illusion of US military invincibility. Earlier this week, in a period of just over twenty-four hours, the Yemeni Armed Forces managed to capture the towns of Hays and al-Khawkhah, before marching on the strategic port city of Mokha. The forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, having pledged just days earlier to advance upon the Yemeni Capital of Sanaa, experienced a dramatic collapse of their frontlines. The successful advance, which ended up resulting in the liberation of the entire coastline and key islands, including Mayoun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, now places the Ansarallah-led government forces in control of territory that grants them authority over an important international trade passage. In reaction to this, the Israeli media have threatened that the consequences of the ground progress made by Yemen’s Army may prove more devastating to them than Iran’s authority of the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday night, the US decided to carry out strikes that disabled five Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Almost immediately, the IRGC began carrying out retaliatory missile strikes from its ballistic missile bases across Iranian territory. At least 40 missiles appear to have been fired towards US military bases in Jordan. The Jordanian military announced that it had shot down 18 of 20 missiles fired towards its territory, with the two other missiles having landed in “open areas”. As we show on this Thursday’s edition of The Target, the video evidence reveals this to be patently false. Furthermore, evidence emerged to suggest at least 5 US Blackhawk Helicopters were damaged and evacuated from the Muwaffaq al-Salti Base. Later came a report from CBS, citing unnamed officials, who revealed that the Iranian strikes had damaged at least 8 F-15 fighter jets and one A-10 Thunderbolt II, with no mention of the helicopters in the article. As we look into on the show, the US media have admitted that Iran’s IRGC have also started to use their advanced Qassem Bassir missiles to strike American warships, a munition that uses cameras and thermal sensors to accurately locate its target. Tehran claimed to have damaged two US Destroyers this way, a charge that US Central Command has since denied. What has become undeniable is the Iranian capture of the Dive LD unmanned submarine, which Washington fears is now being reverse engineered. Robert Inlakesh also addresses the context behind a new expose published by Israeli daily Haaretz, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing to pass on threat warnings communicated to him by the Emirati leadership. The post Iran’s Electro-Optical Missiles Take Out F-15s Warships Yemen Offensive Shocks Israel appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarallah, Iran, Israel, Jordan, MintPress News, Robert Inlakesh, United States, US-Israel War on Iran, West Asia, Yemen]

— Iran Targets US Warships With New Precision Munitions As Shock Offensive Rocks The ‘Greater Israel’

 

at 9/9/26 8:46am

Iran launches newly acquired precision missiles towards US warships in the Persian Gulf as the Trump administrations ‘Economic D-Day’ backfires tremendously. In this Monday’s episode of The Target Stream Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh takes a look at the latest developments reshaping the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic. Tel Aviv has raised its level of alert anticipating a potential surprise attack during the Jewish holiday period of Yom Kippur, fearing that Tehran may have in store a major multi-front offensive in the coming month. Whether the fears of a large-scale missile attack are based upon dependable intelligence or not, the Israelis have decided to escalate the war on neighbouring Lebanon regardless. The Israeli army recently claimed that it had secured full “operational control” over the strategically important Ali Al-Taher Hills area in southern Lebanon, without providing any proof that such control has in fact been established. Seemingly contradicting their claims, they have continued to launch hundreds of strikes against the Ali Al-Taher hills and its surrounding area, which is of military value due to its position overlooking southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate. An advance of this magnitude, which includes an attempt to dismantle a known missile base there, constitutes yet another flagrant violation of the shaky Lebanon ceasefire. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has occasionally launched drone operations against Israeli soldiers and military vehicles, while holding itself back from reviving its daily operations against the occupying army. On this edition of the stream we also look at the decision taken by the Ansarallah-led Yemeni government to launch new offensive actions to capture strategic locations towards the south of the country. The offensive led to major breakthroughs, including the encircling of the city of Taiz. In reaction, Saudi-proxy forces unsuccessfully launched their own counter-offensives in a bid to capture new territory in the province of al-Jawf and towards the city of Bayda. Inlakesh also analyses the latest battle footage from Yemen, including new video documentation of the Yemeni Armed Forces using anti-personnel munitions dropped from Quadcopter drones and precision missile strikes, one of which eliminated an entire convoy of trucks carrying munitions. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also released footage of its missile strikes against US targets and for the first time drone strike documentation against tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. All of this contributes to the continued spike in oil prices, which US President Donald Trump has continually stated will begin falling. Another issue addressed at length in the newest edition of The Target is the viral debate ongoing with Streamer Sneako, on whose show a number of guests have argued that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for more civilian deaths than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We look at what the figures actually show and why so many people are engaged in spreading disinformation that works to undermine the Gaza genocide. The post Iran Targets US Warships With New Precision Munitions As Shock Offensive Rocks The ‘Greater Israel’ appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Greater Israel, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, MintPress News, Robert Inlakesh, United States, Yemen]

— “Beyond Critical” US-Israeli Munitions Depletion Revealed As Iran’s Response To D-Day Begins

 

at 8/28/26 1:15pm

US President Donald Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’ is following home as the daunting reality of America’s dwindling Strategic Petroleum Reserves becomes inescapable. In this episode of The Target, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh explores the latest revelations to emerge regarding “beyond critical” shortages in air key munitions. The damage inflicted to US military and intelligence sites by Iranian strikes has been far more extensive than we were previously led to believe. Over the months the extent of the damage has become clearer, as satellite imagery and independent investigations uncover extensive damage to 20 US bases across West Asia, many of them having been completely destroyed or rendered inoperable. Now the statistics are beginning to pour in. The CIA and other US spy agencies have confirmed that their sites were struck, amounting to billions of dollars in damage to American intelligence facilities and equipment. Prior to this, only Iran had claimed these strikes, without any verification from the other side. What this demonstrates is that Iran’s munitions are not only accurate, but so is their intelligence on US targets. Then came the bombshell story this Thursday morning, as a US defence official alongside an NATO official both divulged to the Associated Press that there is a “beyond critical” shortage in Patriot air defence munitions. Such a shortage could mean that US and other NATO targets will be left wide open in the event of potential Russian strikes. The reason for the shortage in the MIM-104 Patriot missiles is the war on Iran, which has weakened the security of the US and its allies. This, when combined with the fact that some 80% of US THAAD air defence munitions have already been used, along with a large portion of the military’s long-range standoff munitions, represents a disaster that limits US military power. In this Thursday’s edition of The Target, we also look at the battle-front in Yemen and the recent downing of Saudi reconnaissance aircraft, along with the latest evidence of damage inflicted to Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in Jazan. The Lebanon so-called ceasefire is also breaking down after the Israeli occupying army declared its agreement with Beirut to begin operating controversial “pilot zones” in south Lebanon has failed, choosing instead to raise its level of alert and begin ramping up its air campaign, inflicting a number of civilian casualties in the process. Palestine Action has also been declared by the Trump administration to be a “terrorist organisation”, just days apart from the decision to remove Syria from the ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list. An interesting move considering the new Syrian leadership and its party Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, are a rebrand of Syria’s Al-Qaeda wing Jabhat al-Nusra. According to Donald Trump, Al-Qaeda is permissible, but a group of activists who seek to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the United Kingdom go a step too far. The post “Beyond Critical” US-Israeli Munitions Depletion Revealed As Iran’s Response To D-Day Begins appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarallah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United States, USMunitionsShortage, Yemen]

— Trump’s Alt-Right Pro-Israel Strategist Behind Palestine Action Ban is former British Intelligence

 

at 8/28/26 12:57pm

The U.S.’ designation of U.K.-based activist collective Palestine Action as a global terrorist group is part of a wider project, concocted by far-right pro-Israel strategist Sebastian Gorka, to criminalize left-wing or pro-Palestine dissent against Trump’s rule. MintPress exposes this plan.  The Man Behind It All The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it was placing Palestine Action on its list of global terrorist groups, as part of what it called a “broader U.S. government effort to address the threat of transnational far-left terrorism.” The designation is one of the first clear signs that the Trump administration is making good on its promise to reorient its domestic and international strategy towards clamping down on what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “far-left terror” groups. The policy shift was summed up in an ominous 16-page White House document published in May, titled “United States Counterterrorism Strategy.” The policy document was reportedly written by Trump’s counter-terrorism czar, Sebastian Gorka, who stated he was pouring his “life’s work” into making it a “blueprint” for American strategy.  “Currently,” the document claims, “we face three major types of terror groups: narcoterrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists, [and] violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists.” It is, however, the third group that the report appears most concerned with, noting that, “we recognize that a new type of domestic terrorism has emerged, driven by violent extremists who have adopted ideologies antithetical to freedom and the American way of life.” “Our national CT [counterterrorism] activities,” it concludes, will “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.” A former British military intelligence operative, the London-born Gorka has built a wide following among the global alt-right community. He was a controversial pick for Trump’s team, even in conservative circles. Described in Esquire magazine as the most “ridiculous” character in an “endless parade of whackadoos, smackbrains, rockheads, fanatics, lunatics, and general shit-for-brains” following Trump, he has openly flirted with fascism and Nazism, and is considered among the most hardline Islamophobes in the administration.  He was previously fired from his position in the FBI because of his extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric. Yet this sort of speech is creeping its way into official counterterrorism policy when the White House document advises that Europe can only remain strong if it has “honest conversations about Islamism.” It also states that their priority is to track and crush the supposed “new and evolving alliances between the far-left and Islamists, i.e., the ‘Red-Green’ alliance.” For the White House, Palestine Action, which blends leftism and pro-Palestine agitation, fits this niche perfectly. Founded in 2020, Palestine Action is a direct action group that attempts to end global complicity in Israeli war crimes by taking direct action against Israeli weapons plants operating in the United Kingdom, occupying their factories and destroying their machinery and inventory. They have proven highly effective, costing Israeli manufacturer, Elbit Systems billions of dollars in damages and lost contracts.  At times, the White House document reads like a far-right manifesto, and even claims that Christians are “the most persecuted people on Earth.”  Like many in Trump’s inner circle, Gorka made a name for himself not as an administrator, but as a media anchor, becoming a popular pro-Trump radio host. This has led to many suggesting he is dangerously underqualified for his position, including his former PhD advisor who stated that he would not consider Gorka an expert in terrorism.  His appointment as deputy assistant to the President of the United States was therefore quite the surprise, not least to Gorka himself, who, just a few years previously, was in the political wilderness, selling fish oil pills to make ends meet.  A deeply Christian man, he is among Israel’s loudest and most passionate advocates in Washington D.C. He has strongly supported its post-October 7 assault on Gaza, and had previously condemned liberal American Jews for their supposed insufficient loyalty towards the Jewish State. On Iran, he is a hardliner, strongly supporting Trump’s campaign against Tehran, and describing, in his typical style, critics of the war as “testicularly challenged” individuals who take a “low-T approach to threats to the United States.”   It is hardly surprising, therefore, that an administration spearheaded by him would take a very dim view of Palestine Action.  Part of a Wider Plan This summer, the Trump/Rubio State Department has attempted to concoct links between leftist activists on the one hand, and Latin American narcoterrorists and Islamic terrorists on the other. It recently claimed that the George Floyd Protests were secretly driven by a covert Cuban influence campaign, and that American Antifa collectives are connected to Hamas and Iran’s IRGC.  Gorka’s document has been widely interpreted as the administration’s blueprint and legal justification for a crackdown on civil liberties and political opponents, and curtailing the right to oppose Trump’s rule.  Quite apart from the numerous spelling and grammatical errors, there are a number of serious flaws with the thesis. Firstly, the only example of “far-left terrorism” it cites is the assassination of Charlie Kirk by “a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies.” But the alleged attacker came from a Utah Republican family and was fascinated by Hitler, Nazism, and Christian nationalism. Thus, his motives and ideology were mixed, at best.  Moreover, left-wing terror in the United States pales into comparison to that of the right-wing attacks, the leading cause of political deaths. The White House, however, is completely uninterested in pursuing those cases, and does not mention the violence from the political right at all, possibly because it draws its most militant support from precisely those ranks.  An Extraordinary Ban Palestine Action is now sanctioned and will be treated as akin to organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. “Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.” The group, which describes itself as a “direct action movement committed to ending global complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime” was controversially placed on the United Kingdom’s terrorist list last year (possibly due to pressure from President Trump himself). The designation is currently being debated in the U.K.’s Supreme Court as in February, the High Court ruled that the prescription was unlawful and a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.  Why a small British group would be considered a threat to the United States was explained in an official press release that noted: “Palestine Action has promoted its violent, criminal, and terrorist acts on social media, encouraging the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the U.S.-Mexican border.”  The organization gained notoriety for its direct action technique of occupying military bases and Israeli-owned weapons plants in the U.K. and damaging the machinery in order to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel. The group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, was horrified by the designation. “As a Palestinian and Iraqi, the fact the country which destroyed both my homelands is calling me a terrorist, is beyond hypocritical. Trump is the antithesis to everything Palestine Action stands for,” she wrote on Twitter.  Destroying Democracy For Israel The Trump administration’s actions builds on the United Kingdom’s decision last year to ban Palestine Action and designate it a terror group. Since then, it has imprisoned members and arrested over 3,000 individuals for supporting the group. An inordinate number of these arrests have been of retirees. Images of an 83-year-old priest and a blind, wheelchair-bound 63-year-old man behind led away by police, merely for holding signs, have gone viral around the world. Those convicted of supporting Palestine Action face up to 14 years in prison under the new laws.  The U.K.’s actions have drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the latter of whom wrote that, “by equating direct action protest with terrorism, the government is treating dissent as a security threat.” Successive British governments have had to deal with enormous pro-Palestine demonstrations. In both November 2023 and March 2026, an estimated one million people marched on the streets of London to support Palestinian liberation.  There is some evidence that the U.K.’s decision to treat Palestine Action so harshly was influenced by Donald Trump personally. After the group vandalized the Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland, Trump phoned Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss a response. Trump also publicly called for a “harsh” response to the “terrorists” who did “serious damage” to his property, directly echoing the specific wording of the Terrorism Act – a fact that Declassified UK suggested may have been a deliberate attempt to justify the upcoming ruling.  Today, it was announced that the group’s action spray-painting the walls of the Turnberry clubhouse would be treated by police as an “act of terrorism,” with Ammori herself wondering aloud if Trump’s anger was the reason for its proscription.  Cracking Down on Dissent in America In the wake of the genocidal Israeli assault of Gaza, universities across the United States saw unprecedented waves of strikes, protests, demonstrations. College campuses across 45 of the 50 states saw major actions, with at least 10% of all college students in the United States estimated to have participated in the overwhelmingly peaceful action.  The response from authorities was overwhelming: thousands were arrested, charged, fined, lost their degrees, or even deported. A MintPress News investigation found that Israeli and pro-Israel billionaire benefactors of the universities were pressuring the institutions to crack heads.  Trump has cracked down on a wide range of dissent across America, identifying groups such as Antifa, pro-abortion rights network, Jane’s Revenge, and those opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Border Patrol, and the construction of the giant “Cop City” training center in Georgia as dangerous extremists who must be suppressed.  His administration is also expecting massive, nationwide anti-A.I. riots in the coming years, as the technology destroys communities and industries. Ironically, as another MintPress News investigation found, the government is using A.I. to create a massive security dragnet in order to identify potential hotspots and troublemakers before they happen.  The Trump administration’s labeling of Palestine Action as a terror group, then, should be seen in the wider context of a far-right administration intent on criminalizing protest, opposition, and organizing against its increasingly authoritarian rule. Counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka has found a willing ally in Trump. And given that both major parties remain committed to supporting Israel’s expansionist aims, there will be little official pushback to the designation. With an emboldened Trump and an increasingly disjointed economy offering Americans very little, it is likely that we will see more actions such as this one. Palestine Action will likely not be the last group added to the growing list. The post Trump’s Alt-Right Pro-Israel Strategist Behind Palestine Action Ban is former British Intelligence appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Front Page: National, Investigations, Nation, National, News, Top Story, Alt-Right Christians, Israel, Israel Lobby, Palestine Action, Sebastian Gorka, Trump]

— Israel Tangled In Spiderweb As Army Braces For West Bank Explosion – Iran War Blunts Expansion

 

at 8/25/26 1:35pm

Israeli Commanders warn their political leadership of a pending explosion in the occupied West Bank, while the United States unleashes a new economic offensive in a desperate attempt to pressure the Iranians to open to Strait of Hormuz. In the latest episode of The Target Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh breaks down why the regional escalation spells strategic disaster for Tel Aviv and Washington. US President Donald Trump has announced the beginning of ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, yet another sanctions campaign aimed explicitly at bringing about “regime collapse” inside Iran, as US strategic petroleum reserves drop to their lowest level since 1982. Iran, meanwhile, has been putting the finishing touches on its Qom missile base, set to be the largest in the country, and rejected proposals to renew negotiations with the US government. The United States only has 41 days of its strategic oil reserves left, meaning that it will have to start taking some extreme measures in order to try and solve the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Roughly 25% of the global supply is still offline. If you think that oil prices are bad now, they are about to get a lot worse. Something that no number of delusional claims from the White House that the Strait is open and is owned by Washington, will be capable of getting around. Yemen’s Armed Forces have also sent a strong message to Saudi Arabia over their continued support for proxy militias inside the country. On Monday, the spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Yahya Saree, announced that they hit a Saudi mega-tanker with a series of ballistic missiles, destroying it off the coast of the Saudi port city of Yanbu. Ansarallah also published 10-minutes of drone footage, showing their forces obliterating enemy troop gatherings and military vehicles with unguided bombs dropped from quadcopters. The footage reveals a high level of training amongst the Yemeni forces, who managed to successfully take out tanks, excavators, enemy hide-outs and more, with shocking precision. The blockade is now tightening the noose around Riyadh, while a decision to escalate will only result in further ballistic missile and drone strikes on their oil infrastructure. In this episode, Robert Inlakesh runs through the history of the Palestinian resistance factions in the occupied West Bank, in particular the groups such as the Lions Den and Jenin Brigades that emerged after the May 2021 unity uprising and where they are today. We look at why they were not able to seize the moment following October 7, 2023, and the predicament of the occupied population of the territory. Israeli Generals have also sounded the alarm bell over a potential widespread escalation inside the West Bank, something they attribute to ever growing settler violence. Yet it is the Israeli army itself that is part of this problem, in this Monday’s stream the settler state within a state that is emerging is exposed, along with the weaknesses of the armed forces of Israel and why their defeat has become inevitable. The post Israel Tangled In Spiderweb As Army Braces For West Bank Explosion Iran War Blunts Expansion appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarallah, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, United States, West Bank]

— From Lionel Messi, Kanye West to Taylor Swift: Celebrities are “Protected” By Israeli Security Teams

 

at 8/21/26 10:45am

From Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Aniston and Lionel Messi, celebrities across the world are hiring teams of Israeli bodyguards made up of former Shin Bet, Mossad, and Israeli special forces.  But how safe is it to entrust your life and most intimate details to agents from spying agencies with a long track record of infiltrating, surveiling, and blackmailing foreign targets?  MintPress explores how Israeli security took over Hollywood and the world.  In High Demand Israeli Secret Service agents do not die or fade away, writes The New York Post. Instead, they move to Hollywood. The Tel Aviv-to-Tinsel Town pipeline has been well established over decades, and there are now a myriad of Israeli security agencies, both in Los Angeles and across the world, guarding many of the planet’s richest, most famous, and influential figures.  Inter Miami soccer superstar Lionel Messi – who, in 2020 became the face of an Israeli A.I. company staffed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spies –  is accompanied by an select force of former Israeli agents everywhere he goes.  Hollywood royalty Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are known to have relied on the services of Israeli security, as have pop stars, Madonna, Pink, and Jennifer Lopez.  Actress Lucy Liu, meanwhile, is followed around everywhere by a troupe of Israeli minders.  And Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s relationship with Israeli security came to public attention in 2013, after he allegedly beat up his ex-IDF handler Moshe Benabou, the CEO of Israguard Security Services.  In short, Israeli bodyguards are highly sought after. “There’s demand around the world, and rightly so. Israeli security is like Coca-Cola,” said Roman Tukh, the co-founder of Guise Security, “You don’t have to advertise yourself – you have a name. The question is whether you manage to maintain it or not. That’s why it’s easier for us as Israelis.” Bodyguards do not come cheap. The services Tukh and others like him provide cost between $125 and $1,500 per hour, depending on the level of security needed.  Two other famous names well acquainted with Israeli security dispatches are Bill Maher and Charlie Kirk. In a 2025 conversation, the former revealed that he spent his entire European vacation “wedged between these two giant Israeli bodyguards the whole way.” “When I went to Europe in 2015, I had like two Israeli bodyguards and my security person,” he told the conservative influencer. “If you want security, the Israelis know what they are doing,” Kirk responded, knowingly.  Maher edited this conversation out of the video he released to the public. It only exists as a reaction video on Kirk’s official channel, which appears to be unmaintained since his death. Only a few months later, Kirk would be publicly assassinated. His death, and his precise relationship with Israel and Israeli security, has triggered all manner of speculation online. Stars and Spies One of the pioneers of the pipeline was Moshe Alon. A former longtime IDF officer and Israeli Secret Service veteran, Alon came to the United States in 1984 as head of the security team protecting Israeli athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.  He never left, setting up Professional Security Consultants (PSC) the next year and bringing over large numbers of former colleagues to protect Hollywood royalty. Today, PSC is licensed in over 40 states and employs more than 4,000 people across the country, and Alon himself provided security for Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Armand Hammer, and Goldie Hawn.  Many bodyguards come from top-tier units in the Israeli military or national security state that have carried out major war crimes in Gaza and beyond. Yet these allegiances are not seen in the U.S. as a mark against them, but rather a selling point.  Kfir Goldin, director of Safe Security and bodyguard to Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, boasts of his past as a member of the elite IDF unit, the Givati Brigade. The Givati Brigade is known for its mass bulldozing and torching of civilian Palestinian homes. “In every place where [our] soldiers walk, the place turns into scorched earth,” declared Givati commander, Avraham Zeriviv. Meanwhile, before he was a bodyguard to the stars, Lior Raz served in the notorious Duvdevan Unit of the IDF, an elite group of spies who live deep undercover in Arab communities, secretly spying on them. Raz moved to the U.S. and became the personal bodyguard of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. He later created “Fauda,” a TV series glamorizing the lives and work of Duvdevan operatives.  “Israel is branded around the world as a counterterrorism success, so that catches on overseas. The question is what happens in practice, what’s the product you get. Duvdevan is something that people flaunt because of ‘Fauda,’” said Yechiel Salomon, an Israeli Special Forces veteran whose company, BHS Security, protects the likes of Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. “People want bodyguards ‘like in “Fauda.”’ It’s great marketing,” he added. Another Duvdevan operative turned bodyguard to the stars is Aaron Cohen. Born in Canada, Cohen made Aliyah at 17-years-old and served for three years in the Duvdevan, where he learned Arabic and participated in over 200 missions infiltrating Arab communities.  Coming from a screenwriting family, he moved to Los Angeles and founded IMS Security Consultants, and provided security for a host of stars, including Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Brad Pitt.  And after she was robbed at gunpoint in 2016, Kanye West tasked Cohen with revamping his then-wife Kim Kardashian’s security. Given West’s political trajectory, it is remarkable that, less than 10 years ago, he was paying an armed former Israeli spy to follow his every move, entrusting his life to him.  But one does not have to descend to Ye’s level of paranoia to raise serious concerns about the problematic relationship between Israeli spies and the world’s celebrity elite.  The Duvdevan is an elite Israeli spying force who are charged with going deep undercover in enemy territory for years, passing themselves off as friends or as one of their targets. All the while, they are secretly collecting information and data on these marks, in order to control, extort, blackmail, or even kill them. Why any celebrity would want an individual such as this near them – especially a foreign national from a country known for their international espionage operations – is an open question.  National Security Threat It is often said that one never truly retires from the spying business. Cohen’s case is of particular note, as he called his security firm “Cherries” – the English translation of the Hebrew word, duvdevan.  Is it unfair to ask to whom – state or celebrity – these former Israeli commandos owe their allegiance? This question was put into sharp relief in 2023, when, after the October 7 attacks, a spate of high-profile security guards quit their American jobs to rejoin their units.  The most notable of these was Taylor Swift’s bodyguard, who discussed his reasons for rejoining his IDF unit with local outlet, Israel Hayom. “I have a pretty great life in America, a dream job, great friends and a comfortable home. I didnt have to come here, but I couldnt stand by while families were slaughtered and burned alive in their homes… I couldnt stand by and do nothing,” he said.  Another example is Oded Krashinsky, the founder of Advanced Security Concepts and Nicole Kidman’s personal bodyguard. Krashinsky previously served for many years as an officer in an unnamed IDF Secret Service operations unit. In 2023, he dropped everything to fight for Israel. “I came here to help my unit. The morale is tense. The main threat is invasion — we have to deflect it, fight it, and protect against it,” he said, “I am who I am because I came from here. At the end of the day, it’s about experience, decision-making, tactics, and leadership — that’s what I felt I could bring and that’s what I do now.”  The individuals and companies Hollywood stars trust with their lives and their most intimate secrets come from some of the same organizations infamous for creating and spreading malware and spyware targeting tens of thousands of notable figures, including political leaders, journalists, and royals. Former agents of elite IDF group, Unit 8200, launched Pegasus, software that attacked the devices of heads of state, giving the Israeli government intimate knowledge of the ongoings of both their enemies and their allies. Known victims include President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and Iraqi president, Barham Salih.  Authoritarian governments around the world used Pegasus to suppress their enemies. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi used the software to dig up dirt on his personal opponents. Meanwhile, the government of Saudi Arabia targeted Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before dismembering him with a bone saw.  IDF spooks also spy on Palestinian Arab populations, reading their texts and listening to their calls for the purposes of blackmail and extortion. If a target was found to be homosexual or cheating on their spouse, that information would be used against them. One IDF whistleblower revealed that, as part of their training, they were assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that they could listen out for them in conversations.  Hollywood itself, though, has been bastion of support for Israel. A MintPress News investigation based on leaked emails published by Wikileaks found top movie producers coordinating with Israeli government and military officials on how best to promote the country in the United States and how to stamp out pro-Palestinian voices within the industry.  Therefore, it should hardly come as a shock that many in Tinseltown see little problem in hiring former Israeli operatives to provide security services. Perhaps more surprising, however, is the amount of ex-secret agents from a foreign country the United States allows to live and operate within its own borders.  If this were any other country, it would doubtless be considered a massive security risk. Given how quickly the United States and Israel are beginning to merge, however – the House of Representatives just passed a $1.5 trillion bill integrating the two countries’ militaries – it is likely that we will see more of the same in the future.  That individual celebrities do not see the risk in entrusting their most intimate security to foreign nationals from agencies infamous for undercover surveillance and extortion of high-value targets, is deeply concerning.  Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian: you have been warned.   Alan Macleod Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post From Lionel Messi, Kanye West to Taylor Swift: Celebrities are “Protected” By Israeli Security Teams appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Editors Picks, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Front Page: National, Investigations, National, Top Story, Charlie Kirk, israeli military, Israeli security services, Kanye West, mosaad, Moshe Alon, Pegasus, shin bit, UNIT 8200]

— Hezbollah Take Out 3 Israeli Elite Soldiers As Iran Issues Final Ultimatum

 

at 8/19/26 10:10am

Hezbollah have blunted yet another Israeli attempt to seize the strategic Ali al-Taher Hills in southern Lebanon, falling into a costly ambush – meanwhile, Iran issues a threat that it will not stand idly by and could soon escalate unless the US backs down over the Strait of Hormuz. Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh explores the escalation in the latest episode of The Target livestream. Over the weekend, the Israeli military decided to disregard the ceasefire agreement they had signed with Lebanon and instead moved to occupy more land in the south of the country. A special forces unit was deployed to lead the charge towards the strategically important Ali Al-Taher Hills, but were caught in an embarrassing ambush inflicting casualties amongst their ranks. Israel attempted to cover up its failure by claiming Hezbollah fired on them for no reason and that they then responded by targeting a military site. At least 11 Lebanese were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a series of deadly raids carried out around the Nabatieh Municipality, many of whom were women and children. The Israeli occupying forces have failed in around half a dozen attempted advances, to seize the area, where there is believed to be a significant Hezbollah military facility. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s Navy also reportedly seized an Emirati tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, intercepting it near Qeshm Island, representing a significant escalation and sending the price of Brent Crude (oil) Futures past $90 per barrel. This, as US President Donald Trump continues to claim both that the Strait open and that his naval blockade is effective, doubling down on earlier comments that he seeks to make the area officially part of American territory. Yemen’s Ansarallah-led government forces have also continued to hit positions belonging to their Saudi-backed opposition, while retaliating to Riyadh’s violation of Yemeni airspace with more UAV strikes on oil facilities in Jazan. The Yemeni Armed Forces have also advanced and captured more towns located near the coastal Port city of Mukha, a strategic location which has come under constant fire and where multiple cargo vessels were destroyed. Clashes between the Ansarallah-led forces and Saudi-backed militants have persisted near Taiz, Mukha and Marib, with heavily casualties inflicted. In this Monday’s edition of The Target, we also look at the US led campaign to disarm all of Iran’s allies, where it came from and why these moves are all happening in sync with one another, exploring the roles of regional actors in the regional war that is still raging on; albeit at a slower pace than it currently was. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has also been holding talks with his Israeli counter-parts, in pursuit of disarming the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, disingenuously claiming to have a reconstruction plan and holding the population of the territory hostage as Israel seeks to take away their ability to even fight back against ethnic cleansing. The Target’s Monday show brings you all of the latest in the battlefield developments, while providing the historical context which is, more often than not, missing from coverage elsewhere. The post Hezbollah Take Out 3 Israeli Elite Soldiers As Iran Issues Final Ultimatum appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarrallah, Emirati Tanker, Gaza Strip, Iran, IRGC, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, straight of hormuz, Yemen]

— US Meddling In Brazilian Elections, Preparing For Possible Military Intervention

 

at 8/18/26 10:29am

The United States is interfering in the Brazilian presidential elections, pressuring the Brazilian electorate into voting for right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro. If that does not work and President Lula da Silva secures a fourth term in office, the groundwork is already being laid for a potential military intervention. From sanctions and economic warfare, to coaching influencers and journalists on how best to attack the left-wing government, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to overthrow Lula.  Meanwhile, the State Department’s recent decision to designate Brazilian gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations” just as it did with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, signals a willingness to intervene militarily.  Brazil is Trump’s next target, and builds upon recent U.S. and Israeli interference in May’s Colombian elections, where pro-Trump candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won a razor-thin victory.  MintPress examines the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine Brazilian democracy and install another Bolsonaro back into power.    A Thumb on The Scale Brazil’s October elections are rapidly approaching, and while thirteen people are standing for president, two principal candidates have already emerged: current left-of-center president Lula da Silva, and far-right challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro. Flavio is the son of disgraced former president, Jair (sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a January 6th-inspired coup attempt), and the brother of Eduardo (convicted in absentia for lobbying the United States to intervene in his father’s trial).  It is obvious which candidate Washington prefers. The Bolsonaro’s are politically, ideologically, and personally very close to the MAGA movement, and Flavio has already promised that, if elected, his country will become one of the U.S.’ closest allies. Lula currently holds a double-digit lead on Bolsonaro (40% to 28%, with no other candidate holding more than 10% of the public’s voting intentions). But Brazilian politics can change very quickly; in 2018, Lula held a 20-point lead over Jair Bolsonaro when the Brazilian Supreme Court blocked him from running. He was imprisoned on bogus charges in a case orchestrated by the U.S. government, leaving the path clear for Bolsonaro’s victory.  Lula has sounded the alarm that Brazilian democracy is once again under threat from Washington. “As far as I’m concerned, [Trump] can continue liking Bolsonaro, the father, the son, the grandson… There is no problem with that. It’s his problem. There’s no accounting for taste,” he said. “Now, don’t meddle in the Brazilian elections, because the Brazilian elections are a Brazilian problem, just as American elections are their business, not mine,” he added: “All I want is the same respect for Brazil that I have for the United States. That’s it.” Washington, however, has other ideas. On May 26, Flavio Bolsonaro traveled to Washington to meet with Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to sell them on the concept of military intervention in Brazil. Two days later, the U.S. State Department designated two Brazilian gangs, Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and “Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a decision that Brian Mier, an American journalist who moved to Brazil in 1991 and is now Brazil correspondent for TeleSur English, described as “a preemptive move to possibly invade if Lula wins reelection.”  In 2025, the State Department did the same with Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Just months later, the U.S. carried out an operation to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro, decapitating the Venezuelan government.    Free Speech or Hate Speech? Mier noted that the United States government is also actively coaching Brazilian influencers in methods and techniques to best attack Lula and the government. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the U.S. Consulate in São Paulo held a series of workshops with selected prominent right-wing figures.  One of these is influencer Maria Fernanda Schmidt, who confirmed the validity of the reporting by posting a set of pictures of the event on her Instagram. “It was an excellent opportunity to share with diplomats the challenges faced by influencers, journalists, and content producers in the digital environment, in an enriching dialogue about the direction of freedom of expression in Brazil,” she wrote.  The U.S. Consulate has also arranged for visas and trips to the United States for local journalists. The objective was to entice them into attacking Lula and promoting Bolsonaro’s candidacy by promoting the U.S.-backed line that freedom of speech and freedom of expression is under attack in Brazil, thanks to Lula’s government.  This idea is based largely on a 2024 spat between Brazilian authorities and U.S. billionaire Elon Musk. Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian court order to delete far-right accounts on Twitter (now officially called X) that broke the country’s hate speech and misinformation laws. Musk, a champion of far-right politics himself, and someone who has openly used his platforms to promote regime change around the world, refused to do so, leading to X’s temporary shutdown across Brazil.  “Powerful actors in the Trump administration and Republican Party as well as Silicon Valley tech allies and pundits who make up part of the integral U.S. state (Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Michael Shellenberger, etc.) have been working closely with the Bolsonaro family since Jair Bolsonaro first ran for President in 2018,” Mier told MintPress.  Its no secret that the Brazilian right-wing are deeply influenced by the MAGA movement. Indeed, Brazil even had its own January 6 moment – on January 8, 2023. After he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula, Flavio’s father, Jair Bolsonaro took to the airwaves denouncing the result, claiming irregularities, and calling for an insurrection. Thousands of people marched on the streets in Brasília, rioting and calling for the military to intervene.  Like the United States’ January 6, the rioters were unsuccessful. But unlike in America, Bolsonaro was held to account for his coup attempt, and was sentenced in 2025 to 27 years in prison.  There is little doubt of his guilt. During his trial, Bolsonaro admitted that he met with top Brazilian generals to discus how to hold onto power, even after losing the election.  Trump, however, was incensed by the decision. “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” he said, demanding the immediate end of the trial. Trump placed punishing economic sanctions on Brazil, and against the country’s Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes.  This decision was likely influenced by Jair’s son and Flavio’s brother, Eduardo, who heavily lobbied the Trump administration on his father’s behalf, demanding his country be sanctioned. Brazil considered this an attempt to pervert the course of justice, and sentenced Eduardo to four years in prison in absentia. He currently lives in a mansion in Texas and cannot return to his homeland. There, he plays a similar role to what Maria Corina Machado did in Venezuela, lobbying the U.S. to militarily intervene in his country to put his family back in power. In October, he publicly called for the U.S. military to bomb Rio de Janeiro under the guise of fighting drug trafficking.  Trump also commented on Eduardo’s trial, although he appeared to believe Eduardo is his sibling, Flavio.“ I hear they arrested somebody that’s running for office today,” Trump said in June. “ I heard that they arrested the Bolsonaro junior, who was doing well in the polls.” In fact, it is Flavio Bolsonaro who is running for president.  Economic and Diplomatic Warfare If elected, Flavio has promised the United States considerable influence inside the country, offering the Trump administration control over his transition team. This would mean, according to some, that U.S. officials would take considerable power over of Brazil’s economy and society, in a not too dissimilar way in which they controlled Iraq.  The upcoming elections between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro are also taking place in a context in which the United States is actively trying to crash the Brazilian economy, in order to sink Lula’s chances. The United States has placed sweeping 40-50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, with more in the pipeline. These measures were quite different to the generalized tariffs placed on much of the world last year. For one, the U.S. actually maintains a healthy trade surplus with Brazil, unlike most other countries. Secondly, in his executive order, Trump explicitly stated that (emphasis added): “Should the government of Brazil take significant steps to address the national emergency declared in this order and align sufficiently with the United States on national security, economic and foreign policy matters described in this order, I may further modify this order.” The clear implication of this statement is that Brazil is being punished for being insufficiently loyal to Washington.  Diplomatic ties worsened earlier this month, after the United States revoked the visa of Brazilian Ambassador, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, forcing her to return home. That same day, Brazil had instructed the Argentinian ambassador to leave the country.  “The Trump administration has been closely working with [Argentinian president] Javier Milei to delegitimize left parties, leaders, and administrations across Latin America,” Mier said, noting that Milei had traveled to São Paulo in July to attend the far-right Liberal Party’s national convention, where Flavio Bolsonaro was officially chosen as the party’s presidential candidate. Milei has been extremely vocal about his wish to see Lula’s demise, attending Bolsonaro rallies and calling Lula “corrupt,” a “thief” and a “convict.” “A Gift From the CIA” Milei’s use of the word convict refers to Operation Car Wash, a U.S.-backed scheme that saw Lula imprisoned on corruption charges. Lula had been leading Jair Bolsonaro by over 20 points in the polls for the 2018 general election, but was incarcerated and forbidden from running for office, even from his prison cell.  The prosecution worked closely with Washington to ensure Lula remained behind bars and unable to contest the election, paving the way for Bolsonaro’s rise. Bolsonaro later appointed Sergio Moro, the judge that sent Lula to prison, as his justice minister.  It later transpired, however, that Moro had been coordinating the whole time with the prosecution, including chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, who remarked that Lula’s arrest was “a gift from the CIA.” Shortly after his election, both Bolsonaro and Moro flew to Langley, VA, for meetings at CIA headquarters.  In Washington’s eyes, the affair was a massive success. Leslie Backschies, then-FBI liaison and later head of the bureau’s international corruption unit, boasted that her organization had “toppled presidents in Brazil.” Thus, what was sold to the Brazilian public as an “anti-corruption” crusade, was actually a prime example of modern lawfare, one, that Lula described as “having the hands of the United States on it.” The brazen corruption of the case drew widespread domestic and international outrage, with Lula becoming the world’s most well-known political prisoner. After huge public pressure, he was released from prison, and his convictions annulled. In 2022, he swept to power in an election the Bolsonaro’s worked hard to overthrow.  Life In America’s Backyard Lula is now seeking an unprecedented fourth term in office. And even though he has been a major political figure since the 1980s, he has maintained a significant level of popular support. Born into a lower working-class family, he worked as a shoeshine boy and a metalworker, losing part of his left hand in an industrial accident while still a teenager. He entered politics at a metalworkers’ union leader in 1969, under the repressive U.S.-backed fascist military dictatorship. Once in power, his party’s innovative social programs lifted tens of millions out of poverty and strengthened his support base among Brazil’s working class.  It is his international moves, however, that has led to so much outrage in Washington. Lula has regularly attempted to block or at least refused to fully support U.S. imperial ambitions in the region. But it is Brazil’s leadership of the BRICS economic bloc and its increasing cooperation with Russia and China (the “R” and “C” of the BRICS acronym) that is perhaps the key reason why Trump wants him gone.  In recent years, BRICS has moved from a nondescript economic alliance to one threatening U.S. hegemony throughout the world, principally through their contestation of the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency – a position that gives Washington extraordinary power and influence over global economics.  BRICS is at the forefront of de-dollarizing global trade. And that effort is being spearheaded by Brazil. Last year, the organization held a successful summit in Rio de Janeiro. The head of the BRICS Development Bank (now called the New Development Bank or NDB) is Dilma Rousseff, a key Lula ally and former president of Brazil herself. Focusing on funding large development projects in poorer countries, the NDB could become a serious challenger to the U.S.-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund. “Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar,” Lula said in a speech at the NDB in Shanghai, “Why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies? Who was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?” he added. “The president is pissed every time he looks at the BRICS de-dollarization effort” Trump advisor Steve Bannon revealed. Trump has stated that BRICS could “destroy the dollar,” and, if they are successful in doing so, it would be “like losing a war, a major world war; we would not be the same country any longer.” Trump implemented extra tariffs on BRICS nations, including Brazil, stating: “They have to pay 10% if they’re in BRICS. Because BRICS was set up to hurt us. BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar, and take our dollar as the standard, take it off as the standard.” “The dollar is king, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he concluded.  When asked why is Trump so involved in the upcoming elections in Brazil, Mier responded:  “Hegemony. Brazil is arguably the last sovereign left of center government in South America, but it also has the second-largest economy after the U.S. in the Americas and is home to roughly half of the population of Latin America. In accordance with Trumps new Monroe doctrine, the US wants a completely subordinate Brazil, free of Chinese influence.” Sure enough, on Tuesday, the State Department released a statement reading: “The Monroe Doctrine has shaped U.S. foreign policy for over two centuries. American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”  First declared in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine (and subsequent corollaries) suggest that the entirety of the Americas belong to the United States alone, that no other foreign powers are welcome in the region, and that the United States can intervene militarily in any country in the hemisphere if and when it wants. Generations of academics, politicians, and pundits have downplayed the doctrine, attacking scholars who claim that this policy is still active as misguided or conspiracy theorists. But the Trump administration, with its ongoing tendency to say the quiet part out loud, has openly embraced the Monroe Doctrine and declared it official U.S. government policy.  Mier also explained what he saw as Washington’s ultimate goal for Brazil:  “Looking at the U.S. as an integral state and taking into consideration the history of the U.S. State Department as an agent of U.S. corporate interests, it is clear that the Silicon Valley tech fascists want chaos. These powerful transnational actors want a completely unregulated environment for crypto, social media brainwashing operations, A.I. and online betting.”  “This is what they are getting right now in El Salvador and Argentina,” he concluded, “and they want it in Brazil,” too. Meddling Across the Continent The Trump administration has certainly been attempting to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, and has been openly meddling in the political affairs of nations across the hemisphere. President Trump publicly gave his “complete and total endorsement” to far-right candidate (and U.S. citizen) Abelardo de la Espriella in May’s Colombian presidential elections, a contest de la Espriella narrowly won.  Outgoing president Gustavo Petro accused both the United States and Israel of interfering in the elections. Petro had been a target of Washington for some time; in December Trump said he was “next” on his list for regime change operations and that a military operation “sounds good” to him.  In response, Petro warned that “a clan of pedophiles wants to destroy democracy” in Colombia. To keep the Epstein List from coming out,” he explained, “they send warships to kill fishermen…and invade our brother country [Venezuela]… Epsteins list, his friends, they want to start violence here so that the people of the U.S. dont think about their government.”  In the end, Washington got its way without a single shot fired.  New president de la Espriella immediately moved to recognize Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, and announce that he would open an embassy in Jerusalem, even as his country suffered a devastating earthquake that has killed at least 265 people.  On Cuba, Trump has turned up the pressure with a new campaign of economic warfare, including putting the country on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, shutting down remittances to the island, enacting a fuel blockade, and stopping foreign businesses trading with Cuba. As a result, the economy has nosedived. “Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon,” Trump predicted in March. A MintPress News investigation also found that the U.S. government is quietly bankrolling a host of supposedly independent media on Cuba, all of whom are laying the groundwork for a potential U.S. military operation against the Caribbean nation.  The optimism on Cuba is no doubt influenced by the success of Trump’s Venezuela coup. In January, elite U.S. forces stormed Caracas, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores and bringing them to New York.  Trump described the attack as a successful and lucrative “48-minute war.” Since then, the U.S. has been illegally profiting off the country’s resources. Trump, however, was unrepentant: “We’re taking a lot of oil from Venezuela,” he said, adding: “To the victor belong the spoils.”  The far-right has been surging in Latin America, with victories in Peru, El Salvador, and a recent strong showing for Milei in legislative elections. The latter was thanks in part to Trump explicitly announcing that $20 billion in U.S. economic aid would only be granted if the people voted the right way. We will not “waste our time” if Milei loses, Trump warned.   Things, therefore, are looking good for the United States in Latin America. Brazil, however, stands in their way. The largest and most populous country in the region remains as a bulwark against Trumpism. While the far-right is advancing across the region, polls show that the Brazilian public still put their faith in the 80-year-old Lula and largely reject Flavio Bolsonaro.  Brazil, then, is blocking of a U.S. clean sweep of South America. With nearly two months to go until polls open, nothing about its result is written in stone. What is certain, however, is that the United States will continue to meddle and try to dominate the region Trump describes as America’s own backyard.    Alan Macleod Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post US Meddling In Brazilian Elections, Preparing For Possible Military Intervention appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Front Page: National, Investigations, National, News, Brazil, Brazilian elections, CIA, Flavio Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva]

— Iran’s Covert Offensive Averts The Collapse Of Lebanon – US Aircraft Carriers Inbound

 

at 8/18/26 9:30am

Tehran has imposed a series of equations on the US-Israeli alliance, using covert and asymmetric warfare tactics, that may have just set in motion a series of regional shifts. In this episode of The Target stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh breaks down the local and global implications of these shocking developments. US Central Command is choosing to simply ignore Iran’s ongoing drone and missile strikes, which target vessels attempting to violate the siege imposed on the Strait of Hormuz. Similarly, US-backed Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups are being subjected to round the clock strikes on their headquarters, training facilities and weapons depots, as the American military draws back and abandons its allies. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Ansarallah led Armed Forces have continued to bombard strategic targets affiliated with their Saudi-backed opposition in Yemen. Satellite imagery, which is featured in this Thursday’s episode, reveals significant damage to the Port of Mokha that is controlled by Saudi proxy forces. Riyadh has sought to flood their allies with reinforcements, particularly along Yemen’s strategic Marib front, as the Yemeni Armed Forces strike Saudi’s Jazan Oil Facilities twice within forty-eight hours. Mysterious precision drone strikes also continue to target oil related targets in north Africa. A number of drones struck Libya’s largest oil refinery in az-Zawiya, which comes a week after drones struck two petroleum storage tankers docked in Damietta, Egypt. According to Iranian-State media, Tehran sent a direct threat to Damascus, through Ankara, communicating that if Syria attacks Lebanon, Iran will intervene militarily. This may have just worked to change the calculations of the Trump administration and his allies in Tel Aviv, who were pushing for a Syrian offensive against Lebanese Hezbollah. Other major developments have also surfaced, like a major crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier. The carrier has been deployed for over 9 months and now faces a crisis in moral, a food shortage impacting 5,000 sailors and even reports of deaths and suicide attempts on board. The US Department of War has sought to replace the Aircraft Carrier with the USS George Washington, but faces domestic pushback over the embarrassing situation. Will the occupied West Bank also explode in the face of enormous strain placed upon its people? Is this simply part of Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their lands, or could it dramatically backfire? Each front on this ever expanding war appears to be coming towards a head, all of which the latest edition of The Target investigates. A US military in crisis, a dramatic loss of munitions and drained supply of drones are all indicators of a pending defeat for the empire. Can US President Donald Trump admit defeat and withdraw from the region with a deal, or is the Israel Lobby going to get the best of him? The post Iran’s Covert Offensive Averts The Collapse Of Lebanon US Aircraft Carriers Inbound appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Front Page: National, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarrallah, Iran, IRGC, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, straight of hormuz, Syria, Yemen]

— Iran Eliminates US Strategic Targets As Yemen’s Shock Offensive Dismantles Israeli Scheme

 

at 8/17/26 10:01am

Yemen’s Ansarallah launches deadly precision strikes on Saudi Arabia’s proxy forces as the blockade on Saudi Ports tightens the noose on an already suffering global oil market. In the latest episode of The Target stream, Mint Press News’ Robert Inlakesh presents the evidence that is being hidden from the public of the damages inflicted on US strategic targets by Iran and how the wider war is rapidly spinning out of control. US President Donald Trump has been adamant that the Strait of Hormuz is open, issuing statements that run contrary to the reality imposed over the strategic waterway. Iranian missiles and drones have continued to take out tankers that seek to break the blockade with US naval coordination, as the American armed forces have responded by striking a vessel themselves. Meanwhile, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has continued to fire ballistic missiles and drones at targets affiliated with US-backed forces in Iraq’s northern Erbil province. Weapons depots, training camps and headquarters for Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups based in Iraqi territory are being subjected to relentless precision strikes. US Central Command has chosen to ignore many of the strikes altogether, choosing silence over responding to a series of Iranian assaults, as Washington’s promises of opening the Strait of Hormuz as early as last Monday have passed without any result. Israel, the driving force behind the war of aggression against Iran that began on February 28, has for its part continued its aggression against Gaza and Lebanon, drawing retaliatory fire from Hezbollah. The Israeli media recently covered up an incident in which an Israeli military vehicle was subjected to a drone attack, choosing to escalate their bombing campaign and detonate the remaining civilian homes in the south of the country. Satellite imagery has also been leaked, revealing the extent of the damage inflicted by Iranian strikes carried out against US military facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Syria during the first 40-days of the war, exposing a series of clear cut cover ups. In Yemen, the Ansarallah led government’s forces have continued their offensive actions in an attempt to retake strategic areas occupied by Saudi-proxy forces, resulting in clashes that have been erupting near Taiz, Marib and other fronts. In the latest stream we look at how important the developments in Yemen are to the wider regional war and the implications that extend beyond just West Asia. Newly released footage from the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, featuring their forces firing unguided rockets towards an Israeli military post in occupied southern Syrian territory. Robert Inlakesh also looks at the rising sectarian tensions in the country and how this could potentially boil over. Where is this all heading and what is the corporate media hiding? These questions and more are addressed in our latest edition of The Target. The post Iran Eliminates US Strategic Targets As Yemen’s Shock Offensive Dismantles Israeli Scheme appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Ansarrallah, Houthis, Iran, IRGC, Israel, Saudi Arabia, straight of hormuz, Syria, Tankers, Yemen]

— UK Government Targeting of Muslim Scholar Part of a Coordinated Campaign to Clamp Down on Pro-Palestine Solidarity

 

at 8/6/26 11:18am

Amid a deepening crackdown on Palestine solidarity in the country, a senior member of the British parliament is leading a campaign to have a popular activist and Muslim scholar arrested. Alicia Kearns, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs has called on the U.K. Home Office to detain Sayed Hussain Makke.  Her letter accuses him of providing “sustained public support” for Hezbollah (a proscribed organization in the United Kingdom), organizing “combat training camps” for British Muslims where “radicalization is alleged to have occurred,” and relocating to southern Lebanon, the heartland of Hezbollah itself.  A spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing London said that “All reports are reviewed and, if it is assessed that further police action is required, then it will get passed to the relevant police force or counter-terrorism unit to carry this out.” Makke strongly contests Kearns’ framing, claiming that he is the victim of a coordinated attack by the pro-Israel lobby. “I have always acted in accordance with UK terrorism law, and any allegation to the contrary is defamatory, ludicrous and racist. British counter-terrorism police should be commended for ignoring the malign Zionist influence-peddlers calling for my arrest,” he said in a statement, adding: “It is an open secret that Alicia Kearns is a British intelligence asset, but she appears to be an asset of the Zionist regime as well. She should be investigated for working against British interests on behalf of a hostile foreign power.” That there is an Israel or antisemitism angle to this story appears to have been confirmed by Kearns herself, who told The Daily Telegraph that:  “Months ago, I handed the Government evidence about Hussain Makke. This week he walked into Britain unchallenged. He is here now. If that’s what ‘stopping at nothing’ looks like, the Government’s promises to Britain’s Jewish community aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.” The campaign against Makke has also been led by The Jewish Chronicle, a stridently pro-Israel newspaper that refuses to disclose its ownership, even amid widespread speculation of foreign powers or agents controlling the outlet.  Last year, following a pressure campaign from pro-Israel forces Australia revoked Makke’s visa, citing his support for Hezbollah and other forces resisting Israel’s ambitions in the region. He had been scheduled to carry out a speaking tour across the country. Shadow Australian Home Affairs Minister James Paterson welcomed the decision, stating that, “No one who praises a deceased terrorist [Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah], let alone attends the funeral organized by a listed terrorist organization, should be welcome in Australia.”  Listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, however, is fraught with difficulties and inconsistencies. To begin with, the group holds 15 seats in the Lebanese parliament and has held positions inside the cabinet. Founded in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it has, since 2023, proved to be the only force effectively resisting the ongoing Israeli occupation. Thus, it has earned significant support, particularly among the population of South Lebanon. Therefore, by proscribing Hezbollah, the U.K. government is effectively criminalizing resistance to Israeli colonialism, occupation, and land left – a violation of international law.  Paterson also would likely not be impressed with Makke’s assessment of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S./Israeli attack in February. In an Instagram post, Makke described him as a “true miracle of a man”, a man “who embodied Islam,” and one with “deep knowledge, political insight and wisdom.” In July the government of the United Kingdom officially outlawed support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claiming that the organization was responsible for at least seven recent terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in Britain. It is now a criminal offense to express a positive opinion about even assisting the IRGC, one punishable with fourteen years imprisonment. Hezbollah is also proscribed under U.K. counter-terrorism laws, with the same penalty applying to support for the Lebanese organization.  In January, the European Union also added the IRGC to its terror list, following the wave of anti-government demonstrations in Iran.  The increasing pressure on Makke is part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech and criticism of the State of Israel by British authorities. In October 2024, around 10 police officers carried out a dawn raid at the house of Electronic Intifada journalist, Asa Winstanley. Winstanley had seven devices, including work computers and phones, seized. Months later, a court ruled that the raid and seizures were unlawful.  Last year, academic and journalist David Miller was stopped at Heathrow Airport by counter-terrorism police upon his return from Lebanon, where he had been reporting on the assassination and funeral of Nasrallah.  A similar occurrence befell journalist Kit Klarenberg, who was met at the airport by six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officials, who seized his electronic devices, and memory cards and took his fingerprints and DNA. In an interview with MintPress News, Klarenberg said of his experience: “Britain has, for a very long time, had the most sweeping counter-terror laws in the Western world and arguably in the world. They have overturned centuries-old and hard-fought-for rights, protections, and freedoms that average citizens enjoy, and have granted police sweeping and disturbingly vague powers.”  These figures, however, are but a drop in the ocean compared to the U.K.’s crackdown on pro-Palestine groups. Palestine Action in particular has faced rigorous suppression, with London designating the organization a terrorist group. More than 3,500 individuals have been arrested and over 1,500 charged under laws which equate the group to organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, primarily for holding signs in public reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”  A significant proportion of those arrested are retirees, and the sight of huge numbers of elderly and disabled individuals being led away in handcuffs, supposedly as dangerous terrorists, has shocked human rights organizations. Amnesty International, for example, described it as a dangerous blow to basic rights. “It is completely disproportionate to punish protesters for criminal damage as if they were terrorists, a sentence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The use of terrorism laws against direct action protesters must end,” they wrote.     Makke has attempted to take the scrutiny and suspicion in his stride. “I am not moved in the slightest. Rather, I am more determined than ever before to BE A GOOD PERSON, which is why [they] want me to be arrested,” he said in a post on Instagram, “I will enjoy my freedom with dignity, and continue to be successful in everything I do by the will of God, as long as God is pleased. My voice will be louder and I will work harder.” The post UK Government Targeting of Muslim Scholar Part of a Coordinated Campaign to Clamp Down on Pro-Palestine Solidarity appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, Top Story, counter terrorism police, Israel, Israel Lobby, Lebanon, South Lebanon, terrorism, UK home office]

— How Lockheed Martin, Raytheon & BAE Systems are propagandizing children to support war through STEM

 

at 7/31/26 2:04pm

Raytheon sponsors the Girl Scouts of America. BAE Systems is reading your toddlers their favorite fairytale stories. And Lockheed Martin funds children’s math and STEM festivals. This is done with great fanfare, supposedly to empower and inspire children to pursue their passion for science. In reality, though, these companies are attempting to launder their images and enlist the next generation to become cogs in the military-industrial complex. All the while, these organizations’ products are being used across the world by the United States and Israel to commit war crimes – in Iran, Yemen, Palestine, and beyond – to target children. MintPress explores the murky world of the arms companies training kids to bomb kids. Normalizing War to Kids When many Americans think of Raytheon (now officially rebranded as RTX Corporation), they don’t envisage rockets and cruise missiles; they think of math. For decades, the second-largest arms manufacturer on the planet has bankrolled a wide range of organizations aimed at getting children excited about STEM subjects. Since 2009, Raytheon has been the title sponsor of MATHCOUNTS, a non-profit organization that provides engaging math programs for middle school students in every U.S. state, as well as organizing math competitions to find the brightest children in America. In 2005, Raytheon launched its MathMovesU program, aimed, in its own words, “to inspire middle school students to get excited about math and science.” In addition to the materials provided, it has also spent millions on scholarships, grants, and study awards to thousands of students, teachers, and volunteers. And its MathAlive! traveling exhibit promises, in rather outdated branding, to take math “2theXtreme”. MathAlive! Has also traveled to several countries in West Asia, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia – all of them among the biggest purchasers of Raytheon weapons technology. The company also enjoys a longtime partnership with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA). In 2017, for example, it launched the GSUSA’s first national computer science program and cyber challenge for middle and high school girls. “The progress to diversify the STEM workforce needs to be accelerated… At a time when technology is transforming the way we live and work, we can – and should – show young women a clear path to taking an active role in this transformation,” said Thomas A. Kennedy, then-Raytheon CEO; “Working together, Raytheon and Girl Scouts will help girls build confidence to see themselves as the robotics engineers, data scientists and cybersecurity professionals who will create a better tomorrow.” Raytheon also spearheaded the GSUSA’s “Think Like a Programmer” project, which encourages girls to explore the world of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and developed many of the programming badges available to the scouts. GSUSA appears proud of this relationship. Its website profiles one former scout who now works at Raytheon as a success story and a model to follow. The article includes a step-by-step guide and a list of tips for those wishing to follow in her footsteps. Unsurprisingly, Raytheon also works closely with the U.S. military on these matters, establishing four new STEM “centers of innovation” with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Michigan, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., all near military bases. While some might be surprised by the closeness of the relationship between a children’s organization and an arms manufacturer, it is worth remembering that the scouting movement was originally established by Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell, as a stepping stone towards boys joining the military. Baden-Powell was deeply concerned that English boys would not be physically fit enough to fight for their country in any upcoming wars, and designed an organization that would train them both physically and mentally to do so. Kirsten Bayes from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade was unimpressed by Raytheon’s attempts to improve their image and to train the next generation of weapons manufacturers. “Our view is that arms companies have no place in schools or colleges, and should certainly not be working with childrens educational charities,” she told MintPress, adding: “Schools and other places of education should be places where children learn, grow and develop their full potential. They should not be a recruiting ground where arms companies whitewash their activities.” Lockheed Martin U But Raytheon is far from the only weapons giant directly targeting America’s children. Lockheed Martin hosts CYBERQUEST, an annual high school competition that encourages children to pursue careers in intelligence and cybersecurity. The 2026 event was held in 11 locations across the country, as well as virtually around the world. The arms giant offers high school internship programs designed to fast-track America’s brightest young minds into careers in defense. Every year, Lockheed Martin hires thousands of young interns, and claims that 60% of these candidates go on to paid work at the company. It also sponsors “young minds at work” days, setting up hands-on experiments for children to play with, including bottle rocket experiments and more. Universities are a key recruitment ground. The corporation spends huge sums attracting top talent, including hosting “Lockheed Martin Day” at more than a dozen colleges nationwide, where company recruiters are allowed on campus to dazzle students with virtual reality exhibitions, flight simulators, and even landing helicopters directly on college greens. Lockheed Martin has entered into partnerships with several top colleges. A $1.5 million donation to the University of Texas at Arlington, for instance, resulted in the renamed of one of their buildings as the Lockheed Martin Career Development Center. The company touts its reputation as a safe space for women and LGBT employees, and is regularly listed as one of the best employers for inclusivity. One woman the company itself profiles is Haley, who, as a girl, dreamed of becoming an inventor. “As a child,” they write, “Haley clung to a notebook where she sketched her ideas and inventions. On the cover she scribbled, ‘Haley’s Way to Make Life Better.’ Her best idea? A self-folding Christmas tree cleverly called ‘Merry, Bright and Boxed’ to make cleaning up after the holidays more efficient.” Today, that child with dreams of making the world a better place is a missiles and fire control engineer with Lockheed Martin, developing weapons that efficiently kill people all across the planet. Targeting Toddlers Boeing, too, has developed a number of projects aimed at young children. Their “Engineering is Elementary” program is designed for pre-K, kindergarten, elementary and middle school students, and, like those from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, is focussed on funnelling young minds into a career in weapons manufacturing. “Boeing has a strategic community focus to increase teacher effectiveness in math and science and to attract more students into STEM-related careers,” a company representative said, adding, “Engineering is Elementary provides teachers and students a greater understanding of engineering, and it accomplishes that in a fun, interactive way. Our goal is to interest students in engineering at an early age and increase the number of scientists and engineers.” Aerospace manufacturer BAE Systems, however, goes even further. The London-based giant that produces jet aircraft, missiles, howitzers, and warships published a series of bizarre videos featuring both its employees and members of the British Armed Forces reading classic fairytales to children. This included Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. These came complete with worksheets to help extremely young children with their problem-solving skills. Reading bedtime stories to babies is just part of a wider strategy BAE Systems is conducting in order to, in their own words, “improve our corporate reputation at both a local and national level.” Other initiatives include hosting school roadshows, robotics festivals, science camps, and local community outreach programs, all aimed at children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it also stepped in to provide schools with branded learning materials for children as young as five. Bayes appeared appalled at the company’s actions, stating: “We are aware that BAE Systems claims to spend as much as £100m [U.S.$134m] per year on educational activities. It claims its motives are community based, but we would say that this is part of their recruiting strategy: seeking to influence young people without presenting the full facts of what an arms company is, and what the consequences of working for them would be.” Fairytales and Nightmares As much as these companies attempt to present themselves neutrally as scientific entities, the reality is that their primary businesses revolve around producing the hardware and weaponry that the United States uses to dominate the world. In the past twelve months alone, the United States has bombed seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. And it is companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that make this kind of extraordinary planetary violence possible. For example, on February 28, the United States launched an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in Minab, Iran. A Tomahawk cruise missile – one of the most precise guided weapons on the planet – was launched from a nearby warship and pummelled the building, causing the school to collapse in on itself. Soon after, a second missile hit the school’s courtyard, where desperate survivors were gathering. The attack was timed precisely for maximum damage: 10:45am on a school day. At least 156 people were killed, most of them pupils at the school, which neither served any military purpose, nor was located near any military target. Over 100 more were injured. The event was immediately denounced as a major war crime. But Secretary of War Pete Hegseth brushed it off, and later stated that, “The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians who think they’re going to live.” The Tomahawk cruise missile is produced by Raytheon, and subsystems used in the operation were made by a subsidiary of BAE Systems. Washington also uses its primacy in weapons to keep its allies in power. Saudi Arabia is by far the U.S.’ top arms customer, purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of hi-tech weaponry, which it immediately uses against Yemen, and to suppress domestic dissent. Riyadh has pursued a genocidal attack on civilian infrastructure in Yemen, including against farms, sewage, and water facilities, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. In August 2018, it dropped a 227 kg (500lb) laser-guided bomb on a school bus in Dhahyan, northern Yemen. Fragments found at the scene identified the bomb as having been produced by Lockheed Martin. Forty children were killed in the attack – a far from uncommon occurrence during the Saudi-led campaign to topple Ansar Allah from power. If Saudi Arabia is Washington’s biggest customer, then Israel is its prime recipient of welfare. A study from Brown University found that in the two years following the October 7, 2023 attack, the United States spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel, including aircraft, missiles, and all manner of small arms munitions. Israel has used these weapons to systematically target children in Gaza and beyond. At least 97% of schools in the densely-populated strip have been hit. One of the more notable examples was the Khadija Girls’ School in Deir al-Balah, which was targeted on July 27, 2024. A Human Rights Watch investigation found that Israel dropped at least two GBU-39 bombs on the school – munitions manufactured in the United States by Boeing. Thus, while arms manufacturers read fairytales to Western kids, children across the world are forced to live out a very real nightmare, thanks in no small part to these companies. Whether they live in the United States or one of the countries under its boot, however, children everywhere are being targeted by these weapons firms, though in different ways. In the United States, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others have stepped in to bolster cash-strapped education departments. While their rhetoric emphasizes empowering children – especially girls – to follow their science dreams, their true intent is to launder their reputations as merchants of death, and to train up the next generation of Americans to become willing members of the American war machine. Children on the other side of the globe, however, are given no such illusions, and have to live with the constant terror that they be these companies’ next victims. This image, is not the one the likes of Raytheon want us to think about when we picture their products, and so they spend millions attempting to distract us with stories of empowerment and discovery. What a world we live in, where weapons companies are training kids to bomb kids. Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post How Lockheed Martin, Raytheon BAE Systems are propagandizing children to support war through STEM appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, National, News, Top Story, What's Hot, arms trade, Boys & Girls Clubs, children and war, defense contractors, Gaza, Girl Scouts, Iran, Lockheed Martin, military-industrial complex, Raytheon BAE, STEM education, Systems Boeing, U.S. militarism, war propaganda, Yemen]

— Iran’s Shock Strike Strategy Against US Assets Opens Multiple Fronts

 

at 7/30/26 11:50am

While another lull in direct combat between the United States and Iran has come into effect, other fronts begin to expand and threaten to drown the region in a much broader conflict. In the latest episode of The Target, Robert Inlakesh examines the ever expanding battlefield, its impacts on oil and gas. Yemen’s Ansarallah led government, based out of Sana’a, has launched strikes on at least four different oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia, following airstrikes carried out against major Yemeni cities. Riyadh was put on standby that all aggression would be matched in kind, as the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Yahya Saree affirmed that the newly imposed Red Sea Blockade will continue. Donald Trump again backed down from his threats to launch a major air campaign targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure over the weekend, which has been covered in the corporate media as if the move to halt strikes represents a de facto cessation of hostilities. The Target livestream delves into what is really going on behind the scenes and how this indicates a desperate attempt from Washington to manipulate the price of Brent Crude oil Futures. With the absence of direct American strikes on southern Iran and a lack of strikes from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in return, the issue has faded from the media cycle. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz is now completely closed, the Bab el-Mandeb crossing has also just been sealed by Yemen for Saudi shipping, all as oil and gas facilities go up in flames. The US President is also threatening to attack Yemen directly, as his allies in Kiev also targeted an Iranian vessel in the northern Caspian Sea over the weekend. All as the pressure mounts on Syria to invade Lebanon in order to go after the weapons of Hezbollah and Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups continue to suffer pre-emptive blows. Contrary to the regional conflicts portrayed by the White House, the US finds itself in a difficult position whereby it continues to suffer major economic blows, as its strategic petroleum reserves diminish, all as Iran no longer needs to endure airstrikes. Supporters of the Trump administration have posited that the President’s decisions are tantamount to five-dimensional chess moves, when in fact they appear to be desperate bids to delay an inevitable show down. What is truly happening on the battlefield? Is there a reason why we aren’t being informed about the true nature of the Yemen-Saudi War, could the Ukraine War merge with the US’s War on Iran? All of this and more are addressed in this Monday’s episode of The Target. Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Iran’s Shock Strike Strategy Against US Assets Opens Multiple Fronts appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Daily Digest, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Foreign Affairs, The Target, Top Story, Videos, Iran, Israel-US War on Iran, oil crisis, U.S. war, War Crimes]

— Regime Change Mission Foiled: Yemen’s Ansarallah Uncover Saudi-Mossad-CIA Espionage Network to Decapitate Resistance Leaders

 

at 7/20/26 5:28pm

Newly leaked documents reveal that while the Yemeni Armed Forces escalated their military campaign and Red Sea Blockade against Israel during the genocide in Gaza, a secret intelligence alliance and a “sophisticated espionage network” were being formed between Saudi intelligence, Israel’s Mossad and the CIA inside Riyadh to achieve regime change in Sana’a through political assasinations, dismantling Ansarallah from within, defecting military officials and gathering intelligence through charitable aid organizations. Recently uncovered documents, combined with confessions from alleged members of a sprawling espionage network in Yemen, reveal an agenda far beyond gathering intelligence for the sake of developing a target bank inside the country. Yemeni authorities say that instead, the plan was to assassinate the country’s senior political and military leadership, while dismantling Ansrallah’s current governing structure. They argue that in their place, a Saudi-proxy leadership was being prepared, one that would steer Yemen away from its support of the Palestinian cause. According to Yemeni investigators, the operation mirrored intelligence campaigns previously carried out against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in addition to those that sought to enable decapitation strikes against senior Iranian officials. The alleged targets included Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi, President Mahdi al-Mashat, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, members of Ansar Allahs Political Bureau, and numerous senior military commanders. At the center of the alleged political transition was former military intelligence General Ali Al-Sayani, who Yemeni officials say was being prepared abroad to lead a post-coup government loyal to Riyadh.   Secret Operations Room Uncovered   Towards the tail end of last year, Sana’a’s security forces announced that they had dismantled a ‘sophisticated espionage network’. What they would later find, however, was a series of networks linked to joint operations rooms – staffed by Saudi intelligence, CIA and Mossad officers – that had been operating out of Riyadh. Yemeni officials shared that the network consisted of multiple compartmentalized intelligence cells spread across the Sanaa, Sadah, and Hodeidah Governorates of the country. Each cell is said to have operated independently while remaining connected to a centralized command center that was based across the border in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s authorities alleged that operatives were tasked with gathering intelligence on senior government officials, Ansarallah leaders, military commanders, as well as security personnel. Cells were also guided to map out government headquarters, monitor the movement of officials, and identify critical military infrastructure, including weapons manufacturing facilities, ballistic missile and drone launcher locations. Speaking to MintPress News, Nasr al-Din Amer, a senior Ansar Allah official and deputy head of the movements media authority, described what he said was an attempt to dismantle Yemens entire leadership structure. There was a major plan to target the civilian, military, security, and even media leadership system. The dismantled cell were part of the intelligence operation that targeted offensive and defensive capabilities and aimed to overthrow the regime in Sanaa completely. Amer argued that the campaign was designed not only to remove Yemens leadership but also to halt its ability to continue military operations. The goal was also to prevent us from supporting Gaza, and to secure the passage of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, but none of that was achieved, as our operations did not stop, the regime in Sanaa did not fall, and Yemen became much stronger.   Inserting A Proxy Regime   Yemen’s internal investigative unit concluded that the US-Israeli-Saudi joint operations room had recruited former Yemeni military officers, including Major General Ali Ahmed Al-Sayani, alongside Farouk Ali Rajih and former Air Force Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Haifi. Rajih was taken into custody by Ansarallah and was later sentenced to death along with 16 other operatives. As part of his confession, he had alleged that a Saudi intelligence officer, known as Abu Khalid, personally informed him that senior Saudi officials wanted to meet General Al-Sayani abroad due to  Yemen being on the verge of a major change supported by multiple foreign governments. Because of Al-Sayanis relationships with other former military leaders, he was viewed as the ideal figure to oversee a political transition, assuming that the US-Israeli-Saudi joint room’s regime change plot went to plan. Rajih later claimed: The meeting did indeed take place in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and arrangements were made for a military coup in Yemen. For this purpose, military teams were formed and provided with sophisticated communication equipment and large sums of money. Amer informed MintPress that the same joint operations room played a central role in the assassination of Yemens Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, who was killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on August 28, 2025. Those strikes also killed nine cabinet ministers and the countrys Chief of Staff. There is no doubt that these cells had a major role in the operation to target the government. Investigations, evidence, and documents held by security prove this. Officials in Sana’a maintain that the broader operation ultimately failed because of the vigilance of their own security services, who successfully uncovered the network before its objectives could be completed. While acknowledging that some Israeli strikes did successfully kill senior officials, authorities characterize those attacks as isolated successes rather than evidence of an effective intelligence campaign. Bolstering their narrative is the fact that the only successful assassinations took place in publicly known locations, not highly sensitive and secured sites. Amer, for his part, dismissed the overall operation as a failure. We have developed security expertise over the past years, and we are engaged in an intelligence battle with the most advanced global security agencies.   Decapitating The Military Leadership   While one branch of the espionage network focused on political leaders, Yemeni authorities say another concentrated on the countrys military command as Yemen intensified its operations in support of Gaza. The key targets in the scope of the cell included the missile force, drone units, naval forces, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, and commanders responsible for Yemens missile and drone operations. Revealed as part of Sana’a’s investigation, was that the Joint Operations Room recruited a man by the name of Colonel Ali Muthanna Nasser, the former head of the Military Security Divisions office within Yemen’s military intelligence. The US-Israeli-Saudi project then assigned this asset with the responsibility of monitoring Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atifi and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Abdelkarim Al-Ghamari. Authorities claim Nasser supplied detailed intelligence, including the locations of military leadership meetings, operational plans, troop movements, and copies of confidential reports circulating through the Military Security Division. This intelligence later became essential in supporting a broader targeting campaign. Only six days into a fragile U.S.-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Al-Ghamari was assassinated in an Israeli strike. Shortly afterward, Israel publicly claimed responsibility for the assassination, with Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that Al-Ghamari had been “eliminated”. The killing came months after another Israeli strike that killed Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi along with several cabinet ministers during an official government meeting in Sanaa. Yemeni investigators argue that both attacks were made possible through a sophisticated intelligence operation involving several specialized cells working simultaneously. MintPress was informed that the cell conducted preliminary surveillance of government headquarters in Sanaas Haddah district. A second allegedly installed concealed surveillance cameras inside concrete blocks positioned near the facilitys entrance, while hidden audio devices were placed nearby to confirm activity within the compound. Once the information had been verified, investigators say, the intelligence was transmitted to the operations room. Authorities further allege that another team remained positioned near the target immediately after the strike with vehicles equipped for live recording, documenting both the attack and its aftermath. A fourth cell reportedly tracked the movements of senior officials before and during the operation, helping determine the optimal moment to strike. Taken together, Ansarallah sources describe the operation as far more than a conventional intelligence-gathering effort. Instead, they argue it represented a coordinated campaign designed to provide real-time targeting information for Israeli airstrikes while simultaneously dismantling Yemens civilian and military leadership.   Humanitarian Organisations Used As A Cover One of the most shocking revelations of the intelligence operation was the alleged use of organisations claiming to have been carrying on humanitarian and development work. According to a number of security officials, several operatives embedded within international and regional organizations allegedly carried out espionage missions while presenting themselves as aid workers or development professionals. One of the most prominent cases involves an individual called Bashir Ali Mahdi, who was arrested on March 20, 2025. Authorities in Sanaa accuse Mahdi of conducting intelligence operations disguised as humanitarian projects through the ‘Qudrah Organization for Sustainable Development’, which he headed. Mahdi is reported to have confessed that he was recruited in Ethiopia, by Senior Director of Programs at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD) Rebecca Cataldi. Security officials further allege that Matt Selinsky, Middle East Program Director for Partners Worldwide, was among those directing aspects of the broader intelligence operation from the Joint Operations Room. According to Yemeni government sources, Mahdis responsibilities extended beyond simply collecting information. He allegedly recruited additional operatives while organizing initiatives intended to generate public resentment toward Ansarallah by exploiting worsening economic conditions, such as rising food prices, increasing rents, and the hardships facing displaced civilians. Mahdi described those efforts during questioning as follows: We worked to incite public opinion against Ansar Allah by forming neighborhood-level councils and training thirty participants in several of them under the false pretense of strengthening social cohesion, as well as through the Voice of Youth for Youth program in partnership with the German organization GIZ and the European Union. He also claimed that preparations for the alleged coup were discussed during meetings in Cairo. In a meeting in Cairo, Rebecca told me that they are about to launch a major military and economic operation in Yemen, so the intelligence monitoring and information gathering activities about Ansar Allah and militaries needed to be increased. By that point, I had already carried out approximately 70 operations. Mahdi went on to describe what investigators say was the networks standard targeting procedure. Initially, we gather preliminary information. In the second stage, the accuracy of these targets is verified and examined using high-resolution surveillance, monitoring, and imaging equipment, which another team places near the targets. Afterward, the coordinates are transmitted to the joint operations room. Another alleged operative, Khaled Qassem Abdullah, reportedly worked for the International Organization for Migration before being recruited in 2024. According to Yemen’s investigators, Abdullah monitored 23 residences belonging to senior government officials in Sanaas al-Haddah district. They say he admitted to installing surveillance equipment inside several of those locations. I successfully installed advanced cameras and listening devices in seven houses and headquarters. I had placed a spy camera inside a block next to the house in Iran Street at Hadda. That house was targeted by an Israeli airstrike that night. Investigators obtained surveillance footage, also viewed by MintPress News, that purports to show Abdullah placing a concrete block containing a concealed camera beside a residence on Tehran Street in al-Haddah; before driving away in a Toyota RAV4. Yemen’s authorities say Abdullah later confirmed the authenticity of the footage. The action took place on December 21, 2024. The operation was part of the second phase of verifying the target. Later, the house was targeted. Commenting on the arrests, Nasr al-Din Amer argued to MintPress that foreign intelligence agencies had successfully infiltrated portions of the international humanitarian community operating inside Yemen. He further suggested that some reactions from international organizations following the arrests deserved closer scrutiny. The eagerness of some UN officials to defend the alleged Israeli spies raises questions about the role of those leaders in providing cover for espionage and putting them in a position of responsibility. International organizations, meanwhile, have leveled their own accusations at Ansarallah, claiming they were obstructing humanitarian operations in northern Yemen and have protested the detention of several aid workers. Authorities in Sanaa reject these criticisms, maintaining that while many organizations conduct legitimate humanitarian work, others failed to prevent foreign intelligence agencies from exploiting their staff and operations for espionage.   A Sophisticated Intelligence Network   The espionage network in Yemen relied on many of the same tactics that have been employed in intelligence operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and IRGC officials in Iran: a combination of international intelligence cooperation, advanced surveillance technology, extensive local recruitment, and carefully timed military strikes using AI technology, satellite imagery and human spotters. While the operation demonstrated significant technological sophistication, Yemens intelligence services ultimately succeeded in disrupting the broader campaign before its strategic objectives could be achieved. Nasr al-Din Amer argued that the network exploiting international organizations as operational cover has real world consequences. Those arrested in connection to the espionage cells possessed sophisticated surveillance equipment, including concealed cameras, listening devices, GPS tracking systems, encrypted communications tools, and live-streaming technology designed for covert intelligence work. Authorities further allege that many operatives were taken abroad and received specialized training from American, Israeli, and Saudi intelligence officers inside Saudi Arabia before being deployed back into Yemen. One of those accused of partaking in this, Magdi Mohamed Hussein, allegedly operated a vehicle equipped with advanced live-streaming technology that could be remotely accessed by the Joint Operations Room. This vehicle was used to monitor parking areas near civilian and government facilities while identifying vehicles associated with targeted officials. On multiple occasions, the car was reportedly positioned close to anticipated strike locations to automatically record airstrikes, documenting casualties, rescue workers, ambulances, and the aftermath of the attacks in real time. Another suspect, Sinan Abdulaziz Ali, described while in detention what he claimed was his recruitment and training. My residency in Saudi Arabia was renewed on the condition of working for the Joint Operations Room. In Riyadh, I was trained alternately by Saudi officers Abdullah and Saad, and American officers John and Michael. I was trained in reconnaissance, surveillance, and report writing. I was provided with a camera shaped like a remote and a Camry equipped with hidden cameras, live streaming devices, and listening devices that analyze voices using a technique known as voiceprint, in order to locate Ansar Allah leaders.   The authorities say another operative, Anas Ahmed Saleh, worked directly under a Saudi intelligence officer known as Abu Saif. Saleh was accused of photographing homes, official vehicles, security cameras, civilian guards, and internet infrastructure associated with pre-selected targets. They allege he supplied intelligence on at least 25 residences, particularly around the former U.S. Embassy compound in the Sawan district of eastern Sanaa. Saleh also described his role following one of the Israeli strikes. After targeting a location behind the Sam Social Events Hall, Abu Saif asked me to go there to record the crowd, the rescue operations, and the ambulances in order to identify the victims bodies. I carried out the operation successfully. This was one of more than 100 operations I conducted for Saudi, American, and Israeli intelligence. For Yemeni investigators, such testimony points not only to intelligence gathering before attacks but also to the systematic documentation of their aftermath. Infiltrating Yemens Popular Mobilization Forces   As Yemen expanded its military operations in support of Gaza, domestic support for Ansarallah grew rapidly, leading to the rapid expansion of what has become known as the General Mobilization Forces – a network that allegedly grew to around 1 million fighters, led at the local level by tribal leaders and community leaders. This soon became a prime target for infiltration. Among those arrested in connection with the cell responsible for infiltrating the General Mobilisation Forces was Imad Shayea Ezz El-Din, a tribal sheikh and official within the Ministry of Local Administration. Authorities claim his assignment was to gradually infiltrate Ansarallah, obtain promotions within its ranks, recruit additional operatives, and gather intelligence on tribal leaders and military formations supporting Yemens campaign against Israel. During questioning, Ezz El-Din described his alleged mission. I was tasked with infiltrating Ansar Allah and assuming high-ranking positions within their organizational structure, as well as recruiting spies within the movement and obtaining their personal phone numbers in order to hack cyberattacks. Although he acknowledged that the effort largely failed because of Ansarallahs internal security measures, investigators say he nevertheless identified several ballistic missile and drone launch sites. Some of those locations were later targeted by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, although the strikes reportedly failed to achieve their intended military objectives, resulting primarily in the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure in a country already devastated by years of war. Following a Saudi-Emirati-led military campaign that inflicted widespread damage across Yemen, these new strikes have further deepened the humanitarian crisis, killing hundreds of Yemenis—including women and children. The role of local informants has become a central element in understanding how targets were identified. In another confession extracted under the detention of Yemeni authorities, Ezz al-Din stated: I provided the joint operations room with 50 targets, including vital facilities. I also provided them with information about newspaper headquarters in al-Tahreer zone. This intelligence contributed to strikes that devastated civilian areas, including the Al-Tahrir district, where more than 150 residents were killed by Israeli airstrikes. Among those civilians affected were journalists, medical workers, and government employees. The attacks targeted an entire neighborhood, while rescue operations continued for two weeks as teams recovered the dead and injured from the destruction. Another case involving alleged intelligence cooperation emerged through the arrest of Daifallah Saleh, who was reportedly recruited during the broader regional conflict surrounding Gaza. Saleh stated that a man identified as “Abu Abdullah Al-Saudi” sent him coordinates of a detention center, telling him it was a military camp and asking him to photograph it. Days later, the center was targeted by air raids, Saleh said. I told Abdullah that all the dead were African migrants. He replied that it didnt matter. Following Saleh’s arrest, investigators reportedly recovered voice messages from his phone containing information related to the targeting of the detention facility. Amnesty International stated that the U.S. strike on the Sa’dah migrant detention center constituted a war crime, raising further questions about civilian protection, accountability, and the consequences of intelligence-driven military operations. For years, Yemen has remained among the most heavily targeted countries in the world, enduring extensive bombing campaigns, foreign intervention, and widespread destruction. Yet despite the scale of the devastation, Yemen has continued to assert its role in regional conflicts, positioning its actions as opposition to Israeli military operations in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran. Yemeni officials have repeatedly stated that their armed forces remain prepared to respond to what they describe as aggression against countries across the region—ensuring that Yemen remains a central and contested actor in the expanding geopolitical struggle of the Middle East.   Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist based in Sanaa. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.     The post Regime Change Mission Foiled: Yemen’s Ansarallah Uncover Saudi-Mossad-CIA Espionage Network to Decapitate Resistance Leaders appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Investigations, Top Story, AbdulMalik al-Houthi, Ansarallah, CIA, Mossad, proxy war, Regime Change, Saudi Arabia, Yemen]

— Lionel Messi’s Ties to Netanyahu, The Israeli Military and Its Elite Spying Unit 8200

 

at 7/15/26 12:14pm

The world’s eyes will be on Lionel Messi on Wednesday night, as Argentina face England in the World Cup semi-final. The diminutive superstar has gained a massive following across the planet, not least in Israel, thanks to his numerous business and security connections with the Apartheid State. From being the face of an Israeli A.I. company led and run by Israeli spies, entrusting his private security to a team of Israel secret agents, MintPress explores the reasons why Benjamin Netanyahu considers him to be his favorite football player. Palling Up With Ex-Israeli Spooks As the world’s foremost football star, Lionel Messi is understandably protective of his image. The Argentinian forward carefully picks and chooses whom he is associated with, and has signed lucrative long-term deals with enormous global brands, such as Adidas, Pepsi, and Mastercard. That is why many were surprised when, in 2020, he announced a partnership with OrCam, a relatively small Israeli A.I. firm that makes wearable artificial vision devices (similar to Google Glass). OrCam markets itself as helping visually impaired people live more fulfilling lives. Messi became its global brand ambassador and the face of the company. More controversially, however, OrCam is an outgrowth of the Israeli national security state, employing dozens of former agents of Israeli military spying agency, Unit 8200, many in highly influential positions. Chief among these is Adi Levitski, a longtime intelligence officer with Unit 8200, who, in 2024, was appointed director of operations at OrCam. Many OrCam staff were commanders in the shadowy spy agency, responsible for some of the worst crimes of the post-October 7 2023 war, as well as many of the most scandalous international hacking and surveillance operations. Mor Shamy, for example, rose to become head of intelligence analysis at Unit 8200 by 2015, and would later be hired as an algorithm developer at OrCam. Working alongside him was Matan Albeck, the former head of Unit 8200’s data analysis department. Despite major layoffs in recent years, the company continues to be largely staffed by former spooks, with a revolving door existing between the two entities. Some, such as Eliya Segev and Eli Corn, went from OrCam into Unit 8200, while Amitai Edrei’s resume show that he worked for both OrCam and Unit 8200 at the same time, underscoring the close relationship between the two. For Messi, this should have been a major red flag in working with OrCam, as Unit 8200 is the prime designer and operator of Israel’s hi-tech genocide in Gaza and beyond. And its agents are responsible for producing much of the world’s most invasive spyware. Using big data collected by its massive digital Palestinian dragnet, the organization created massive A.I.-generated kill lists of Gazans, and carried out tens of thousands of drone bombing operations that was the centerpiece of the destruction in Gaza. Its agents also developed highly-invasive spyware, such as Pegasus, which was used to spy on tens of thousands of foreign leaders, journalists, activists, and human rights advocates across the world. The Israeli government sold Pegasus to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes globally, helping them crack down on human rights. Perhaps the most well-known case of this was Saudi Arabia, who used Pegasus to monitor Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, before dismembering him with a bone saw in their embassy in Türkiye. It is, therefore, highly questionable that Messi should decide to become the face of such a company.   Messi’s Israeli Handlers The Argentinian has made multiple visits to Israel during his career. In 2013, he and his club, F.C. Barcelona, went to Israel and Palestine on a supposed “Peace Tour.” During his trip, he met and talked with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, and glad-handed with IDF soldiers. He also donned a yarmulke and visited the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. Even after leaving, however, Messi takes a small part of Israel with him everywhere he goes. His security is handled by an elite force of former Israeli agents, who plan his every move, especially internationally. He takes his security very seriously, even missing his sister-in-law’s wedding in Argentina due to safety concerns. Those same Israeli forces were in charge of security at his own 2017 wedding, ESPN reports, although it did not detail whether those agents are from the Mossad, Shin Bet, or an elite commando group. Messi, who avoids political controversies, has not made any statements on Israel/Palestine since October 7, 2023, despite many (false) stories suggesting otherwise. The Inter Miami forward left an impression on Netanyahu when the pair met in 2013. In a recent interview, Netanyahu revealed that he is supporting Argentina at this year’s World Cup. “He’s 39 years old now,” he said of Messi; “They are lucky to have such and experience player who knows how to score goals.” The Israeli public clearly agree. A recent poll found that 38% of Israel are actively supporting Argentina at the tournament – well ahead of second place Brazil. Yoav Berkowitz, head of sports at Israeli public broadcaster Kan, stated that this was due in no small part to the Messi effect.   Zionist Brothers Others, including Netanyahu himself, cite Argentinian president Javier Milei as another factor. Since coming to power in 2023, Milei has made support for Israel a central pillar of his political platform. Internationally, Israel has few friends left. But Milei’s Argentina has emerged as among its most vocal backers. In May 2024, it voted against an overwhelmingly popular United Nations vote to elect Palestine as a full member of the body. Four months later, it did the same with a resolution demanding an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. His government also declared Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Forces terrorist organizations, and cheered on the US/Israel attack on Iran, Milei himself calling it the “right thing to do.” Argentina also stated that it would move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, thereby effectively legitimizing the occupation. The move was paused, however, after Israeli oil firm Navitas announced it would begin drilling near the Falklands/Malvinas – a group of islands controlled by the United Kingdom but claimed by Argentina. On a personal level, Milei has distanced himself from Catholicism (the dominant religion in Argentina) and all but declared himself a Jewish convert. Earlier this year, he described himself as “the most Zionist president in the world.” “Milei is a great friend of Israel,” Netanyahu said, adding: “He’s a superstar, he really is. He’s done amazing things with their economy by adopting the free market.”   How Israel Helped Argentina Massacre Its Jewish Population Since October 7, 2023, Israel has lost massive amounts of public support across the world, even in Western nations. A 2025 YouGov survey found that more than 20 times as many Italians, for instance, hold “very unfavorable” (43%) views of Israel than “very favorable” ones (2%). Even in Germany, where popular support for Israel is highest, only 21% said they hold favorable opinions of the state (including only 4% highly favorable), with 65% displaying open opposition (including 32% who strongly dislike it). It is widely claimed that October 7 was the largest slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust. This, however, is not the case. In fact, the fascist military dictatorship that ruled Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s relentlessly persecuted Jews, killing or “disappearing” thousands. Taking inspiration from Hitler and the Nazis, the dictatorship equated Judaism with socialism, and rounded up and killed huge numbers of political opponents, even turning football stadiums into makeshift death camps. Many of those involved were the sons of German Nazis who escaped to Argentina after the end of the Second World War. Israel actively helped the dictatorship with their slaughter, selling them sophisticated military hardware, and upping their levels of military assistance even as attacks on the country’s Jewish community increased.   A Love Hate Relationship While Israel is supporting Argentina, the goodwill is certainly not reciprocated, no matter Milei’s attempts. A recent Pew poll found that the majority of Argentinians hold a negative view of Israel, including 34% who have highly unfavorable opinions of the country – seven times that who reportedly hold very positive views of Israel (5%). In this respect, they are taking after another Argentinian footballing sensation: Diego Maradona. The star, often regarded as the greatest footballer ever, declared himself the “number on fan of the Palestinian people,” and stated that “in my heart, I am Palestinian. Maradona consistently condemned the actions of the United States and Israel, and aligned himself with revolutionary causes across the world. In contrast, Messi has constantly shied away from political issues. But, as discussed here, he has made several decisions – embracing Netanyahu, visiting Jerusalem, becoming the face of an Israeli tech firm staffed by spies, and surrounding himself with Israeli spooks as bodyguards – that should lead many to question this supposed neutrality. Argentina play England today for a place in the World Cup Final. While the result remains to be seen, it is no mystery that Israel and Netanyahu will be cheering for Argentina – and for Leo Messi. Alan Macleod Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post Lionel Messis Ties to Netanyahu, The Israeli Military and Its Elite Spying Unit 8200 appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Foreign Affairs, Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, Top Story, What's Hot]

— The Israeli Spy Behind PragerU’s Plan to Rewrite American Education To Indoctrinate Children

 

at 7/8/26 12:52pm

PragerU is trying to take over American schools. The right-wing, pseudo-educational group is now an official educational partner in at least ten states, and blitzes children with highly questionable messaging on race, history, and politics. Even more concerning, PragerU is led by former Israeli spy, Marissa Streit, who has stated she uses the tactics and techniques honed by IDF military intelligence on the American people. Streit’s company is involved in a big-money operation targeting children with neoconservative, pro-war, pro-business, pro-Israel messaging, attempting to indoctrinate them at their youngest and most impressionable age. MintPress explores this increasingly powerful group, with ambitions to completely overhaul the American educational system.   Leave Our Kids Alone You have probably seen a PragerU video. An estimated one-in-three Americans have. The billionaire-funded media machine is a powerful force on the American right, providing highly-produced conservative content attempting to push U.S. politics and society rightwards. Recently, however, PragerU has set its sights on children, and is seeking to hijack the American education system. Since 2023, it has signed deals with ten states – Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah – to become an official education provider, supplying books, videos, and other content to schools across the United States. Students in New Hampshire, meanwhile, can earn credits by completing online PragerU courses. And with PragerU Español, it has plans to expand into Latin America as well. Florida was the trailblazer in this phenomenon. As part of his Stop WOKE Act – a bill that sought to eradicate liberal ideology from public life – Governor Ron DeSantis partnered with the organization, identifying it as one that “aligned with the state’s revised civics and government standards.” PragerU now provides ultra-conservative “American values” messaging for use in grades K-12. Florida’s post Stop WOKE Act curriculum now requires middle school teachers to instruct students on the benefits of slavery for black Americans, including that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” It has also rewritten the 1920 Ocoee Massacre – a pogrom that saw a white mob kill dozens of black residents and permanently ethnically cleanse the Florida town of its black population – as an “act of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” College students at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, meanwhile, can earn extra credit by taking a PragerU history course. This, despite the fact that, despite its branding, PragerU is not an accredited educational institution, let alone a university. Oklahoma, however, has gone even further. Last year, the state’s superintendent of education, Ryan Walters, launched a controversial teacher evaluation test developed by PragerU to vet teachers for their ideology and filter out applicants considered insufficiently conservative. The plan even withheld teaching certificates from educators from what Walters described as “woke states.” Walters left his position to head the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative pressure group opposed to teachers unions.   Free Healthcare is Slavery, But Actual Slavery is A-OK The PragerU content being shown to American schoolchildren contains a number of highly controversial viewpoints presented as common sense. Most “lessons” are presented in cartoon format, with one about the founding of America including an animated Christopher Columbus stating that slavery was “no big deal.” “Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world,” he said; “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.” Further justifying the enslavement and genocide of two continents, Columbus tells those watching that, “The place I discovered was beautiful, but it wasn’t exactly a paradise of civilization, and the native people were far from peaceful.” Another video lesson grossly distorts the views of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, with an animated Douglas justifying slavery in America, stating that “the founding fathers made a compromise [supporting slavery] to achieve something great: the making of the United States.” PragerU Kids videos also cover more contemporary issues. One video, titled “Los Angeles: Mateo Backs the Blue,” deals with the murder of George Floyd, whom the narrator describes as a “black man who resisted arrest.” The video claims that “violent protests” and “looting” were sparked by “false claims” of racist policing spread by unnamed “activists.” Mateo, a Los Angeles child, is aghast by protestors “threatening police,” or, as the video calls them, “protectors,” and decides to stand firmly in solidarity with the Blue Lives Matter movement. Another educational resource approved for use in schools is a lecture called “Is Fascism Right or Left?” by controversial conspiracist Dinesh D’Souza, in which he insists that, “Fascism bears a deep kinship to the ideology of today’s left.” In 2014, D’Souza pled guilty for violating federal campaign financing laws. Unsurprisingly for a conservative movement funded by fracking billionaires, PragerU also instructs children to reject the overwhelming consensus on climate change. However, it takes it to absurd levels, comparing the supposed oppression of climate skeptics to the living in Warsaw Ghetto, where upwards of 300,000 Jewish people were killed by the Nazis. In “Poland: Ania’s Energy Crisis,” the titular character is fed propaganda at school about the disastrous impact of human-made climate change, only to have her eyes opened by her conservative parents. Ania is ostracized by the other children for merely expressing her concerns. Luckily, her grandfather Jakub gives her the strength to continue, by telling her about the Warsaw Uprising. “Through her family’s stories, Ania is realizing that fighting oppression is risky, and that it always takes courage,” viewers are told. On India, American children are told that the country benefitted greatly from British imperialism, who “spread the influence of Christianity and Western values through India” and “discouraged or even outlawed harmful traditions,” and “gave” India its independence in 1947. “Western influence helped transform the country in many positive ways, but some ancient customs are harder to change than others,” the video concludes, framing India’s problems as entirely down to their own backward culture, rather than centuries of direct rule and oppression. Another video lambasts Canada’s free healthcare system and highlights the supposed dangers of socialized medicine, while extolling the for-profit privatized American system, despite it being by far the most expensive, comparatively, and having the worst outcomes of any developed country, according to international studies. PragerU also sets its targets on Cuba, China, Venezuela, and North Korea as well, publishing videos demonizing those countries as authoritarian nightmare regimes in need of U.S. intervention.   Netanyahu’s Favorite Channel No nation, however, concerns PragerU as much as Israel. The organization has dedicated a huge amount of time and resources to defending and promoting the country. Their “Israel at War” series of lectures denounces the “lie” that Israel is occupying its neighbors, and includes a link to sign a petition “to condemn Hamas and stand with Israel.” A lesson plan designed for young children shows teachers how they can make a model Iron Dome out of juice boxes and straws, in order to educate American children on how Israel is defending itself from Palestinian terror, interspersed with messaging like Israel and the U.S. are best friends that “share values that are tied to God.” Another video, explaining the current crisis in the region to older children, claims that, “Like the United States, Israel is a nation of immigrants, which prides itself on its freedoms for all citizens, no matter their religion, ethnicity, or race,” and, “Uniquely, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does not oppress its minority populations.” This will come as some surprise to Israel’s Arab minority, who face systematic and institutionalized discrimination, including restrictions on land ownership, jobs, and education, and to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who describe Israel as an Apartheid state carrying out a genocide against Muslims and Christians. PragerU, however, frames Israel as the victim. Israelis, they tell their audience, grow up under “ongoing attacks from terrorist organizations, whose primary goal is to destroy Israel.” “On many occasions,” it continues, “Israel sought peace with surrounding countries, and the local Palestinians,” but to no avail. The network even comes with an endorsement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shared their video, “Israel: The World’s Most Moral Army,” with his followers. “We stand with Israel,” PragerU replied.   PragerU: Run by an Israeli Spy This unconditional support is unsurprising, given who actually runs the company. PragerU CEO Marissa Streit is, after all, an Israeli spy. On her eighteenth birthday, Streit joined Unit 8200, the Israeli Defense Force’s spying agency. In interviews, she has admitted that she was an officer in the controversial unit, and stated that she uses the tactics and techniques honed by Israeli spying agency on the American people. “Coming back here to the United States with the gifts that Israel had given me during my military training, I felt compelled to employ them here in my nation of the United States,” she explained. Exactly what her role as a Unit 8200 officer remains a mystery. Streit has said of her time there that, “We were tasked with looking at problems that the intelligence community might be missing.” Given that her service coincides with the Second Palestinian Intifada, however, one can speculate that suppressing domestic resistance to occupation was among her tasks. One does not join Unit 8200 by chance. The group is Israel’s most elite spying agency, accepting only the top 1% of applicants. Rich parents spent fortunes on extra STEM classes for their children in the hopes that they will be chosen to serve in the unit, knowing that serving there is a fast track into the upper echelons of Israeli society. Unit 8200 is responsible for cyberwarfare and psychological operations worldwide. The group has created a massive surveillance dragnet targeting Palestinians, and uses the data to generate massive A.I.-derived kill lists. It is widely identified as the group behind the 2024 Lebanese Pager Attack, which injured thousands of civilians. Unit 8200 agents are also responsible for producing much of the world’s most invasive spyware that is sold to authoritarian regimes across the planet. This includes the notorious Pegasus software, which was used to surveil tens of thousands of politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and union leaders. The Saudi government, for example, used Pegasus to track Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, dismembering him with a bone saw inside their embassy in Türkiye. “So much of what I learned in Israeli military intelligence has impacted the way I think today. It is such a gift, what they have given me,” Streit said. From there, she moved back to the U.S. to work for pro-Israel pressure group, the Israeli-American Council. She sees Israel and the United States as fundamentally linked together, and both under threat from progressive values. “We are losing America to radicals who hate the West and everything we stand for… We must teach our children to be grateful to live in America,” she said, adding: “Students should learn to cherish our Judeo-Christian heritage, which is the foundation of our great society… If we provide our children with a proper education, grounded in truth, justice, goodness and liberty, then I can assure you that they will grow to love both America and Israel.”    Streit has made her own views on Israel’s attack on Palestine clear. She has justified attacks on civilians in Gaza, claiming that they are “harboring terrorists and hostages in their homes,” suggested that Hamas plans to “kill all Jews including nursery children,” and asserted that slogans such as “Free Palestine” are “synonymous with ‘destroy the West.’”   Make America Dumb Again Streit has been at PragerU since its inception in 2009. Her views on politics and Israel/Palestine, however, could almost be described as moderate, compared with company founder, Dennis Prager. The right-wing talk show host has visited Israel dozens of times, including leading a “Stand with Israel” tour across the country, including into occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. He labeled Palestinians as “among the world’s most morally unimpressive national groups” and claimed that “lying is a Palestinian art form.” Prager, who has campaigned for whites to be allowed to use the N-word, fell in his bathroom in 2024, and was left quadriplegic and paralyzed from the neck down, and since has taken a back seat in the organization. The empire he built was bankrolled to the tune of millions by fracking billionaires, Dan and Farris Wilks, although the pair later pulled their money after Prager was insufficiently homophobic for their liking. By this time, however, the company was funded by Israeli-American megadonor Miriam Adelson, and had grown from strength to strength. By 2024, its revenue climbed to a reported $70 million, and it could afford to hire A-list conservatives such as Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nigel Farage, and Douglas Murray to present their videos. The original plan was for PragerU to pursue university accreditation (hence the name). However, this was quickly dropped. And yet, despite holding no educational accreditation whatsoever, they kept the misleading moniker. This sort of callous relationship with the truth has been a constant feature of the organization. It is regularly criticized for producing content with little to no intellectual merit. Multiple sources have cataloged what they call the “blatant lies” present in the outlet’s videos. Officially, PragerU is a non-political organization. “We’re a 501(c)(3)” non-profit, company co-founder Allen Estrin said. “We don’t have any political involvement with anybody. That would be against our charter.” Few, however, would take this at face value, especially as Streit herself posted a video of her dancing with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, with the caption “Make Education Great Again! Thank you President Trump.” PragerU has strongly supported Trump’s wholesale attacks on the education system and teachers unions, who they see as the primary obstacle to their plan to “disrupt the education market.” Trump has also attempted to cut funding for PBS children’s programming – music to PragerU’s ears, as the organization attempts to shape young minds from infancy stepping in to fill the vacuum left by Trump’s gutting of the U.S. education system.   Racist Sesame Street PragerU sits at the apex between neoconservative foreign policy, reactionary social policy at home, and relentless pro-Israel advocacy. But the primacy of all three of these positions are increasingly under threat in the United States, and are becoming progressively more unpopular. Large majorities of Americans support a system of socialized medicine that PragerU so actively campaigns against, as well as making colleges free to attend, and building social housing nationwide. Sixty-two percent of young Americans hold a favorable view of socialism. Polls show the country overwhelmingly disapproves of Trump’s aggression against Iran. And after nearly three years of genocide, the tide is turning on Israel. An April Pew Research Center study found that even four in ten Republicans hold an unfavorable view of the country. That figure rises to 57% of Republicans under the age of fifty. Top right-wing media figures, such as Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes, are all vehemently anti-Israel. Meanwhile, pro-Israel conservative thought leaders, such as PragerU’s Ben Shapiro, have seen their audience crater by up to 90%. For pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-billionaire PragerU then, the situation is grave. Despite years of extremely well-funded P.R., they have been unable to stem the tide of public opinion. Their new strategy of targeting children appears to be an attempt to inculcate Americans with these values when they are at their most impressionable; to stop the rot before it gets started. PragerU is enthusiastically backing Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. education system, and is poised to step in to fill the void. In this sense, they are hoping to do to American education what Israel has done to Palestine. And with a former Israeli spook at the helm, they are in a perfect position to do so, blasting young minds with a blitz of reactionary propaganda, making them passionate advocates of a system that fundamentally does not work for them.   Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod. The post The Israeli Spy Behind PragerU’s Plan to Rewrite American Education To Indoctrinate Children appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Daily Digest, Front Page: National, Investigations, National, News, Top Story, Education, Epstein Class, indoctrination, Israel, PragerU, USA]

— Hezbollah Hunts Down Hind Rajab’s Killers & Crushes Israeli Offensive

 

at 6/24/26 10:09am

More than two years after six-year-old Hind Rajab was killed alongside her rescuers in Gaza, Hezbollah is systematically targeting commanders linked to the Israeli unit accused of killing her. In this weeks episode of The Target, Robert Inlakesh examines the battlefield campaign, the evidence, and the growing pressure on Israels military leadership. On this Monday’s edition of the Target Stream MintPress News’ Robert Inlakesh looks at how Hezbollah has hunted down the Israelis connected to the infamous killing of Hind Rajab in the Gaza Strip – investigating how the Lebanese resistance has managed to target senior officers, while also repelling recent attempts to advance. On January 29, 2024, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded for help over the phone for three hours, trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her family.  An Israeli invading tank opened fire from just 13 meters away in Gaza Citys Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, leaving the little girl in a state of shock. For hours she pleaded over the phone for the Red Crescent rescue workers to save her, but the request to send in a rescue team was denied by the Israeli military. In a bid to put pressure on the Israelis to greenlight an emergency vehicle deploying to the area, Red Crescent workers based in the West Bank city of Ramallah published the audio from phone calls with Hind on social media. Quickly the situation became a major international story and eventually the greenlight was granted to permit an emergency crew to reach her. However, once the emergency vehicle reached the vicinity of the 6-year-old girls location, the Israelis organised a tank ambush that killed every living person on the scene. Israel initially denied its troops were even in the area. Yet, then came the satellite imagery and a forensic investigation proving they what the world already knew: they lied — 335 bullet holes in Hind Rajab’s family car, a coordinated tank ambush, and two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun, had been deliberately killed after receiving Israeli-approved clearance to rescue her. Now the 401st Armoured Brigade — the unit identified as being behind Hinds killing — is being hunted down in Lebanon by Hezbollah. The Hind Rajab Foundation, a non-for-profit seeking justice for Palestinians killed in Israel’s genocide, filed a 120-page complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) that named 24 Israeli soldiers and commanders responsible. Among those names was that of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, a commander of the 52nd Armoured Battalion, who was targeted and seriously injured back in 2024 by Hezbollah and whose replacement commander was also critically wounded. Accountability in The Hague moves notoriously slowly. But accountability on the battlefield is much swifter as Hezbollah has continued to pursue the leadership structure implicated in Hind Rajab’s brutal killing. In May of 2026, Hezbollah seriously wounded Colonel Meir Biderman of the 401st Brigade. Then, on June 19, another commander of the 52nd Battalion was killed when his tank was destroyed in southern Lebanon by an FPV drone strike, eliminating him along with three other soldiers attempting to advance upon the Ali al-Taher Hills area. The brigade that terrorized Gaza is being systematically dismantled. This episode examines this arc, from the killing of Hind Rajab, to Hezbollah’s targeted takedown of Israeli commanders in the hills of southern Lebanon. All this, as the Islamic Republic of Iran threatens to strike Israel if it continues to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon and pushes to force the US to hand over the concessions that it has agreed to on paper. Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Hezbollah Hunts Down Hind Rajab’s Killers Crushes Israeli Offensive appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Foreign Affairs, Top Story, Videos, What's Hot, Gaza, Hezbollah, Hind Rajab, ICC, israeli military, Red Crescent, South Lebanon]

— Tinder’s Secret War: How Israel used the Dating App in the Propaganda Battle for South Lebanon

 

at 6/23/26 1:58pm

As Israel intensifies attacks on Lebanon and seeks to entrench its occupation of southern Lebanese territory despite repeated ceasefire violations, another front of the war is coming into focus: psychological operations conducted through some of the worlds most popular technology platforms . In August 2024, the United States military ran ads on Tinder in Lebanon to  discourage users from joining the resistance against the continued Israeli genocidal assault on the country demonstrating the full spectrum of the Zionist military strategy. Backed financially, politically and militarily by the United States Israel has long aimed to engulf Lebanon with desires to reoccupy the South along with regular bombardments on civilian areas. And despite there being a “ceasefire” between Lebanon and Israel since April 17th, Israel has bombed Lebanon over 3,500 times all the while pushing for normalization. US CENTCOM ads on Tinder represent another front in the Zionist military strategy: psychological operations with militarized “dating” platforms. Tinder, the most popular “dating” app in the world, boasts over 75 million active users in more than 190 countries. It is owned by Match Group a multi billion dollar conglomerate that owns the largest market share of dating platforms Hinge, Match.com, OkCupid. Plenty of Fish, Salams, and others. Largest market share also means one of the largest data gold mines personal and intimate user data, messages, video calls, facial recognition and location data on potentially hundreds of millions of users across Match Group’s dozens of dating applications. Tinder’s user data was found in a breach at Gravy Analytics a data broker company who sells data to governmental agencies to be used for police and military location tracking. But Match Group’s strategy and their technologies became fully militarized after Zionist billionaire investor and trump donor Paul Singer and his Elliot Management group built a $1 billion stake in the company in January 2024. Paul Singer has long worked to integrate Israeli military tech into global markets co-founding Start-Up Nation Central (SUNC), a Tel Aviv based nonprofit started to combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. SUNC works to promote Israeli tech and get Unit 8200 officers Israels elite military intelligence unit hired at all major US tech firms like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Palantir. In February 2024, Match Group announced their new partnership with OpenAI in a press release written by ChatGPT. OpenAI’s technology has been instrumental in powering the AI genocide in Gaza. In February 2026, the company struck a deal with the United States Department of Defense CEO Sam Altman sharing that the deal was made due to the Department of Defense’s “deep respect for safety.” In March 2024, Zillow co-founder and Palantir board member Spencer Rascoff joined Match Group’s board. Palantir’s technology is used by the Israeli military to surveil, target and genocide in Gaza. Rascoff was then named CEO, replacing Bernard Kim in February 2025. “Do not take up arms against the United States of its partners,” the Tinder ad read in Arabic, along with pictures of warplanes and the CENTCOM logo in August 2024. Match Group was sued in February 2024 over allegations that the platforms are designed to turn users into compulsive addicts who never find love but are turned into “gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards.” Yet despite partnering with Paul Singer and OpenAI, installing a former Palantir board member as CEO and running US military ads in Lebanon Match Group says that they are just on a mission “to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide.” Jennifer Kings is a MintPress contributor, psychiatric nurse practitioner, sexual assault forensic examiner and former emergency medicine registered nurse with a graduate degree in global public health. She produces short and long-form content for her social media platforms and written work on substack. She is also a contributor at Vocal Politics. The post Tinders Secret War: How Israel used the Dating App in the Propaganda Battle for South Lebanon appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Front Page: Inside Stories, Investigations, Top Story, Videos, AI genocide Gaza, big tech, Centcom, Israel, Tinder, US military]

As of 9/23/26 2:09pm. Last new 9/23/26 11:08am.