Tag: perpetual war

UN experts say US strikes against Venezuela in international waters amount to ‘extrajudicial executions’

U.S. strikes against Venezuela in international waters are a dangerous escalation and amount to “extrajudicial executions,” a group of independent United Nations experts said on Tuesday.

In recent months, U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered strikes on at least six suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean, killing at least 27 people. 

The strikes are part of Trump’s ongoing campaign against what he says is a “narcoterrorist” threat emanating from Venezuela and linked to its president, Nicolas Maduro.

The U.N. experts acknowledged Trump’s justification for the military action, but said: “Even if such allegations were substantiated, the use of lethal force in international waters without proper legal basis violates the international law of the sea and amounts to extrajudicial executions.”

The independent experts, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said the strikes violate the South American country’s sovereignty and the United States’ “fundamental international obligations” not to intervene in domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country.

“These moves are an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region,” they said in a statement.

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CISA Orders Federal Agencies to Patch F5 Devices After Nation-State Hack

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an emergency directive compelling federal agencies to address major security flaws in software management devices made by F5, a technology company. The order follows a security breach where nation-state-affiliated hackers reportedly accessed F5’s internal systems, stealing source code and customer data.

In the directive released on October 15, CISA warned that a foreign government-affiliated group compromised F5’s networks and exfiltrated sensitive files. This stolen data included parts of the source code for BIG-IP, F5’s flagship product, along with information about known vulnerabilities.

CISA stated that this access gives the hackers a significant advantage, allowing them to analyze the code for undiscovered flaws, or “zero-day vulnerabilities,” and develop targeted attacks against F5 devices and software.

Imminent Threat to Federal Networks

According to the directive, this cyber threat actor poses an “imminent threat” to all federal networks that use F5 products. If hackers successfully exploit the vulnerabilities, they could gain access to embedded login details and API keys, which would allow them to move undetected within a network, steal data, and establish long-term access. CISA warns this could lead to a “full compromise” of an organization’s information systems.

Due to what it calls an “unacceptable risk,” CISA has mandated immediate action for agencies using a range of F5 products.

Affected F5 Products:

The directive applies to the following hardware and software:

  • Hardware: BIG-IP iSeries, rSeries, and any other F5 devices that are no longer supported by the company.
  • Software: All devices running BIG-IP (F5OS and TMOS), Virtual Edition (VE), BIG-IP Next, BIG-IQ, and BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes (BNK)/Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNF).

The directive’s requirements are designed to address the immediate risk and help agencies defend against anticipated attacks targeting these systems.

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To Media, Gaza Ceasefire Holds Despite Repeated Israeli Strikes

On October 10, a ceasefire was declared in the Gaza Strip, where more than 67,000 Palestinians were officially killed in just over two years of Israel’s United States-backed genocide. With an estimated 10,000 bodies still buried under the all-consuming rubble, and indirect deaths unaccounted for, this number is almost certainly a drastic underestimate. Shortly after the ceasefire took effect, US President Donald Trump pronounced the war in Gaza “over,” proclaiming that “at long last we have peace in the Middle East.”

In the ten days following the implementation of the ostensible truce, the Israeli military reportedly killed at least 97 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 230, violating the ceasefire agreement no fewer than 80 times. One might have expected, then, to see a headline or two along the lines of, I dunno, “Israel violates ceasefire”—or maybe “So much for ‘peace’ in Gaza.”

No such headlines turned up in the Western corporate media—not that there weren’t some pretty spectacular violations to choose from. On October 17, for example, eleven members of the Abu Shaaban family, including seven children and three women, were blasted to bits in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood while attempting to reach their home. According to the Israelis, the family’s vehicle had trespassed over the so-called “yellow line,” the invisible boundary arbitrarily demarcating the more than 50 percent of Gazan territory still occupied by the genocidal army. 

Then on October 19, Israel bombed the living daylights out of central and southern Gaza and killed dozens after alleging a ceasefire violation by Hamas—an allegation that not even Trump found convincing, but that enabled such impressively passive headlines as “Strikes Hit Gaza After Truce Violations Alleged” (Guardian, 10/19/25). Once the carnage was complete, the BBC (10/19/25) assured readers that “Israel Says It Will Return to Ceasefire After Gaza Strikes.” For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the Knesset that the Israeli military had dropped 153 tons of bombs on Gaza during this particular, um, pause in the ceasefire.

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“Take Out Trump”: Colombian President Petro Makes Shocking Threat Against President Trump in Univision Interview

Colombian President Gustavo Petro threatened to “take out” President Donald Trump in an lengthy interview with Univision on Monday a day after Trump called Petro “an illegal drug leader.”

Relations between Colombia and the United States are at a nadir after the U.S. destroyed a suspected drug running boat in the Caribbean last month, killing a Colombian national. Petro said the man was a fisherman. A report by El Pais says the man had a criminal record involving the theft of hundreds of weapons from a police station in 2015.

Colombia recalled its ambassador to the U.S. on Monday for consultations.

Last month, the State Department revoked Petro’s visa during the U.N. General Assembly after he spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City and called on U.S. troops to disobey orders by Trump.

Speaking with Univision President Daniel Coronell at the end of the interview at Casa de Nariño in Bogota, Petro said if Trump won’t change, the solution is to “take out Trump,” loudly snapping his fingers.

Petro: “Humanity has a first offramp, and it is to change Trump in various ways. The easiest way may be through Trump himself–the easiest. If not, take out Trump.”

PRIMERA SALIDA Y ES CAMBIAR A TRUMP DE DIVERSAS MANERAS. PUEDE SER POR EL MISMO TRUMP, LA MáS FáCIL, SI NO SACA LA TRUMP.” (Note: Both X and Google translate the comment as “take out Trump.” The MRC translation is “get rid of Trump.”

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It Was Never a Gaza ‘War.’ The ‘Ceasefire’ Is a Lie Cut From the Same Cloth

Ceasefires stick because the two sides in a war have reached military stalemate – or because the incentives for each side in laying down their arms outweigh those of continuing the bloodshed.

None of this applies in Gaza.

The past two years in the enclave have been many things. But the one thing they have not been is a war, whatever western politicians and media wish us to believe.

Which means the current narrative of a “ceasefire” is as much a lie as the preceding narrative of a “Gaza war”.

The ceasefire is not “fragile”, as we keep being told. It is non-existent, as evidenced by Israel’s continual violations – from its soldiers continuing to shoot dead Palestinian civilians to it blocking promised aid.

So what is really going on?

To understand the “ceasefire” and US President Donald Trump’s even more deluded 20-point “peace plan“, we first need to make sense of what the earlier “war” rhetoric was used to conceal.

Over the past 24 months, we witnessed something deeply sinister.

We watched the indiscriminate slaughter of a largely civilian population, already under a 17-year siege, by Israel, a regional military goliath supported and armed by the global military goliath of the United States.

We watched the erasure of almost every home in Gaza – in what already amounted to a concentration camp for its people.

Families were forced into makeshift tents, as they had been when they were expelled decades ago at gunpoint from their lands in what is now Israel. But this time they have been exposed to a toxic brew of the rubble-dust of their former homes and the spent materials from many Hiroshimas-worth of bombs dropped on the enclave.

We watched a captive population being starved for months on end, in what amounted to, on the most generous view, an undisguised policy of collective punishment – a crime against humanity for which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being pursued by the International Criminal Court.

Hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza have been physically damaged, in addition to their psychological trauma, by a malnourishment that has altered their DNA – damage that will most likely be passed on to future generations.

We watched Gaza’s hospitals being systematically dismantled, one by one, until the entire health sector was hollowed out, unable to deal with either the flood of wounded or the growing tide of malnourished children.

We watched large-scale ethnic cleansing operations, in which families – or what was left of them – were driven out of “kill zones” into areas Israel termed “safe zones”, only for those safe zones to quickly turn, undeclared, into new kill zones.

And as Trump stepped up the pressure for a “ceasefire”, we watched Israel unleash an orgy of violence, destroying as much of Gaza City as it could before the deadline arrived to stop.

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Israeli Scramble for Gaza’s Gas Reserves

As the Second Intifada was about to begin in September 2000, PLO leader Yassir Arafat celebrated a natural gas discovery in a fishing vessel about 30 kilometers off the Gaza Strip. “This will provide a solid foundation for our economy, for establishing an independent state with holy Jerusalem as its capital,” Arafat said.

Efforts to undermine this hope that could have done much to foster the Gazan economy have gone in tandem with the crumbling of the peace process.

Gaza catastrophe is (also? mainly?) about natural gas

Ever since the late 1990s, the Eastern Mediterranean has become highly attractive to energy interests, with major fields like Israel’s Leviathan (600 billion cubic meters, bcm), Egypt’s Zohr (850 bcm), and the Gaza Marine field (28–30 bcm).

Relative to Israel’s Leviathan, which generates $10 billion annually in export revenue, or Egypt’s Zohr field, which meets 40% of Egypt’s gas demand, the Gaza Marine field has lower output. However, it could have a transformative impact on Gaza’s economy and Palestinian living standards.

Located 30 km offshore from the Strip, the Gaza Marine field was discovered in 2000 by British BG and the Palestinian Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). It was expected to develop revenue at $4 billion.

Let’s put things into context: In 2023, Gaza’s GDP amounted to less than $18 billion. And today, after Israeli decimation, it is barely $350 million. So the field represents a lifeline to Gazans and a great opportunity to overcome chronic energy shortages in Gaza, which remains highly dependent on foreign aid.

With its natural gas industry, Egypt was to serve as the onshore hub and transit point for the gas. The British BG Group was to finance the development and operations in return for 90 percent of the revenues. The Palestinian Authority (PA) would receive just 10 percent, plus access to adequate gas to meet their needs.

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Trump Says Ukraine Should Give Up Territory in Donbas to End War

President Donald Trump said on Oct. 19 that Ukraine should give up territory in the Donbas region already under Russian control in order to end the war.

“We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“They should stop right now at the battle lines. Go home. Stop killing people and be done.”

When asked what should happen to the eastern Donbas region, Trump said: “Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia.

“You leave it the way it is, right now. They can negotiate something later on down the line.”

The president, however, said that he never discussed ceding the whole Donbas territory to Moscow during his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On Oct. 17, Trump hosted Zelenskyy at the White House, during which the president expressed hope that he would be able to resolve the Russia–Ukraine war without sending Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.

The visit followed what Trump called his “very productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 16.

“I think he wants to end the war,” Trump said of Putin as he met with Zelenskyy in the Cabinet room at the White House. “I spoke to him yesterday for two-and-a-half hours.”

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European Countries Back Trump’s Call for Cease-Fire on Current Lines in Ukraine

A coalition of European leaders on Oct. 21 publicly endorsed President Donald Trump’s cease-fire plan for Ukraine, signaling support across the continent for a negotiated end to the war based on current front-line positions.

In a joint statement, the nations—which included the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Ukraine—threw their support behind Washington’s call for the fighting to stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point for lasting peace negotiations.

The endorsement marks the first coordinated European backing of Trump’s push for a ceasefire that reflects battlefield realities—an approach that has divided Western policymakers since the president first publicly floated the idea in August.

“Russia’s stalling tactics have shown time and time again that Ukraine is the only party serious about peace. We can all see that Putin continues to choose violence and destruction,” the statement read.

“Therefore, we are clear that Ukraine must be in the strongest possible position—before, during, and after any ceasefire.”

The statement added that pressure needed to be ramped up on “Russia’s economy and its defense industry,” until Russian President Vladimir Putin is “ready to make peace,” and that measures were being developed “to use the full value of Russia’s immobilized sovereign assets so that Ukraine has the resources it needs.”

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Thousands of Orthodox Jews rally in New York to protest change in Israel’s military draft rules

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military.

The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs.

The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. The Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada, a consortium of Orthodox Jewish groups, said it helped organize the protest.

It comes after Israel’s Supreme Court last year ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. There had been a longstanding enlistment exemption – dating to the founding of Israel in 1948.

The ultra-Orthodox worry that mandatory enlistment will impact adherents’ ties to their faith. But many Jewish Israelis have argued that an exemption is unfair. Rifts over the issue have deepened since the start of the war in Gaza.

Rabbi Moishe Indig, a Satmar community leader, said he’s not sure organizers expected so many people to show up but he said he felt urgency building around the issue.

He said he was appreciative of the governments in New York and the U.S. “for giving us the freedom and liberty to be able to live free and have our children go to school and study and learn the Torah.”

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Israel’s Untold Environmental Genocide

On September 23rd, the UN published a little-noticed report highlighting a barely-acknowledged facet of the 21st century Holocaust in Gaza. Namely, the Zionist entity’s genocide is wreaking a devastating environmental toll not merely on occupied Palestine, but West Asia more widely – including Israel. The damage is incalculable, with air, food sources, soil, and water widely polluted, to a fatal extent. Recovery may take decades, if at all. In the meantime, Gaza’s remaining population will suffer the cost – in many cases, with their lives.

In June 2024, the UN issued a preliminary assessment on the Gaza genocide’s “environmental impact”. It found the Zionist entity’s barbarous aggression had “exerted a profound impact” on “people in Gaza and the natural systems on which they depend.” Due to “security constraints” – namely, Israel’s continuing assault – the UN was unable “to assess the full extent of environment [sic] damage.” Nonetheless, the body was able to collate information indicating “the scale of degradation is immense,” and has “worsened significantly” since October 7th.

For example, Tel Aviv’s 21st century Holocaust has “significantly degraded water infrastructure leading to severely limited, low-quality water supply to the population.” The UN finds this “is contributing to numerous adverse health outcomes, including a continuous surge in infectious diseases.” Groundwater contamination is rampant, with catastrophic implications “for environmental and human health.” None of Gaza’s wastewater treatment facilities are operational, while “heavy destruction of piped systems, and increasing use of cesspits for sanitation, have increased contamination of the aquifer, marine and coastal areas.”

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