Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party, declares that Qatar should be considered an “enemy state” that funds Hamas, damages Israel’s image in the world and should be excluded from all negotiations.
According to Smotrich, who is one of the most hardline right-wing and Zionist voices in the Israeli government, it is a “grave mistake” that Qatar is still allowed to participate in the negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 last year.
“Qatar is an enemy state that supports Hamas and backs its positions in the negotiations, aiming to prevent us from destroying it. Qatar owns Al Jazeera and severely damages Israel’s image globally, harming our struggle for survival”, the minister writes on X.
According to Smotrich, the only way to get the remaining hostages back is for Hamas to surrender and for Israel to “continue with the military pressure that our heroic soldiers are currently exerting in the north of the Gaza Strip”.
המשך העירוב של קטאר במו”מ להשבת החטופים הוא טעות קשה. אני מצר מאוד על החלטת ראש הממשלה לאשר את נסיעתו של ראש המוסד למו”מ עם קטאר. קטאר היא מדינת אויב שתומכת בחמאס ומגבה את עמדותיו במו”מ ומטרתה היא למנוע מאיתנו להשמיד אותו. קטאר מחזיקה את אל-ג’זירה ופוגעת אנושות בתדמיתה של ישראל…
Qatar has been described by several analysts as one of Hamas’ biggest funders and several Hamas representatives have periodically traveled to Qatar to escape Israeli assassination attempts.
The Qatari government has not commented on Mr. Smotrich’s remarks, but the country’s leaders have previously condemned similar statements and rejected any accusations that they are trying to prevent the release of hostages.
Next Sunday, Mossad director David Barnea is expected to travel to Qatar to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations on the captured Israelis. Qatar is believed to have played a central role in the exchange of hundreds of prisoners last November.
We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.
Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…
A video clip now spreading on social media shows British police arresting a man for calling someone a “muppet” – British slang for idiot.
The kafkaesque arrest is seen as yet another example of how police engage in Orwellian thought control instead of fighting real crime – a development that has led increasing numbers to speak of a police state.
Many details surrounding the arrest remain unclear, but when the man in the video asks what he has done, police confirm that “there has been a member of the public who you have apparently been showing calling a muppet”.
The man was arrested under British public order laws that prohibit “offensive” or “insulting” behavior in public – for using a word that in the UK is common slang for describing a foolish person.
A man has been arrested in the UK for calling someone a ‘muppet’
The incident comes shortly after British comedian Graham Linehan was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport by five armed police officers. His “crime” was posting “gender-critical” comments on X.
Linehan was subsequently hospitalized with high blood pressure and has vowed to sue the police for what he describes as an “illegal” arrest.
Author J.K. Rowling was among the few public figures who spoke out for Linehan. She asked what the UK has transformed into and called the arrest “totalitarian”.
“Reject this lunacy”
In response to criticism, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has claimed that the UK has freedom of speech – but many argue that the latest video with the “muppet arrest” disproves this assertion.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has also previously criticized European leaders in sharp terms for suppressing citizens’ freedom of speech.
— Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships. This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy, he stated after German police conducted over 170 house searches targeting people suspected of insulting the country’s leaders or expressing politically incorrect opinions.
Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships.
This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy. https://t.co/WZSifyDWMr
The video has sparked widespread criticism on X and other social media platforms.
“The Police need shutting down and starting again. Let’s be honest. They’re corrupted by woke nonsense and have been for decades”, writes user Basil the Great.
Jill M points to the strange priorities: “I love how they send 4, 5, 6 ‘officers’ to arrest 1 person for saying a hurty word. Disgusting. Look how smug they are like they’re saving the public from those dreaded hurty words. Meanwhile, girls & women are attacked by those who shall not be named by hurty words”.
“This seems insane even for Britain”, writes a third person.
User MO wonders: “That’s beyond insane. The UK has gone from policing crime to policing thoughts & feelings. What’s next—prison for sarcasm?”
To which he gets a response: “Prison for sarcasm is not next it has already been several times. Along with silent prayers. unless you are an Islamist’s or a deranged leftist, in that case, you really really have to giantly effe up to face some mild consequences”.
In a highly unusual decision, Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government has violated the law by starving Palestinian prisoners.
The court now orders authorities to immediately improve food supply in prisons – a decision that Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir vehemently opposes.
It is extremely rare for Israel’s Supreme Court to take a stand against the government’s violations against Palestinians, but on Sunday came a unanimous decision. The Israeli government has deprived Palestinian prisoners of even the most basic food supply and thereby violates the law, the court ruled.
The court establishes that authorities have a legal obligation to provide Palestinian prisoners with three meals a day to ensure “a basic level of existence”.
“We are not speaking here of comfortable living or luxury, but of the basic conditions of survival as required by law. Let us not share in the ways of our worst enemies”, the judges write in their decision.
61 dead in custody
Since the war against Gaza began in October 2023, at least 61 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody. In March, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died in prison from what doctors assessed was likely starvation.
Thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned without charges for alleged connections to militant groups. Those who have been released have testified about brutal conditions with overcrowding, minimal food rations, inadequate healthcare, and scabies outbreaks.
Two Israeli human rights organizations, ACRI and Gisha, describe in their complaint to the court that the government is conducting a “systematic policy” to starve Palestinian prisoners.
Ben-Gvir rages against the ruling
The leader of the Jewish Power party and Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the prison system, reacted with fury to the court ruling.
The far-right minister, who has consistently advocated ethnic cleansing and expulsion of the entire Palestinian population, questioned the judges’ loyalty to Israel.
“Are you from Israel?” he asked the judges and accused the Supreme Court of defending Hamas “to our disgrace” while Israeli hostages in Gaza receive no help.
לחטופים שלנו בעזה אין בג״צ שמגן עליהם. לנוחבות הרוצחים, החוטפים והאנסים המתועבים, יש לבושתנו בג״צ שמגן עליהם.
נמשיך לספק למחבלים הכלואים בבתי הסוהר את התנאים המינימליים ביותר הקבועים בחוק.
Ben-Gvir has previously boasted about worsening conditions for Palestinian security prisoners to the absolute minimum. He promised on Sunday that the policy of “the most minimal conditions stipulated by law” would continue unchanged, despite the court’s decision.
Human rights organization ACRI demands that authorities immediately implement the ruling. In a statement, the organization says that those responsible for Israel’s prison system have “turned Israeli prisons into torture camps”.
“A state must not starve people. People must not starve people — no matter what they have done”, the organization states.
A top-secret military operation to wiretap Kim Jong-un went wrong when American elite soldiers shot and killed a group of unarmed fishermen.
To cover their tracks, the soldiers punctured the victims’ lungs with knives so the bodies would sink to the ocean floor.
Navy SEALs from the US elite forces secretly entered North Korea in early 2019 to plant surveillance equipment targeting the country’s leader. But the mission ended in disaster when the soldiers were surprised by – and opened fire on civilian fishermen who were diving for shellfish, reveals the New York Times.
The top-secret mission was carried out by SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron – the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. President Donald Trump personally approved the operation during his first term in office.
The mission was so sensitive that it required direct presidential approval. If the American soldiers had been captured on North Korean soil, it could have torpedoed ongoing nuclear weapons negotiations or led to a hostage crisis.
— I don’t know anything about it. I’d have to, I could look, but I know nothing about it. I’m hearing it now for the first time, Trump responded when confronted with the information on Friday.
Months of preparation
The New York Times bases its investigation on interviews with two dozen people, including government officials, members of the Trump administration, and current and former military personnel with insight into the operation.
The elite soldiers trained for months under extreme conditions in ice-cold water. The plan was to deploy from a nuclear-powered American submarine and then reach the North Korean coast in two silent smaller submarines.
A team of approximately eight soldiers would swim for hours through four-degree Celsius seawater wearing diving equipment and heated suits. Once at the coast, they would plant the surveillance equipment and then disappear unnoticed – without any support from overhead drones.
Everything went wrong on the beach
In February 2019, the mission got the green light. Trump was scheduled to meet Kim Jong-un in Vietnam later that month, and the intelligence information could be crucial for the negotiations.
But when the soldiers reached the North Korean shore, everything went wrong. A fishing boat unexpectedly appeared in the darkness. Without the ability to communicate with mission command, and fearing discovery, a group leader in the SEAL team opened fire. The others followed suit and all unarmed civilians aboard the boat were killed.
To cover their tracks, the soldiers dragged the bodies down into the water. With knives, they punctured the victims’ lungs so the bodies would sink to the bottom. The surveillance equipment was never planted and the mission was immediately aborted.
American spy satellites shortly thereafter registered increased military activity from North Korea in the area. However, it remains unclear whether North Korean authorities ever actually understood what had happened to the shellfish divers.
Trump met Kim in Hanoi, February 2019. Photo: White House
Congress was not informed
The summit between Trump and Kim was conducted as planned in Vietnam, but did not lead to any agreement. In May of the same year, North Korea resumed its missile tests.
The secret mission has never been publicly acknowledged before. According to experts the newspaper spoke with, the fact that Congress was not informed – either before or after the operation – may constitute a violation of federal law.
— The point is to ensure that Congress isn’t kept in the dark when major stuff is going on, argues Matthew Waxman, law professor at Columbia University and former security advisor under President George W. Bush.
— This is exactly the kind of thing that would normally be briefed to the committees and something the committees would expect to be told about.
Those involved were promoted
When Joe Biden succeeded Trump as president, the North Korea mission was reviewed again. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered an investigation led by a lieutenant general from the Army’s Inspector General’s office.
In 2021, leading members of Congress were informed about the investigation’s results, but this report remains classified.
Many of those involved in the failed mission have since been promoted, according to the newspaper’s sources.
The US is phasing out its military security support programs for European countries on the border with Russia. The decision is part of President Donald Trump’s stated strategy to make Europe take greater responsibility for its own defense.
Pentagon representatives informed European diplomats last week that the Americans will no longer finance programs that train and equip soldiers in several Eastern European countries.
The current program, known as “section 333”, has a global budget of over one billion dollars and the cuts are expected to eliminate military support worth hundreds of millions of dollars to countries on Russia’s border.
Between 2018 and 2022, 1.6 billion dollars from the program went to Europe. The main recipients have been the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Already approved funds remain until September 2026, but the Trump administration has not requested new appropriations.
“Europe must take more responsibility”
A White House official tells the Financial Times that the decision aligns with Trump’s ambitions to “reassess and redistribute” foreign aid.
— This action has been co-ordinated with European countries in line with the executive order and the president’s long-standing emphasis on ensuring Europe takes more responsibility for its own defense.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, Europe’s NATO countries also agreed in June to aim to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.
Several European governments were surprised by the announcement and are now trying to get more information from Washington, according to diplomats with insight into the discussions.
— If they are being brutal then it will have big implications, says one diplomat, adding that the military alliance will definitely be affected since parts of the funding are channeled through the alliance.
— It’s causing a lot of concern and uncertainty, states another diplomat.
Increased presence in Poland?
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is very upset about the announcement and describes the cuts as a “misguided move that sends exactly the wrong signal as we try to force Putin to the negotiating table and deter Russian aggression”.
The future of the Baltic Security Initiative, created in 2020 to strengthen NATO countries in the Baltic region, is also uncertain. The White House has not requested continued funding for the program in next year’s budget.
— The loss of US security assistance would be very tough for the Baltic states. The whole idea here is making them capable of defending themselves, argues retired Admiral Mark Montgomery at the think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
While the administration reviews US troop deployments worldwide, Trump assured Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday that American troops will remain in Poland going forward.
— I am very pleased with the arrangement. We’ll put more there if they want, Trump said about the approximately 10,000 American soldiers stationed in Poland.
