Laith Marouf & Hadi Hotait were the only journalists at the scene of battle between Wahhabi death-squads invading from Syria, and local indigenous village forces defending north Lebanon.
Israeli Air Force came to the aid of the Wahhabit terrorists.
Watch this report, which includes an interview with Ali H Mourad who hails from the area, to understand what is happening in north Lebanon, and why now.
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| UFW leader Cesar Chavez calling for boycott of lettuce |
One of the reasons for my eager participation in the recent student Palestine solidarity protest at Bowdoin College came to me while standing outside the student union with students occupying inside.
After getting out of the Air Force in 1974 I returned to Florida to be near family. When I volunteered for the military in January 1971, during the US war on Vietnam, I was still a young conservative having gone to schools on military bases for most of my young life. It was in the Air Force that I became exposed to the truth about our nation's foreign policy. It was there that I became an anti-imperialist and activist.
After leaving the military I first attended a community college in Orlando for two years before moving to Gainesville to finish my last two years at the University of Florida (UF). During the time in Orlando and Gainesville I was saddened because there was little to no movement organizing on either campus. Florida was already quite conservative but many across the nation had turned away from issues I suppose because people were tired after the years of intense conflict around civil rights and war.
At UF I completed a double-major in Sociology and Political Science and only had a geology, statistics and language requirement left in order to graduate.
One night while studying in 1978 there was a knock on my apartment door in Gainesville. The Rev. Fred Eyster entered and introduced himself as the leader of the Florida Farm Worker Ministry. He was a kind and gentle man and we talked for a long time. Someone had given him my name and he invited me to come hand out flyers the next day at the campus student union in a campaign to get the lettuce out of the cafeteria in support of striking California farm workers. I apologized and said I had a test in two days and was so close to graduation. He thanked me and left.
The next day I skipped class and went to the student union and handed out flyers to fellow students. The day following I went again, skipping my test. Before I knew it I did my first radio interview and the United Farm Workers Union offered me a job organizing citrus fruit pickers in Florida.
I accepted the post and was trained as an organizer by the UFW. After a month of training at the UFW headquarters in California, I returned to direct farm worker union offices in Apopka and Winter Garden, Florida. UFW assigned me as the note taker during two contract negotiations with Coca-Cola company which owned Minute Maid orange juice. Coke flew in big wig lawyers from Atlanta to do the negotiation with the farm workers.
We had citrus picking crews largely made up of black and Hispanic workers.
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| Up and down the ladder filling one tub after the other. Pay based on how much fruit one could pick. Many factors impacted the final wage. Weather, amount of fruit in a particular grove, amount of travel to grove, etc. |
I never regretted my decision. I never graduated from college either. I treasure my UFW days where I experienced and learned so much including almost barely functional Spanish.
While standing outside of the Bowdoin student union all of those memories came flashing back. I thought about the students currently involved in the Palestine solidarity campaign and wondered how many of their life trajectories will be impacted by these few days of raging protest for such a good and important cause.
I've continuously been an organizer since 1978. (I took one year off in 1999 when my son was a senior in high school. I got a 'regular job' and soon enough realized how much I missed organizing.)
Since 1982 I've been working in the peace movement specializing on space militarization issues.
So you could say I am a big believer in campaigns on college campuses centered around the student union - their gathering place.
Sparks fly when you do that kind of work.
Lives change too.
Bruce
One very profound man.
Welcome to the official Middle Nation channel.
Join Shahid Bolsen, the leading Political Commentator on global Muslim affairs, as he analyses events from across the world affecting the Muslim world.
Listen to in-depth discussions on the three core objectives:
📍Economic Sovereignty: Learn strategies for achieving economic independence for Muslim nations.
📍Political Independence: Discover insights on fostering political autonomy for Muslim countries.
📍Psychological Decolonization: Engage in conversations about psychological decolonization within the Muslim world.
By David Hearst (Middle East Eye)
A covert relationship claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia, one that was years in the making, has been unravelling in a matter of days.
Netanyahu talked about it explicitly in an interview with Channel 14 during his visit to Washington last week.
"We had covert relations for nearly three years. On our side, apart from me, three people knew about it. On their side there were also a very small number of people who were involved in this, as was the case on the American side," Netanyahu boasted.
If true, and not another of Netanyahu’s fabrications, you can either reveal this relationship with the other side’s consent, or when it is over. The third possibility is that this statement is the act of a bully, like many others in the past week.
But the relationship between the kingdom and Israel has been as much based on personal as state ambitions.
As an unknown prince facing stiff opposition from powerful members of the royal family, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) realised that his path to power at home lay via Tel Aviv and Washington.
Once installed as crown prince, Bin Salman continued to court Israel, making a covert visit in 2017. He flattered American Jewish opinion expressing headline-making disdain for the Palestinian cause.
A year later, he castigated the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Palestinians should negotiate with Israel or "shut up".
Before the Hamas-led attack on Israel, MBS inched ever closer to putting his signature on the Abraham Accords.
Even after the Hamas attacks, Saudi Arabia maintained business as usual.
No room for manoeuvre
For 15 long months, no pro-Palestinian protests were tolerated and the festivals continued while Gaza wept. Even raising a Palestinian flag or praying for Gaza by pilgrims at Mecca was banned.
Neither the death toll in Gaza, nor the invasion of Lebanon, nor the military operation in the Occupied West Bank changed the Saudi line.
The crown prince was even prepared to tolerate a degree of humiliation at the hands of US President Donald Trump. Asked which country he would visit first, Trump said Saudi Arabia would have to pay $500bn in US contracts for the privilege of his presence.
After a warm phone call from MBS, the kingdom promised $600bn. Trump then upped the demand, saying the figure should be more like $1 trillion.
"I think they’ll do that because we've been very good to them," Trump said to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
When Trump revealed his plan to own Gaza after the mass transfer of the Palestinians, he said that the bill for the clean up operation would go to the Gulf states, by which he meant Saudi Arabia. This particularly irked Riyadh.
Trump also bragged that Saudi Arabia would normalise with Israel without a Palestinian state. "So, Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful. And they have been very helpful. They want peace in the Middle East. It's very simple," Trump said.
It took Riyadh just 45 minutes to reply in what has become known as the dawn statement.
It left little room for manoeuvre.
"His Royal Highness emphasised that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and will not establish relations with Israel without that."
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land....The kingdom of Saudi Arabia emphasises that this unwavering position is non-negotiable and not subject to compromises."
The war of words has hotted up since.
In his interview with Channel 14, Netanyahu performed a victory roll. He said if the Saudis were so keen on creating a Palestinian state, they could do it on their territory. "The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there."
This provoked a further chorus of condemnation from the Arab world including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait.
In its second statement of the week, on Sunday, Riyadh said it categorically rejected statements that "aim to divert attention from the continuous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are subjected to".
The statement again left little to the imagination: "This extremist, occupying mentality does not understand what the Palestinian land means to the brotherly people of Palestine and their emotional, historical and legal connection to this land," it said.
Palestinians have a right to their land and "are not intruders or immigrants to it who can be expelled whenever the brutal Israeli occupation wishes".
A bygone era
In just a few days, Trump and Netanyahu have undone all their own work. They were the ones who arm-twisted the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to sign the Abraham Accords.
In his interview with Fox News, Netanyahu made no bones about the purpose of doing this. He said it was done to sideline the Palestinians. Netanyahu poured scorn on Saudi sensibilities.
"When we complete the changeover in the Middle East, when we cut the Iranian axis down even further, when we make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons, when we destroy Hamas, that will set the stage for an additional agreement with the Saudis and with others.
"By the way, I also believe in the Muslim world. Because it's peace through strength. When we are very strong and we stand together, the objections that are raised now that it's insurmountable are going to change," he said.
Until today, Netanyahu had been telling MBS and Mohammed Bin Zayed, UAE president, that he would deal with them as allies.
Netanyahu is now saying he would impose peace on the Arab world by force, that the Arab world will come crawling to him when Israel has conquered all.
All of this has now forced Saudi foreign policy to revert back five decades to the Arab nationalist days of King Faisal.
And for the first time in 15 months, there is now a real prospect of a frontline of Arab states emerging, formed from the countries which have been so quiescent to Israel.
Wearing, significantly, a keffiyeh, the former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal warned of "collective action" not only by the Arab and Muslim world but Europe as well.
Late on Sunday, Egypt announced that it would host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss "new and dangerous developments" after Trump proposed to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
A bridge too far
What triggered this change was the adoption of mass population transfer as the official policy of Israel and the United States.
For decades, it had lingered untouched on the dusty shelves of political debate in the extremist wings of religious Zionism. Now it’s mainstream policy in Israel and America.
Far from just challenging Israel’s immediate neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, a forcible transfer of two million Palestinians would affect every Arab state, particularly the Saudi kingdom.
As Trump doubled down on mass transfer, and with Netanyahu calling it the "purest, freshest idea in years", the threat perceived in Arab capitals has only grown.
For the religious Zionist movement claims territory far beyond the current borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Daniella Weiss, the leader of the settler movement, is not shy about expressing the territorial reach of the land promised to Jews by God.
"This is the promise of God to the Patriarchs of the Jewish Nation. It's three thousand kilometres. It's almost as big as the Sahara Desert. It's Iraq and Syria, and part of Saudi Arabia."
Even without Itamar Ben Gvir, the former extremist national security minister, in charge, Israel is occupying more Syrian land than the Gaza Strip, not counting the Occupied Golan Heights. It refuses to leave Lebanon. It makes no secret of its plan to divide Syria up into cantons and is employing increasingly hostile rhetoric to Turkey.
It's only a matter of time before Israel’s territorial expansion destabilises the whole region with dire consequences for the Saudi kingdom.Shedding Israel and distancing himself from Trump now gives him the opportunity to return to the moral and economic epicentre of the Arab and Islamic world .The kingdom is no longer isolated from the Muslim world in the way it was when MBS came to power. It enjoys warm relations with Turkey. There is a $6bn deal in the offing, with Riyadh in the market to buy warships, tanks and missiles from Ankara.
Too late
On Tuesday, King Abdullah of Jordan arrives in Washington with a message from the Arab world to which Trump would do well to listen. It's not bluster. It's not spoken out of weakness. It's the truth.
The consequences of allowing Israel to flatten Gaza, expel over two million people, force Jordan and Egypt to accept them, and the rich Arab states to reconstruct it, would indeed change the Middle East beyond all recognition. Netanyahu is right about that.
It would embroil the US in a religious conflict that would boil away long after Trump’s or Netanyahu’s body had been lowered into the ground.
The pragmatist in Trump should wake up.
The only lesson of the futile wars America has waged this century under Republican and Democrat presidents is that they start in certainty and end in chaos, and go on much longer than America wants them to.
It is Trump’s task to end war. It is Netanyahu’s openly proclaimed task to keep this one going, and to expand it to tame the whole region.
That is why it is in the best interests of an isolationist, nationalist, inward turning America to dump Netanyahu and his dreams of greater Israel today.
Because tomorrow might be too late.
~ David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was the Guardian's foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.
Douglas Macgregor asks 'Where is our moral restraint? We have poisoned the Middle East'.
He calls Trump admin current foreign policy 'Bribing, Bullying, and Bombing'.
One of the best interviews yet.
~ See another great video on the latest in Gaza by 
Iran’s Supreme Leader rejected the idea of holding talks with the Trump Admin, saying that experience has shown it’s “not rational, intelligent, or honorable” to do so, and that “Negotiations with America do not solve any of our problems.”
Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, of the University of Tehran, noted that right now, pressure is building around the West, and now that you have the combination of Al-Qaeda taking over in Syria, 16 months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trump pledging to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from their land, and Israel refusing to fulfill its obligations in ceasefire deals with Hezbollah and Hamas… you have a Middle East that is wondering if they should finally start working together to contain the U.S./Israel alliance in the region.
The Trump Administration: What Can We Expect?
3 PM Sunday, February 16
Blue Hill Library
As Donald Trump’s second presidential term begins there’s a sense that world fate hangs in the balance. Consternation and anxiety seem to be prevailing sentiments. In the U.S. and abroad,
expectations run from “sky-high” to very dire.
Bruce Gagnon, co-founder and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and long-time peace activist is well-positioned and informed to address these matters and will share his observations and expectations as to how Trump’s governance will play out specifically with regards to the war in Ukraine, NATO, Gaza, and outer space.
Gagnon has made it his life’s work to be informed about American politics and has spoken widely at home and abroad of American militarism and its consequences.
A Maine citizen, Gagnon initiated the Maine campaign to Bring Our War $ Home which illuminated the connections between our war spending and fiscal crisis at home. Renowned artist Robert Shetterly has included Gagnon in his widely acclaimed collection of portraits,
Americans Who Tell the Truth. In 2006, Gagnon was the recipient of the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker Award.
African Hub @AfricanHub
1. Burkina Faso's GDP grew from approximately $18.8 billion to $22.1 billion.
2. He has rejected loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He said, "Africa doesn't need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America."
3. He reduced the salaries of ministers and parliamentarians by 30% and increased the salaries of civil servants by 50%.
4. He paid off Burkina Faso's local debts.
5. He established two tomato processing plants, the first-ever in Burkina Faso.
6. In 2023, he inaugurated a state-of-the-art gold mine to enhance local processing capabilities.
7. He stopped the export of unrefined Burkina Faso gold to Europe.
8. He built Burkina Faso’s second cotton processing plant. Previously, the country had only one.
9. He opened the first-ever National Support Center for Artisanal Cotton Processing to assist local cotton farmers.
10. He banned the wearing of British legal wigs and gowns in local courts and introduced traditional Burkinabé attire.
11. He prioritized agriculture by distributing over 400 tractors, 239 tillers, 710 motor pumps, and 714 motorcycles to boost production and support rural stakeholders.
12. He provided access to improved seeds and other farm inputs to maximize agricultural output.
13. Tomato production in Burkina Faso increased from 315,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 360,000 metric tonnes in 2024.
14. Millet production rose from 907,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 1.1 million metric tonnes in 2024.
15. Rice production increased from 280,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 326,000 metric tonnes in 2024.
16. He banned French military operations in Burkina Faso.
17. He banned French media in Burkina Faso.
18. He expelled French troops from Burkina Faso.
19. His government is constructing new roads, widening existing ones, and upgrading gravel roads to paved surfaces.
20. He is building a new airport, the Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport, which is expected to be completed in 2025 with a capacity to handle 1 million passengers annually.
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| Once again supporters of the student occupation came from around the state |
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| Full moon just overhead |
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| Students waiting and cheering for the last occupiers to leave the student union |
I returned to Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine) again yesterday for three hours as things appeared to be coming to a dramatic ending. Students had been occupying the student union for five days and the administration was moving to suspend and even threatened arrests if they did not halt their efforts to get the college administration to divest from support for zionist genocide in Palestine.
Right before 6:00 pm on Monday, the final Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) team came out of the building to huge cheers by the biggest crowd of students and supporters I'd seen since the occupation began.
The Bowdoin Orient student newspaper reported:
Protesters were notified late Sunday night that they would receive temporary suspensions if they did not clear the space by 8:30 a.m. Monday. Those who remained in the encampment past this deadline received a letter from Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe informing them that they had been temporarily suspended and that remaining past 5 p.m. would result in “further disciplinary action.”
“We are all incredibly disappointed that this action was not able to be ended with the meeting of the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum,” lead encampment organizer Olivia Kenney told protesters.
“We want to acknowledge that the space that we have opened up on this campus for speech on Palestine … has broken down doors in the context of our campus community,” Kenney said. “This is not the end.”
In the days since the start of this inspiring campaign nearly 1,000 letters had been sent by SJP supporters to the Bowdoin administration via an online page created to facilitate the process.
My wife Mary Beth Sullivan ended her letter to Bowdoin saying, "Show the leadership this country needs to engage in repair rather than punishment".
I saw on Instagram one woman wrote that she is a regular donor to Bowdoin and had called the college and told them if you suspend or arrest anyone then I will not send any more money.
We have a friend in Malaysia who recently graduated from Bowdoin and was a leading activist at the college during her time there. I had been sending her info about the campaign and she wrote back this morning saying:
"Following closely on social media. Superb activism and organising. One of my former favourite professors was called to do some negotiating. The students agreed to the proposed terms, but the college didn't."
Just prior to the final occupiers coming out of the student union I heard one student say, 'I saw one college administrator visibly trembling'.
There can be no doubt that Bowdoin was under huge pressure from the students, their parents, supporters around the country and internationally. In addition I am certain that zionist donors to Bowdoin were also exerting intense heat on the administration as well.
In one of the most inspiring moments last night one speaker led the assembled in a call and response that resounded with such emotion that passer-byes were stopping and listening. The speaker reminded everyone that 'we are not done' and there was 'more to come'. He also told the crowd that once you graduate and get a job 'don't sell out' to the system. We must 'keep fighting for the people'. Really the perfect message in that moment.
It was indeed a great joy for me to have been able to stand in support of the occupation. (I only live one mile from the campus.) We've lived in this area since 2003 and have rarely seen much political activity at Bowdoin which is sort of a junior Ivy League college.
My hope is that the students will find other ways to keep the pressure on Bowdoin to divest and to involve the public in this growing debate.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump not only doubled down on his earlier announcement to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and build a beach resort but also asserted that Palestinians who leave Gaza will have no right to return.
As Israel continues to violate the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, Trump also appears to be giving Netanyahu the green light to 'finish off Gaza'.
This sad and heartbreaking situation is far from over. I hope Bowdoin students and the general public will stay on the case.
See the Portland Press Herald story here
Bruce
Now let's see....why are these toxins in food not banned in the US where the state of health of our citizens is in crisis mode?
Could privatized health care be a big part of the answer? And big agri-biz.
We need to be cautious of Elon Musk because he, along with other tech giants, has created a new form of capitalism—"club capital"—that replaces profit with rent and feeds parasitically on traditional capitalism and labor.
This new system is not just a minor shift, but a monstrous parasite, exponentially larger than the traditional capitalist structure, with figures like Musk, Gates, and Google wielding unprecedented power over both the economy and politics.
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis offers his analysis and insights on this phenomenon.
“Donald Trump has assembled the most pro-Israel cabinet in the history of the United States, I’ve investigated his funders and it all makes sense”.
~ Lowkey is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business.
Dear friends, near and far,
We are living in times of great uncertainty, fear, and division. But we must recognize a fundamental truth—our struggles are interconnected. The forces of oppression do not discriminate based on labels; they thrive on division, pitting us against one another while consolidating power and control.
Regardless of whether you are a member of LGBTQ+, Black, Brown, White, Indigenous, an immigrant or native-born; regardless of whether you are a man, woman, or nonbinary; regardless of whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, or follow any other faith or philosophy—we are all impacted by the same systems of injustice.
White supremacy fascism, zionism, racism, classism, oligarchy, plutocracy, theocracy, hatred, and bigotry are not just individual problems; they are interconnected diseases that erode the fabric of our shared humanity. They manifest in policies that strip people of their rights, in economic systems that prioritize profit over human dignity, in narratives that dehumanize entire communities, and in political structures designed to keep us divided, dis-empowered, and in fear.
Take a moment to reflect. How has this world of toxic politics, endless conflict, and growing inequality affected your own well-being? How often have you felt exhausted, disillusioned, or afraid? How many times have you watched injustices unfold—against your community or another—and felt powerless to stop them? We must recognize that we all need healing, and that healing can only begin when we come together, not as separate factions, but as one collective force committed to justice, dignity, and peace for all.
This is not a time for despair. It is a time for reckoning. It is a time to link arms—shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart—and fight back against the systems that oppress us. It is a time to practice radical empathy, to listen to the stories of those who have been suffering for far too long, and to acknowledge that their pain is not separate from ours. We must stand for the dignity of every person, for every child born into a world that should not be dictated by hatred and injustice.
Only when we recognize our shared struggle can we overcome fear. Only when we embrace one another in solidarity can we dismantle the forces that seek to divide us. And only then can we create a world rooted in love, justice, and true peace.
Let us rise, together.
With hope and resilience,
These pics are from the Saturday rally outside of the student union occupation by Bowdoin College students in Brunswick, Maine. I'd say over 200 students and community people from around the state came in and out during the two hours I was there.
At the time of the rally 40-50 students were inside the student union in their protest calling for the college trustees to divest from all funds that are involved in supporting the Israel genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Bowdoin student newspaper reported on Saturday about the events:
The crowd listened to speakers, chanted and sang in support of Palestine and participated in a dance circle. At one point during the rally, encampment members addressed the audience with a bullhorn from the windows of Smith Union’s second floor. Speakers from inside the building noted the powerful support they have received from the campus and Maine community.
“There was a moment where I felt in that room that 30 something of us turned into 100, 1,000, 100,000,” Olivia Kenney ’25, a lead organizer for SJP, said from the window. “It’s really hard to describe the beauty of being in here. I haven’t left this building since I came in here at 6 p.m. on Thursday.”
In the late morning on Saturday, as supporters remained gathered outside, some students in the encampment received an email that they had been placed on “disciplinary probation.”
“Your behavior was a violation of the standards of this community,” the letter from James Riley, associate dean for community standards, read. “Specifically, you are responsible for the following Social Code violations: Failure to comply with the reasonable request of a College official. / Disruption of the orderly processes of the College, including obstruction of College activities in Smith Union.”
One student organizer from Bates College [Lewiston], who preferred to stay anonymous, was glad to attend the rally and noted their inspiration at the work being done by Bowdoin SJP.
“Bowdoin and Bates and Colby [Waterville) - these other liberal arts schools around the area - their whole vision is creating a university in which students are able to have critical thinking, to work together and organize and create things that are going to make the world a better place. And this is exactly what that is,” the student said. “It’s so sad to see the administration being completely against it.… I think all of us want to see these schools do what they promised, which is make the world a better place.”
I will return later today to the protest. We've had another big night of snow so until the road is cleared from my home I am stuck here.
Bruce
PS I went for an hour and did a walking picket line near the student union spot where about a dozen students were sitting outside the door studying in the cold. They came and went but always their numbers stayed about the same. Here are some photos from Sunday morning.
US President Donald Trump’s directive to create an American ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system is a destabilizing step towards the weaponization of space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Trump’s executive order to develop advanced missile defenses, issued earlier this week, authorizes the creation of “space-based interceptors,” among other things, the diplomat told reporters on Friday.
“We see this as yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into an arena for armed confrontation, warfare, and the deployment of weapons,” Zakharova said.
This would “completely discredit” the previous US administration’s initiative to develop “certain norms, rules and principles” of behavior in space, and would violate the ban on testing direct-ascent and satellite-killer missiles, she added.
Trump’s decisions “indicate Washington's intention to actively develop and expand deeply destabilizing military programs,” Zakharova said, noting that it would expand missile defenses “to a scale comparable to Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’.”
President Ronald Reagan had envisioned a missile shield as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a Cold War program nicknamed ‘Star Wars’ at the time. Reagan’s proposal touched off an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union.
The US never managed to develop the space-based weapons Reagan wanted, however, and the tensions eventually waned with the signing of several arms-control treaties. Washington has since abrogated almost all of them, including the ABM treaty banning strategic missile defenses to the INF treaty limiting short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
Trump’s program is “openly aimed” at devaluing the Russian and Chinese strategic deterrent, which “will not contribute to reducing tensions or improving the situation in the strategic sphere, including creating a basis for a fruitful dialogue on strategic armaments,” Zakharova said on Friday.
Such dangerous ideas reinforce the importance of Russia’s proposals to create legally binding instruments for preventing an arms race in outer space, including tools to prohibit the deployment of space-based weapons, she added.
The January 27 executive order instructs the Pentagon to create a plan for protecting the US territory from “ballistic,
hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial
attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries” using a multi-layered missile shield.
Such an “Iron Dome” – a name borrowed from Israel’s short-range missile defense – would include the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors,” capable of shooting down incoming ballistic missiles during their boost phase, as well as unspecified “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch,” according to the text of the order.
U.S.-led Imperialism Is Directly Responsible for Turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team (BAP) and U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) stands in unwavering solidarity with the Congolese People as they endure yet another chapter of violence, exploitation, and masked imperialist aggression in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ongoing conflict, fueled by Rwanda’s role as an imperialist foot soldier, is not merely a regional dispute but a manifestation of global capitalism’s insatiable desire for Africa’s resources. As the transnational capitalist class fight for dominance in the global clean energy, artificial intelligence, and technology markets, the Congo has been and stands to remain the battleground as a cornerstone of systemic plunder for over a century.
Rwanda, backed by Western powers such as the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada, Israel, etc, has consistently acted as a destabilizing force in the region, providing material support to proxy militias like the M23 to undermine Congolese sovereignty and facilitate the extraction of resources. Much like the sub-imperialist relationship between the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, Rwanda has no significant mineral reserves of its own yet has become one of the world’s leading exporters of critical minerals like coltan. The recent escalation in Goma, where Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) and M23 have seized strategic areas, is a direct result of this imperialist agenda.
The Congolese People, however, continue to resist valiantly, with the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and Wazalendo self-defense groups reclaiming critical infrastructure like the Congolese National Radio and Television station (RTNC). The responsibility of those outside of the DRC is to heed the acts of the People reflecting the unheard, to unconditionally support their path toward self-determination and right to defend their land and sovereignty. This is the only way to sustainable peace in the Congo.
The conflict in the DRC is not an isolated event but a direct consequence of the global capitalist system in crisis. The so-called “Green Corridor” initiative, promoted by President Felix Tshisekedi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is a stark example of how imperialist powers and their local compradors, seek to legitimize their pillaging under the guise of development. This initiative, funded primarily by the United States and EU, aims to secure access to the Congo’s cobalt, copper, and lithium — resources essential for the global transition to renewable energy and digital technologies. Yet, this so-called “development” comes at the direct expense of the Congolese People, who continue to suffer from violence, displacement, and poverty.
The recent attacks on the embassies of Belgium, France, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States, chanting “down with imperialism” and widespread protests across the DRC, from Goma to Kinshasa, make clear the frustration of the Congolese with a government that has failed to protect them, and a global system that exploits them. The uprising reflects a growing consciousness among the Congolese masses, who are demanding accountability, liberation, and an end to decades of suffering. The Black Alliance for Peace recognizes these protests as part of a broader struggle across the African continent. As Che Guevara said, “all free people of the world be prepared to avenge the crime of the Congo.”
We understand that the liberation of the Congo is inseparable from the liberation of Africa as a whole. The Congo’s land, energy, and resources have fueled the wealth of imperialist powers for generations, while its people have been subjected to unimaginable violence and exploitation. The current crisis is a stark reminder that the struggle for African sovereignty is a struggle against the global capitalist system. We must reject the false narratives that frame this conflict as a regional or ethnic issue and instead recognize it as a fight against imperialism and for self-determination.
The Black Alliance for Peace calls on all progressive forces, both within the African continent and around the world, to stand in solidarity with the Congolese People. Demand an immediate end to Rwanda’s aggression and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the DRC. We call for Congo’s resources to be under the democratic control of its People. We call on all anti-imperialist forces across the world to expose the puppeteer role of the U.S.-EU-NATO Asix of Domination in fueling this crisis and to support the Congolese People’s right to life.
The struggle of the Congolese People is our struggle. Their victory is our victory . Let us unite in solidarity to end the centuries-long suffering in the Congo and to build a world free from imperialism, capitalism, and exploitation. The Congo is not for sale—it belongs to its People.
| Students came and went just outside the student union where more than 40 were camping inside in protest of Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine) administration's refusal to divest from weapons corporations that have been arming Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. |
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| Protest occupation camp inside the student union began on Thursday early evening. Bowdoin College admin is threatening the students if they don't stop the movement. |
Yesterday Bowdoin students began this peaceful occupation inside the student union virtually at the same time that the wealthy elite college Board of Trustees began holding one of their meetings. The students and the trustees have been in conflict for the past year over the issue of divestment from the weapons corporations that the college funds have been invested in.
The student newspaper reported:
The encampment also comes nearly a year after Bowdoin students voted in favor of the SJP-organized Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum, a resolution demanding that the College take an institutional stand against the scholasticide and stop future investments in defense-focused funds. At the beginning of the fall semester, the College established its Ad Hoc Committee on Investments and Responsibility in response to the referendum but has yet to alter its investment practices or offer an institutional statement.
I joined the protest for about four hours on Friday. The students standing outside in the cold chanted, danced, and shared food, drinks and warm coverings with those inside throughout the day. I learned that Bowdoin turned off the heat in the middle of the night inside the student union building. They also put three security guards at the door pictured below but the students on the outside got the door opened and about 25 more students rushed in to join those inside.
At one point I tried to enter the building but the chief of security buried his pointer finger in my chest and threatened me with arrest. I told him to remove his finger which he reluctantly did. Later in the afternoon while he was away from the door (which the students kept open) I did enter and cheered those inside. As I returned to the outside the chief saw me and began scolding the one guard who had looked the other way when I slipped inside.
I talked with many students about their feelings about the event. Most were very supportive as were several faculty that also joined the protest. Two young men who spoke to me for a long time were ambivalent about it but seemed to appreciate our conversation.
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