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GAZA CITY, Gaza—Nahla Al-Majdob woke up in the middle of the night last week to her seven-year-old daughter, Aya, screaming in their tent. “I turned on my phone light but I didn’t see anything at first,” Al-Majdob told Drop Site News. “Then I noticed bite marks on Aya’s toe.” It was not the first time. “I’ve woken up many nights to find rats around our mattresses,” she said. “Sometimes they’re right next to us, sniffing.”

Like nearly all Palestinians in Gaza, Al-Majdob and her family were forced from their home by the war and have been living in a flimsy tent near what used to be the port on the shoreline of Gaza City. Compounding the hardships of displacement is a growing population of rodents menacing families across the enclave.

“The rats come out from the rubble and the garbage,” Al-Majdob said. “They crawl over our clothes and gather where we store food. If we leave anything out, it will be contaminated.”

Al-Majdob, her husband, and her daughter, are all diabetic, making them particularly vulnerable to infection from rat bites. Her family has come to fear the night, when the rats forage in the dark, chewing through tents, clothes, and flesh.

“Before the war, I would never eat anything touched by rodents, but now, if I find them in the white flour, I sift it and use it anyway,” she said. “If I throw everything away, we will starve.”

She added that the rodents also appear to have become bolder as their numbers have grown. “They’re not afraid of us anymore,” she said. “I push them away with a stick or anything I can find, but they keep coming back after a few minutes.”

Palestinian families in Gaza are living in overcrowded tents and makeshift shelters, surrounded by waste and debris, with limited access to safe water and sanitation services. Among the widespread and severe environmental health hazards that result from the conditions, the United Nations reported this month, is a proliferation of rodents as well as cockroaches, flies, and other pests, contributing to disease transmission.

In a rapid assessment of more than 1,600 displacement sites across Gaza this month, the UN found that, in over 80% of them, rodents and pests were frequently visible, affecting 1.45 million people. Practically all of the affected families reported skin infections, including scabies, lice and bedbugs, with more than 70,000 cases recorded so far in 2026.

On April 12, Amani Abu Selmi was absorbed in preparation for her upcoming wedding, which was just one week away. She has lived with her family of five in a makeshift tent near Nasser Hospital since 2024 after their home in Khan Younis was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. She went through the traditional rituals of a bride-to-be, checking and showing each piece of clothing to friends and relatives who stopped by. The next morning, her joy was shattered. Rats had chewed their way inside and shredded her belongings.

Abu Selmi’s mother, Ghalia, was returning from the market when she found her younger daughter, 13-year-old Samar, running toward her screaming that something terrible had happened. Inside the tent, Ghalia found Amani standing in shock, holding up pieces of her torn bridal dresses.

“The mice and rats spared nothing,” Ghalia told Drop Site. “These were new clothes for her, and now they were riddled with holes. I started crying because I knew how hard it had been for us to afford them in the first place.”

Amani had tried to protect her clothes from rodents, covering them with a wooden board weighed down by stones. But the rats and mice had burrowed underneath.

“She was especially heartbroken over her hand-embroidered Palestinian thobe,” Ghalia said. “She had dreamed of wearing it the morning of her wedding. It’s part of our tradition.” Rodents, fleas, and insects have long been an issue in their tent but Ghalia said the situation has deteriorated dramatically over the past three months.

Several days ago, Ghalia said she found her 19-year-old son’s eye had swollen shut. “There were small bite marks near his eye. He didn’t even realize what had happened until I asked him. He said he felt something on his face while sleeping,” she said. She took her son, Raef, to the nearest Red Crescent clinic, where doctors confirmed that the wound had become infected and prescribed him a course of antibiotics.

“They move all day inside the tent freely,” Ghalia said. “Even when it’s full of people, they dig tunnels underneath us.” She said she caught 20 mice in a single day using sticky traps, but it did little to contain the problem. “I tried to block their holes with mud again and again, but they always come back,” she said. “It’s terrifying. I can’t live like this anymore.”

Majd Sukar, the head of the Preventive Health Department for the Gaza Municipality, told Drop Site that complaints about rodents have significantly increased since the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, when the Israeli military halted its scorched earth bombing campaign even though it continues smaller scale attacks on an almost daily basis.

“The scale of destruction in Gaza has created ideal breeding grounds,” Sukar said. “The Israeli blockade on rodenticides, the mountains of uncollected waste, and untreated sewage are the primary drivers of this crisis.”

The municipality’s efforts to tackle the situation have also been severely limited by Israel. “We’ve lost most of our municipal vehicles in Israeli attacks,” Sukar said. “We simply don’t have the capacity to remove waste or respond effectively.”

Israeli restrictions on aid into Gaza have hampered efforts to deal with the growing rodent infestation. According to Doctors Without Borders, Israel has repeatedly denied the entry of multiple items needed for basic health sanitation, including rodenticide and insecticide.

“We’ve tried to find alternatives,” Sukar said. “We worked with Gaza’s university experts and tested different alternatives, but none were effective. Even many local initiatives have failed. Many people have brought us homemade poisons, but they don’t work either.”

The municipality has launched awareness campaigns, advising families to store food securely, clean their surroundings, and seek medical care immediately after bites, especially for children and those with chronic illnesses. Yet Sukar said they are fighting a losing battle.

“Rats are now everywhere in Gaza, in destroyed homes, shelters, hospitals, everywhere.” Reports have also grown of a large, particularly aggressive and adaptable rat known as the Norway rat. “We urgently appeal to the UN Secretary-General that we need waste removal equipment and pest control supplies. This is not a secondary issue, it’s a public health catastrophe,” Sukar said.

“We are suffering from two wars,” he added. “The war of bombs, and the war of rats.”

Saber Dawas, a 38-year-old father of six, has tried desperately to keep the rats at bay inside their tent in a displacement camp in Al-Yarmouk stadium in central Gaza City.

He tried storing food in plastic containers, sealed bags, and even a cleaned drum for storing flour. “It didn’t matter,” Dawas said. “A rat chewed straight through the drum.”

Even though food is expensive and scarce, he ends up throwing away whatever he suspects was contaminated. He now suspends most of his food supplies in plastic bags from a wooden stick wedged into the tent’s frame, hoping to keep it out of the reach of rodents.

He said he sleeps lightly, constantly on alert. “Sometimes I feel like I’m guarding my family all night,” he added. “We’re at the beginning of summer. This will only get worse.”

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President Trump weighs extended Iran blockade, WSJ reports. Iran tells UN it has right to counter U.S. “state-sponsored piracy.” U.S. sanctions 35 individuals and entities over Iran “shadow banking.” Iranian rial drops to record low. World Bank projects 24% energy price surge amid war shock. EU says Middle East conflict costing Europe €500 million a day. Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue. Hezbollah MP says resistance will thwart any attempt by Israel to establish a “security belt.” IPC: 1.24 million in Lebanon face food insecurity. Israel continues to bombard Gaza. Nun assaulted in Jerusalem as Israeli attacks continue across city. Israel approves 126 new illegal settlement units in occupied West Bank. Israeli forces detain approximately 140 Palestinians across West Bank in two-day sweep. Federal appeals court rejects Trump administration’s mandatory immigration detention policy. Senate rejects Cuba war powers resolution. King Charles addresses Congress. U.S. Forest Service plans record glyphosate spraying in fire-ravaged forests, Mother Jones reports. FCC orders review of all ABC station licenses. DOJ indicts former FBI director James Comey. Emails show top House Intelligence Democrat privately whipped votes for FISA surveillance extension he publicly opposed. U.S. sanctions are the primary cause of a 148% rise in Cuba’s infant mortality rate since 2018. Mali’s military leader surfaces to meet Russian ambassador after weekend coup attempt. EU threatens sanctions against Israel over stolen Ukrainian grain—but not over Gaza. UN warns 7.8 million people face acute hunger in South Sudan as conflict deepens. Northern Irish police arrest man after New IRA claims Belfast police station car bombing. Sudanese army claims it repelled RSF attack in Blue Nile region as humanitarian conditions deteriorate. UN sanctions RSF commander’s brother and three Colombian mercenary recruiters over Sudan war. Beijing touts economic benefits of unification as Taiwan’s Lai vows to strengthen defenses.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• Trump weighs extended Iran blockade, WSJ reports: President Donald Trump has reportedly instructed aides to prepare for a prolonged blockade of Iran aimed at cutting off the country’s oil exports and economic lifelines to force nuclear concessions, according to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report citing U.S. officials. The report says Trump decided in recent meetings to maintain pressure through a maritime blockade rather than resume bombing or disengage, judging those options to be riskier. The strategy has led to reduced shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and rising global energy costs, while also weighing on domestic political support ahead of the midterms. Trump, in a post on Truth Social Wednesday, said: “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” Meanwhile, Reuters reports that U.S. intelligence agencies are examining how Iran would likely respond if President Donald Trump declared a unilateral victory in the war, per two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the matter, with White House advisers expressing concern the conflict could hurt Republicans in the midterms and officials describing domestic pressure on Trump to end the war as “enormous.”

• Japan-linked supertanker exits Strait of Hormuz: The Idemitsu Maru crude supertanker has fully cleared the Strait of Hormuz, becoming the first Japan-linked supertanker to exit the Persian Gulf since the start of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. Two Japanese tankers, one carrying liquefied natural gas and the other carrying liquefied petroleum, crossed the strait earlier in April. Reports suggest the tanker received Iranian clearance to exit the Strait.

• Iran tells UN it has right to counter U.S. “state-sponsored piracy”: Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, has accused the United States of “state-sponsored piracy and terrorism” over the seizure of Iranian commercial vessels and oil cargo, saying the actions violate international law and the UN charter, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General and Security Council president, Iravani said U.S. forces had “interdicted, boarded, and forcibly seized Iran’s commercial vessels on the high seas,” referring to the reported confiscation of the M/T Majestic and M/T Tifani and the “stealing of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian oil.” He described the move as “acts of aggression” and a breach of the UN charter and international maritime law.

• Gulf Cooperation Council condemns Iran, calls for Hormuz opening: Following a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Jeddah, Secretary-General of the GCC Jasem Albudaiwi issued a statement strongly condemning “blatant Iranian attacks” targeting GCC states and Jordan and called on Tehran to take initiative to “rebuild trust,” while voicing “categorical rejection” of what it called Iran’s illegal measures to close the Strait of Hormuz. The statement made no reference to U.S. or Israeli strikes on Iran that started the regional conflict, nor to the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iran. It also stressed the need to intensify military integration, including development of a ballistic missile early warning system.

• Trump attacks German chancellor for calling U.S.-Israeli war on Iran “ill-considered”: President Donald Trump lashed out at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday after Merz called the military campaign against Iran “ill-considered” and warned of the difficulty of exiting such conflicts, writing that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and taunting Germany over its economic struggles. Merz, who said Israel “is doing the dirty work for all of us” when Israeli bombing of Iran began, has since sharpened his criticism, suggesting Washington is being “humiliated” by Tehran’s negotiating tactics—a notable shift for one of Israel’s most consistent European backers and among its largest weapons suppliers.

• U.S. sanctions 35 individuals and entities over Iran “shadow banking”: The United States imposed new sanctions on Tuesday targeting what it described as Iran’s “shadow banking architecture,” blacklisting 35 individuals and entities accused of facilitating sanctions evasion worth tens of billions of dollars, according to the Treasury Department. The Treasury alleged Iranian banks rely on private intermediaries known as “rahbars” to process payments for sanctioned trade through shell companies and foreign bank accounts, often linked to entities including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the National Iranian Oil Company. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran’s system “serves as a critical financial lifeline for its armed forces,” warning that any institutions engaging with these networks face “severe consequences.”

• Iranian rial drops to record low: Iran’s national rial currency hit a record low on Wednesday of 1.8 million rial to $1. The new rate marks a 12.5% drop from the January level of 1.6 million to the dollar and is likely to further fuel inflation.

• World Bank projects 24% energy price surge amid war shock: Energy prices are projected to rise 24% in 2026 to their highest level since 2022 amid the Iran war, according to the World Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook published on Tuesday. Overall commodity prices are expected to increase by 16%, driven by sharp rises in energy, fertilizer, and metals costs. The report says attacks on energy infrastructure and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz—handling about 35% of global seaborne crude—have triggered what it calls the largest oil supply shock on record, cutting supply by around 10 million barrels per day at its peak. World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill said “the war is hitting the global economy in cumulative waves,” from energy to food to inflation, warning that “war is development in reverse” and that poorer countries will be hit hardest.

• EU says Middle East conflict costing Europe €500 million a day: Europe is losing nearly €500 million a day due to rising fossil fuel costs driven by the ongoing Middle East conflict, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to Politico. Addressing the European Parliament, von der Leyen said that in just 60 days of conflict, “our bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over €27 billion, without a single molecule of additional energy,” arguing this underscores the need to accelerate toward renewable and nuclear energy. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen by 95.3% since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, with crude oil prices in Europe increasing by 53%.

• UN rights chief warns of escalating crackdown in Iran: UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Wednesday that Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the U.S. and Israel launched the war two months ago. “I am appalled that—on top of the already severe impacts of the conflict—the rights of the Iranian people continue to be stripped from them by the authorities, in harsh and brutal ways,” said Türk. “In times of war, threats to human rights increase exponentially.” At least nine people were executed in connection with the January 2026 protests, ten for alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges, according to the UN.

Lebanon

• Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue:

  • Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning killed a Lebanese soldier and his brother after their motorcycle was hit in an airstrike in the town of Khirbet Shamaa in the Bint Jbeil district, according to the National News Agency.

  • Israeli warplanes also carried out multiple strikes on Shaqra in the Bint Jbeil district and Braashit. A drone strike targeted a motorcycle on the Burj Qlawiyeh road, causing injuries. Another drone attack on a motorcycle on the Mansouri road wounded two Syrian nationals.

  • On Tuesday, an Israeli strike on Tayr Debba, a coastal town south of Tyre in southern Lebanon, killed a pregnant woman, her young daughter, and another woman, according to L’Orient Today.

  • An Israeli strike on a building in Jwaya, in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district, killed two people, including an Ethiopian migrant worker, and wounded at least 15 others—including children, according to L’Orient Today.

  • An Israeli airstrike killed three Lebanese Civil Defense first responders while they were carrying out a rescue mission in Majdal Zoun, in southern Lebanon’s Tyre District, with Lebanon’s health ministry reporting a preliminary toll of five dead total. Two Lebanese soldiers were also wounded while attempting to rescue the paramedics and other civilians injured in the initial attack. At least 100 aid workers in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2, according to the Health Ministry.

• Hezbollah MP says resistance will thwart any attempt by Israel to establish a “security belt”: Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said in Parliament on Wednesday that that any attempt by Israel to establish a “security belt” in Lebanon would be defeated “through the sacrifices of the resistance and the steadfastness of the people.” Fadlallah also criticized the approach of the Lebanese government, which he characterized as concessionary, saying that such policies threaten Lebanon’s power-sharing system, established in the 1989 Taif Agreement.

• IPC: 1.24 million in Lebanon face food insecurity: The food security situation in Lebanon has sharply worsened since Israel escalated its assault on March 2, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world’s leading authority on food crises. Around 1.24 million people in Lebanon are projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity between April and August 2026, marking a significant increase from the estimated 874,000 people in the previous assessment period. The biggest increases are found in southern Lebanon, particularly in Bent Jbeil, Marjaayoun, El Nabatieh and Sour districts. The decline in food security is primarily driven by renewed conflict, displacement, and ongoing economic challenges.

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, five Palestinians were killed—four killed in new attacks and one recovered from under the rubble after an earlier attack—and seven were injured across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,599 killed, with 172,411 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 823 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,308, while 763 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Israel continues to bombard Gaza: A Palestinian paramedic was killed and a woman wounded on Wednesday in Israeli attacks in northern Gaza, according to WAFA. The paramedic, Ibrahim Saqr, was killed in an airstrike near al-Tawam roundabout in the northwest of the territory, while the woman was shot and injured in the town of Beit Lahia. On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike struck a civilian vehicle near the Haider Abdul Shafi roundabout in western Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding others.

• Palestinian Red Crescent evacuates 47 patients and companions through Rafah crossing: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced Tuesday that its ambulances evacuated 47 travelers—24 patients and 23 companions—through the Rafah border crossing as part of medical evacuations coordinated by the World Health Organization. Only 3,922 of 12,800 planned Rafah crossings were allowed by Israel since the start of the ceasefire, according to latest Palestinian figures, with nearly 20,000 Palestinians in need of medical evacuation.

• Nun assaulted in Jerusalem as Israeli attacks continue across city: A nun affiliated with the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research was assaulted Tuesday in Jerusalem, according to the institute’s director Olivier Poquillon, who condemned the “unprovoked” and “sectarian” attack in a post on X. Israeli police said a 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the assault. The incident comes amid continued Israeli army and settler attacks in Jerusalem, with Jerusalem’s Governorate reported multiple Israeli raids across neighborhoods on Wednesday, including Silwan, Issawiya, and Anata. Officials also said demolition orders were issued for homes in Ras al-Amud.

• Israel approves 126 new illegal settlement units in occupied West Bank: Israel approved the construction of 126 new settlement units in the northern West Bank, in the recently reestablished settlement of Sa-Nur near Jenin, according to the Times of Israel. The approval was granted by the Defense Ministry’s Higher Planning Committee, with the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the move sends a message that the settlement is “here to stay,” adding, “This is just the beginning.” Sa-Nur had been evacuated in 2005 under Israel’s disengagement plan but was re-inhabited last week, with families moving into prefabricated homes. The decision comes amid a wider push by the Israeli government, which quietly approved plans in March for 34 new settlements across the occupied West Bank.

• Israeli forces detain approximately 140 Palestinians across West Bank in two-day sweep: Israeli forces detained and interrogated approximately 140 Palestinians from across the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, on Monday and Tuesday, among them a woman, children, and former prisoners, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. Raids lasting several hours were concentrated in al-Ram, Kafr Aqab, al-Dhahiriya, and Qalandiya refugee camp, with most detainees later released. The society listed a number of “crimes and violations” that accompany field interrogations, including beatings, home vandalism, destruction of infrastructure, use of family members as hostages, and vehicle and property confiscation.

• Palestinian report tallies over 2,300 Israeli violations since Gaza ceasefire began: A report shared with Palestinian negotiators and obtained by Drop Site News documents 1,027 live-fire attacks, 1,188 airstrikes and shelling incidents, and 103 military incursions carried out by Israel since the Gaza ceasefire took effect in October. Israel continues to hold approximately 34 square kilometers beyond agreed withdrawal lines, has blocked repairs to electricity, water, and sewage infrastructure, allowed only around 37.4 percent of agreed humanitarian aid to enter—roughly 225 trucks per day against a promised 600—delivered fuel at just 14.7 percent of required levels, and permitted only 3,922 of 12,800 planned Rafah crossing movements.

• Tony Blair urges UN Security Council support for Trump’s Gaza peace plan, UN reps. balk: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to back President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, calling the framework a “strategically coherent framework” that “succeeded in bringing the war in Gaza to an end.” He claimed that over $7 billion in firm pledges had been secured, and that the effort to disarm Hamas “and every other armed group in Gaza” was ongoing and necessary to allow the government in Gaza to be “the sole legitimate authority with arms.” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia countered that the plan has stalled, while Norway called on Israel to lift restrictions on aid, banking, and movement. Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Varsen Aghabekian demanded an immediate response to Israel’s ongoing restrictions on aid, which have led to “the spread of rodents and diseases … and delays in restoration of basic services and recovery.”

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Federal appeals court rejects Trump administration’s mandatory immigration detention policy: A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration’s policy of subjecting most people arrested in its immigration crackdown to mandatory detention without bond hearings relies on an incorrect interpretation of a 1996 immigration law, with Judge Joseph F. Bianco—a Trump appointee—writing that the government’s reading “would send a seismic shock through our immigration detention system and society.” The ruling conflicts with rulings from two other appeals courts that upheld the policy, making Supreme Court review increasingly likely.

• Senate rejects Cuba war powers resolution: The Senate voted 51-47 on Tuesday against a resolution that would limit President Trump’s ability to use military force against Cuba without congressional authorization. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted for the resolution, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) was the sole Democratic Senator to vote against it. Both chambers have repeatedly voted against similar measures related to the war in Iran, though House Democrats plan to force another vote on an Iran war powers resolution this week. Cuba remains under a de facto maritime blockade, and Trump has suggested that the U.S. might “take” the island and that it is the “next” target for U.S. military intervention. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who brought the resolution forward, told Drop Site’s Julian Andreone before the vote that the administration’s strategy is “purely a regime change effort” and that if any country did to the U.S. what we are doing to Cuba, “we would consider it an act of war.”

• King Charles addresses Congress: King Charles III addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, praising the U.S.-U.K. alliance. He said the alliance could “not rest on past achievements,” and called for “unyielding resolve” in backing Ukraine against Russia. He did not, however, directly acknowledge the victims of Jeffrey Epstein in his speech. The king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is being investigated for misconduct connected to his activities with Epstein. Charles had been urged to meet with some of Epstein’s victims before his speech by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.); Khanna called his failure to do so “disappointing” and told Drop Site’s Julian Andreone that it was the “the least” Charles could have done.

• U.S. Forest Service plans record glyphosate spraying in fire-ravaged forests, Mother Jones reports: A Mother Jones investigation reveals that the U.S. Forest Service and private timber companies are spraying the herbicide glyphosate—most commonly known as Roundup—across California’s fire-ravaged forests at record levels, with 266,000 pounds applied in state forests in 2023 alone, nearly five times the amount used two decades ago. The agency’s primary safety justification relies on a peer-reviewed study that was retracted after the journal it was published in confirmed Monsanto had ghostwritten it. The Forest Service plans to spray up to 10,000 acres in Lassen National Forest this spring, and tens of thousands more acres statewide, even though a 2020 EPA report found glyphosate harms 93 percent of endangered species and their critical habitat. Read the full investigation from Mother Jones here.

• FCC orders review of all ABC station licenses: The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday ordered an early review of all station licenses owned by ABC—the first such sweeping action ever taken against a major television network—framing it as an investigation into Disney’s diversity and inclusion policies, though the move came one day after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump publicly called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about her. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has repeatedly issued threats to take away broadcasters’ licenses, but this is his first direct step towards potentially doing so. Experts, however, have pointed out how difficult it is to actually remove a license, calling the legal standard for doing so “almost insurmountable.”

• DOJ indicts former FBI director James Comey: A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday on charges of threatening the president and transmitting a threat across state lines, based on an Instagram post Comey made nearly a year ago showing seashells arranged to read “86 47”—which the Trump administration characterized as a call to assassinate Trump—marking the second indictment against Comey after a previous charge was dismissed in November. Comey, who said he deleted the post after learning it could be interpreted as having a violent connotation and denied any such intent, vowed to fight the case, saying “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid.”

• FBI has not found fragment that struck Secret Service officer at White House Correspondents’ Dinner: The FBI has yet to recover the fragment that pierced a Secret Service officer’s bulletproof vest at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, leaving investigators unable to confirm whether suspect Cole Tomas Allen—who has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump—fired the shot that struck the officer, or whether the officer was hit by something else during the chaotic tackle that followed Allen’s breach of the final security checkpoint. New details indicate Allen walked down ten flights of stairs from his hotel room to reach the checkpoint, and sprinted toward it before stumbling and falling just short, and that no Secret Service agents were stationed in the stairwell he used.

• UK ambassador to Washington said Israel, not Britain, holds special relationship with U.S.: Sir Christian Turner, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Washington, told a group of British students in February that he disliked the phrase “special relationship” to describe Anglo-American ties, saying the term more accurately applied to Israel. “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States—and that is probably Israel,” Turner said, according to a recording shared with the Financial Times. The remarks came weeks before the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that launched the current Middle East conflict.

• Trump administration pays nearly $900 million to cancel two more offshore wind projects: The Interior Department announced Monday that Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have agreed to abandon their offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, with both companies committing to redirect the funds into fossil fuel projects and pledging not to pursue new offshore wind development in the United States. The deals follow a similar $1 billion payout to TotalEnergies in March and come after courts blocked the administration’s executive orders halting offshore wind construction. Each of the projects were capable of powering more than one million homes and had been intended to help New Jersey, New York, and California meet clean energy goals.

• Emails show top House Intelligence Democrat privately whipped votes for FISA surveillance extension he publicly opposed: Emails obtained by The Lever show Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged colleagues to support a five-year reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on April 17—the same day he publicly posted that such an extension was “not acceptable”—with internal committee staff explicitly stating that “Ranking Member Himes recommends a ‘yes’ vote on the bill.” Reporting from Politico characterized Himes’ present position as being on a “mission” to save these spy powers. Himes also claimed to the outlet that, in the last 14 months, there has “not been a single example of their attempt to abuse” the 702 database ” and that “there is no program that is more overseen than this one. None.”

• Le Moyne College president tells Gaza genocide survivor he cannot use the word “genocide”: Le Moyne College, a Jesuit institution in Syracuse, New York, sent a letter to students this week condemning language used by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha during an April 15 guest lecture—specifically his use of the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. President Linda LeMura, without naming Abu Toha, wrote that the word caused “real hurt” to Jewish students and implied its use was incompatible with the college’s commitment to inclusion. Abu Toha, who survived Israeli strikes in Gaza, called the letter “deeply shameful,” writing: “How dare you tell a person who survived a genocide that they cannot speak about it?” he said. “I never once used the word ‘Jewish’ during the entire event. I refuse to conflate the faith of Judaism with the actions of the state of Israel.”

• DNC chair reverses course, will not release 2024 election autopsy finding Gaza policy hurt Harris: Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin confirmed he will not publicly release the party’s 2024 election autopsy report, reversing the transparency platform on which he ran for the chairmanship and arguing the full document would be a “distraction” from the 2026 midterms. The IMEU Policy Project reported that DNC aides acknowledged in a closed-door meeting that the report concluded the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to the genocide in Gaza cost Kamala Harris significant support.

• Arizona lawmakers back use of “Judea and Samaria” in place of West Bank: The Arizona Legislature has approved a nonbinding resolution urging state agencies to use the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank” in official communications, the Jewish News Syndicate reports. The measure, sponsored by Republican state Rep. David Livingston, frames the change as recognizing the “historical, biblical and legal legitimacy” of the term while rejecting “West Bank” as a modern construct—aligning with language long promoted by Israeli officials. The United Nations formally refers to the territory as the “occupied West Bank” or “occupied Palestinian territory.” Hamas condemned the decision, calling it an attempt to promote an “occupation narrative” at the expense of historical and legal realities, adding that changing names “will not alter the fact that the West Bank is Palestinian land.”

• Trump administration moves to cut disability benefits for poor families living together, ProPublica reports: The Trump administration is working on a rule change that would deduct the value of a disabled adult’s bedroom from their Supplemental Security Income allotment—even if the family they live with is poor enough to qualify for food stamps—potentially slashing benefits by up to a third or eliminating them entirely for as many as 400,000 people, according to ProPublica. The effort, initiated by White House and Department of Government Efficiency officials, would undo a Biden-era policy that exempted families already certified as poor through other assistance programs from redundant income checks—a change disability advocates, evangelical groups, and budget experts warn would push disabled adults out of family homes and into far more expensive institutional facilities. Read ProPublica’s full report here.

Other International News

• U.S. sanctions are the primary cause of a 148% rise in Cuba’s infant mortality rate since 2018: Cuba’s infant mortality rate has risen from 4 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 9 in 2025, a 148% increase, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report concludes that the primary driver is the dramatic tightening of U.S. sanctions since 2017, compounded by Trump’s current fuel blockade, described as “by far the most damaging US unilateral measure imposed to date.”

• Mali’s military leader surfaces to meet Russian ambassador after weekend coup attempt: Malian military leader Assimi Goita made his first public appearance since Saturday’s rebel attacks—which killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara—by meeting Russian Ambassador Igor Gromyko on Tuesday, as Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its Africa Corps forces had repelled an attempt to seize the presidential palace and other key sites, while separately confirming those forces had been driven out of the northern town of Kidal. The coordinated attacks—carried out by the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front and the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims—were the largest in nearly 15 years and marked an unprecedented alliance between the two former rivals against Goita’s military government and its Russian backers.

• EU threatens sanctions against Israel over stolen Ukrainian grain—but not over Gaza: The European Union warned Israel it is ready to impose sanctions over its role facilitating trade in Russian-stolen Ukrainian grain, after a Panama-flagged vessel carrying over 25,000 tonnes of wheat and barley docked at Haifa, with Ukraine summoning its Israeli ambassador and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling the trade illegitimate. The move drew immediate notice given that an internal European External Action Service review found last year that Israel had breached Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement through systematic violations of international law in Gaza, with no sanctions following.

• UN warns 7.8 million people face acute hunger in South Sudan as conflict deepens: A United Nations report published Tuesday warns that 7.8 million people—56 percent of South Sudan’s population—will suffer high levels of food insecurity in the coming months, with 2.2 million children under five experiencing acute malnutrition, up 100,000 over the past six months, and 700,000 children at grave risk of dying. The Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, and UNICEF called for immediate international action to prevent an “irreversible humanitarian catastrophe,” as nutritional services across the country have been damaged or shuttered by intensifying clashes between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and opposition groups—fueled by a long-running feud between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and suspended Vice President Riek Machar, who is currently on trial in Juba.

• Northern Irish police arrest man after New IRA claims Belfast police station car bombing: Police in Northern Ireland arrested a 66-year-old man under the UK Terrorism Act on Tuesday after the New IRA claimed responsibility for a Saturday car bomb attack on Dunmurry police station in Belfast—carried out after a delivery driver was hijacked and forced to drive to the station—with the group declaring it had intended to kill officers and warning it planned to target police at their homes. The attack, which injured no one, is part of a mounting series by the New IRA, a dissident republican group that rejects the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

• Maldives police raid critical news outlet, ban editors from leaving country after documentary on president’s alleged affair: Maldivian police raided the offices of opposition-aligned outlet Adhadhu Online late Monday, seizing laptops and storage devices and imposing travel bans on CEO Hussain Fiyaz Moosa and editor Hassan Mohamed, after the outlet published a documentary featuring an anonymised interview with a woman claiming she had a sexual relationship with President Mohamed Muizzu. The raid, which the Committee to Protect Journalists called an attempt to “criminalise investigative journalism under the guise of religious and national interests,” came weeks after a constitutional referendum delivered a stinging rebuke to Muizzu, with 69 percent of voters rejecting a government proposal critics said would undermine checks and balances.

• Sudanese army claims it repelled RSF attack in Blue Nile region as humanitarian conditions deteriorate: Sudan’s army said Tuesday its 4th Infantry Division, backed by allied groups, repelled a Rapid Support Forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North attack on the outskirts of the Sali area in the Blue Nile region, claiming to have seized 10 combat vehicles and destroyed more than 15 others. Fighting in the area has escalated since March, when the RSF and its allies captured the strategic border town of Kurmuk, driving thousands of civilians toward the regional capital, Ed Damazin, where they are sheltering in overcrowded facilities.

• UN sanctions RSF commander’s brother and three Colombian mercenary recruiters over Sudan war: The United Nations Security Council, at the proposal of the United States, Britain, and France, imposed sanctions Tuesday on Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa—younger brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—for leading RSF efforts to procure weapons and military equipment, along with three Colombian nationals accused of playing a central role in recruiting former Colombian military personnel to fight for the RSF. Video and photographic evidence showed the three Colombians providing the RSF with tactical and technical expertise, serving as infantry, artillery, drone pilots, and instructors, with some training children to fight—part of a broader pattern of Colombian mercenary involvement in battles across Sudan including Khartoum, Omdurman, Kordofan, and El Fasher.

• Beijing touts economic benefits of unification as Taiwan’s Lai vows to strengthen defenses: China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Wednesday that Taiwan’s economy would gain “unprecedented opportunities” through unification with the mainland, citing access to China’s market and Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and technology—an appeal Beijing has intensified since late last year even as it refuses to renounce the use of force. President Lai Ching-te, speaking to senior military officers in Taipei the same day, rejected the overture, saying “unification packaged as peace will inevitably bring endless troubles” and that only by strengthening Taiwan’s own defenses can genuine peace be ensured.

• German prosecutors arrest alleged Russian spy in Berlin: Federal authorities in Germany detained a Kazakh national on Tuesday on suspicion of working for a Russian intelligence service and conducting surveillance on military sites in Germany since at least May 2025. According to a press release the suspect is accused of passing information on Germany’s military aid to Ukraine and on its defense industry—particularly drone and robotics firms—and of photographing public buildings, documenting military convoys on German highways, including one tied to a NATO member, and scouting potential sabotage targets and recruits.

• Greek police arrest 89-year-old man after shooting spree at Athens social security office and courthouse wounds five: Greek police arrested an 89-year-old man in Patra on Tuesday following a shooting spree in Athens in which he wounded one employee at a state pension office in Kerameikos before traveling by taxi to a nearby courthouse in Ambelokipi and injuring four more people, reportedly firing at the floor and throwing envelopes he claimed explained his actions. The suspect, identified by local media as a rubbish collector who had been treated at a mental hospital in 2018, was arrested at a hotel where a second weapon was found. Athens court staff announced a 24-hour strike Wednesday over the incident, citing poor security at court buildings.

More from Drop Site

• Meet the Team Behind the Viral Iranian AI Lego Videos: Despite repeated bans, Explosive Media has built a massive U.S. audience. Drop Site spoke with the team about who they are, their process, and why their content is resonating so strongly with American viewers.

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Over the weekend, new FEC filings revealed a billionaire-backed super PAC supporting Republican Sen. Susan Collins has started running attack ads against Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. Pine Tree Results is being funded by a litany of ultrawealthy donors, including Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($2 million); Elliott Management CEO Paul Singer ($1 million); Reyes Holdings executives ($1 million); and Palantir CEO Alex Karp ($100,000).

Platner responded, in part, by noting that Collins’s billionaire-backers are all coming from out of state, with no local interest in Maine. That’s mostly true. On June 27, 2025, Blackstone’s Schwarzman gave $2 million to the Pine Tree Super PAC. The next day, Collins cast a critical vote to move Trump’s “Big Beautiful” tax bill forward in the Senate, a bill that was packed with giveaways to the private equity industry. (She eventually voted against final passage, as she often does when there are enough Republican votes to pass legislation without her.)

One benefactor does have a Maine connection—though it’s a sordid one. That donor is Apollo Global Management’s billionaire CEO and founder Marc Rowan, a giant in the world of private equity who has faced scrutiny for his links to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Rowan contributed $50,000 so far of the $2 million already dedicated to the anti-Platner campaign, and has been a major backer of AIPAC in recent years.

From 2006 to 2020, Apollo Management ran two of Maine’s largest paper mills into the ground, bankrupting them both, selling off their carcasses for scraps, and eliminating more than 1,000 jobs in Bucksport and Jay. That wasn’t a failure on the part of the private equity firm, which is able to profit by extracting wealth from healthy businesses through a process of stacking them with debt, filing for bankruptcy, and looting their assets, including pensions promised to workers.

In the case of the paper mills, they were the flagship properties of International Paper, which Apollo took over and redubbed Verso Paper. Apollo forced the new company it owned to take out $250 million in debt and hand the money over to Apollo, making sure its own investment was covered, in the form of a dividend, and proceeded to slowly bankrupt the company—what the mafia refers to as a “bustout.” The Star Tribune singled out the financial maneuver as “how Apollo got almost all of its money out of Verso.”

The shuttered paper mill in Jay is now the proposed site of a $550 million AI data center project.

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Gov. Janet Mills, who is flailing in her campaign against Platner in the Democratic primary, recently used her veto to effectively protect the data center project, nixing a statewide moratorium on data centers that passed with bipartisan support. The bill was approved with 82-62 vote in the Maine House and 21-14 vote in the state Senate. It goes back to the State Legislature on April 29, where it would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to override Mills’s veto.

Sen. Collins is one of the private equity industry’s strongest allies. In 2017, she drafted an amendment to close the carried-interest loophole, the tax break that funnels billions to private equity executives, then dropped it hours before the vote on Trump’s tax bill. In the following cycle, ProPublica found Collins was the largest Senate recipient of private equity money.

Collins told Bangor Daily News through a spokesperson that she “recognizes that data centers can benefit certain communities like Jay that generate their own electricity by providing critical revenue and jobs.”

“She believes decisions around new data centers should be made at the local level and take into account potential ramifications on electricity costs, which are already far too high in Maine under [Mills],” Kernen said.

Collins has benefited from her advocacy for AI. She has taken $105,350 in donations from Palantir, the data analytics technology company founded by billionaire Peter Thiel. According to Palantir Purge, a website dedicated to monitoring Palantir’s activities, Collins ranks fifth among recipients of contributions from Palantir executives since 2006. The sum includes donations from CEO Karp, and contributions to her campaign committees, leadership committees, and Collins-affiliated super PACs. Since 2009, Palantir has received more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer-funded federal contracts for their services, including powering the mass surveillance apparatus used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rowan took over as CEO of Apollo Global Management in March 2021 after his co-founder Leon Black resigned amid revelations he paid convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein more than $150 million. Drop Site previously reported on Rowan’s own extensive relationship with Epstein. The billionaire also serves on Trump’s Gaza Peace Board and Gaza Executive Board alongside Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Tony Blair.

Apollo entered Maine in 2006 when the firm bought International Paper’s (IP) coated paper division for $1.37 billion. The private equity giant quickly rebranded IP into Verso Paper, a shell company that would oversee four paper facilities including their two Maine-based holdings: the Bucksport Mill and Androscoggin Mill in Jay.

According to the Ellsworth American, at the time of Apollo’s 2006 acquisition, the Bucksport Mill employed about 800 people with wages and benefits totalling $80 million annually. The Androscoggin Mill in Jay employed another 1,000 people, accounting for an estimated 22% of the Town of Jay’s tax base before its closure.

By the time Apollo exited Maine, the Bucksport and Jay mill facilities together employed just 690 workers. Over that same 14-year period, the Star Tribune reported that Apollo extracted almost $273 million from Verso Paper, earning Rowan and his fellow founders immense profits.

The Bucksport mill was Apollo’s first casualty. In October 2014, Apollo’s shell company Verso Paper announced the Bucksport mill would close right before Christmas. Verso president and CEO Dave Paterson said in a 2014 statement that the mill “had not been profitable for a number of years, in spite of our employees’ dedicated efforts to make it so.”

The mill officially closed in December 2014. Five hundred and seventy workers lost their jobs and the town’s unemployment rate spiked to 11.7 percent within weeks. According to an EPA case study, the Bucksport mill paid 47% of the town’s tax revenue at the time of its closure.

The day after Verso ran the last paper machine, the company announced it would sell the 84-year old mill and its 273-megawatt power plant for $60 million to AIM Development, a Montreal scrap dealer that had previously demolished a Verso mill in Minnesota.

“AIM is basically a scrap metal company. They have a history of tearing things down to the ground,” Bucksport Mayor Dave Keene said in a 2014 statement. He had worked at the mill for 23 years. A month later, AIM owner Herbert Black told the Portland Press Herald his business plan called for scrapping the mill.

Black followed through on his plan. In March 2015, AIM held an auction of the mill’s paper-making equipment. The unsold equipment was turned into scrap metal. By September 2015, AIM had acquired a DEP permit to demolish the Bucksport Mill, and by 2017 it was fully demolished.

In the following years, AIM subdivided the 250-acre Bucksport mill property into a four-lot industrial park. The property was sold off in parcels netting the scrap metal dealer more than $100 million. AIM still owns the largest parcel, a 109-acre landfill that once accepted waste from the paper mill. The hundreds of mill jobs never returned to Bucksport.

When the Bucksport Mill shutdown began, Apollo’s shell company Verso claimed it would “in no way affect the Jay mill.” However, ten months after the Bucksport announcement, Verso permanently eliminated 300 jobs at the Jay mill. The following year, Verso filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, shedding $2.4 billion in debt and prompting a “comprehensive belt-tightening regimen” at the mill.

“We rented a chicken barn to store machinery,” one former Jay worker recalled to Boston Globe Magazine, “and they asked us to negotiate a rent reduction with the farmer.”

In February 2020, Apollo’s shell company sold the Androscoggin Mill to Pixelle Specialty Solutions for $400 million. Pixelle was owned by another New York private equity firm, Lindsay Goldberg. By the time the sale closed, the Jay mill’s workforce had been cut from 1,000 to roughly 500.

Two months after the sale closed, a wood pulp digester at the Jay mill ruptured and exploded. Pixelle declined to spend the estimated $200 to $300 million required to rebuild the digester. In March 2023, the Jay mill closed permanently, eliminating the final 230 jobs.

The carcass of the Jay mill is now the proposed site of a $550 million data center, the exact kind of AI infrastructure project Apollo’s private credit arm increasingly finances.

“Nearly $3 trillion will be needed to support AI infrastructure through 2028. More than half of that, around $1.5 trillion, will come from external capital,” Apollo said in a 2025 corporate press release. “We’re partnering with companies that are advancing AI and redefining critical infrastructure. Across the value chain, Apollo is delivering capital where it’s needed most.”

Now, the mill that once supported 1,500 paper jobs waits for the same private equity industry that destroyed it to come back and lease the land.

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MORE FROM NATHAN BERNARD ON THE MAINE SENATE RACE:

• Leaked Video: Janet Mills Attack Ad Against Graham Platner Backfires With Maine Democrats

• Maine’s House Majority Leader Matt Moonen is getting paid by Gov. Janet Mills’ Senate campaign

Drop Site’s Ryan Grim, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Maysa Mustafa discuss the implications of the move.

They are also joined by Jacquline Sweet to discuss her latest investigation revealing the highest paid employees of the Israeli group running the infamous doxxing site Canary Mission.

And as Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue with daily airstrikes, shelling and demolition in the south, NYU journalism professor Mohamad Bazzi joins to discuss Israel’s 50-year war on Lebanon, Hezbollah’s increasing use of fiber optic FPV drones as a tactic of asymmetric warfare, Israel’s campaign of destruction and erasure in southern Lebanon, and more.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Iran is “humiliating” the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. cannot “tolerate” Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian strikes on U.S. bases caused over $5 billion in damages, NBC reports. Bahrain jails 30, strips citizenship of 69 in Iran-related cases. UAE announces surprise exit from OPEC. Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells military Israel can strike anywhere in Lebanon under ceasefire terms. Israeli defense minister threatens to burn Lebanon. Two brothers killed weeks apart while gathering firewood in Gaza. Israeli forces coerce West Bank municipal official to resign after election win. Gaza’s emergency medical system is nearing collapse as Israeli blockade cuts off ambulance fuel and parts. MSF: Israel uses water as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza. California man charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s WPR comes up for a vote in the House. Senate to vote on resolution blocking Trump from military action against Cuba. NYC Council Speaker to join Mayor Zohran Mamdani in calls for tax increase on hedge funds and law firms. Pakistan and Afghanistan trade accusations of cross-border attacks. China blocks Meta’s acquisition of AI startup Manus amid tech rivalry with U.S. U.S. sanctions drove 148% rise in Cuba’s infant mortality rate since 2018, report finds. Congo to deploy U.S.- and UAE-funded paramilitary mining force, starting in copper and cobalt heartland. Gunmen kidnap 23 children from Nigerian orphanage; 8 remain missing after partial rescue. Sudanese army drone strike on Zalingei displacement camp wounds 15. RSF holding over 2,400 detainees in dire conditions in el-Fasher, including 20 doctors, report finds.

From Drop Site: Drop Site reports on Gaza’s municipal elections. Exposing Canary Mission, and Israel’s “Ceasefire” War in Lebanon.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• German Chancellor says Iran is “humiliating” the U.S: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered a blunt assessment on Monday of American strategy in the Iran conflict, saying Tehran’s leadership has humiliated Washington by drawing U.S. envoys to Islamabad and sending them home without results. “The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” he ‌said while speaking to students in the town of Marsberg. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards.” Merz said he sees no clear U.S. exit strategy and drew comparisons to past military failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, adding that had he foreseen the war’s trajectory, he would have urged President Donald Trump even more forcefully against it.

• Rubio says the U.S. cannot “tolerate” Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attributed the collapse of weekend negotiations in Islamabad to a fundamental disagreement over the status of the Strait of Hormuz during an interview with Fox News, saying the waterway is “not open” and that the U.S. cannot “normalize, nor can we tolerate… a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it.” In a post on Truth Social Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Iran is in a “state of collapse” and has asked the U.S. to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials have denied reports that any talks were planned in Islamabad, and have continued to demand the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade on Iran’s ports prior to advancing to a second round of high-level talks.

• Iranian strikes on U.S. bases caused over $5 billion in damages, NBC reports: Iranian strikes on American military installations across the Middle East since February 28 caused far more extensive damage than the Pentagon publicly disclosed, with repair costs estimated to exceed $5 billion across more than 100 targets in at least seven countries, NBC News reported over the weekend. Among the most significant findings in the report: an Iranian F-5 fighter jet successfully penetrated advanced U.S. air defenses to strike Camp Buehring in Kuwait, a Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS surveillance aircraft was destroyed on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, and an AN/TPY-2 missile defense radar was destroyed in Jordan.

• Bahrain jails 30, strips citizenship of 69 in Iran-related cases: Bahrain has sentenced 30 people to prison terms in a mass trial over accusations of spying for Iran and supporting alleged Iranian-backed attacks, according to the Associated Press. The public prosecution said five defendants, including two Afghans, received life sentences after being convicted of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, while 25 others were handed 10-year sentences for allegedly supporting what authorities described as “terrorist acts” in the country. The cases have drawn renewed scrutiny over Bahrain’s judicial practices, with human rights groups long criticizing closed-door trials and limited defense for defendants. Among those affected is freelance Bahraini photographer Sayed Baqer Al-Kamel, who was arrested on March 1, 2026, after a raid on his home by plainclothes officers, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Bahrain also stripped 69 people of citizenship on Monday over alleged support for Iranian strikes. The individuals have not been publicly identified, and their whereabouts and detention status remain unclear.

• UAE announces surprise exit from OPEC: UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei stated Tuesday that Abu Dhabi is leaving both OPEC effective May 1, ending a membership that dates to 1967 and removing the group’s third-largest energy producer. In public comments, Mazrouei added that Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s de facto leader, was not consulted, and that the withdrawal, which will allow the UAE to set its own production targets without coordinating other members, was unilateral. The move follows months of UAE criticism that fellow Arab states have not done enough to protect it from Iranian attacks during the current war, and while the UAE lobbies the U.S. and Israel for more direct financial and military support. President Trump has repeatedly accused OPEC of inflating prices and tied continued US military support in the Gulf to lower oil costs.

Lebanon

• Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue

  • An Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle in the town of Majdal Zoun Tuesday, injuring two people, according to the state’s National News Agency while additional airstrikes hit the towns of al-Sultaniyya and Braashit. Artillery shelling was also reported in Bayt al-Sayyad in the Tyre district, alongside a drone strike on agricultural land between al-Burj al-Shamali and al-Housh. The Israeli military on Tuesday issued forced displacement orders to residents of a number of villages and towns south of the Litani River and north of the “Yellow Line” to evacuate immediately toward the Sidon area.

  • The Israeli army said two of its soldiers were wounded Tuesday after their forces were targeted by an explosive drone in southern Lebanon.

  • Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were killed and 51 wounded, including three children and six women, in Israeli attacks across the country Monday.

  • Israeli forces carried out a wave of strikes and artillery fire across southern Lebanon Monday evening, according to L’Orient Today, hitting towns across the Nabatieh, Bint Jbeil, and Tyre districts—including Yohmor al-Shaqif, Mayfadoun, Bint Jbeil, Zawtar Sharqieh, Hadatha, Braasheet, and Touline.

  • Israeli forces also carried out demolitions of homes between Yaroun and Bint Jbeil, and a building in Nabatieh Fawqa collapsed due to damage from an earlier strike.

• Netanyahu tells military Israel can strike anywhere in Lebanon under ceasefire terms: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told senior Israel Defense Forces commanders Monday that Israel retains full authority to conduct strikes anywhere in Lebanese territory under the current U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, including north of the Litani River deep inside the country. He defended Israel’s ongoing military operations in Lebanon despite Israel having committed itself to a ceasefire, saying, “There are still two main threats from Hezbollah: 122-mm rockets and drones. This requires a combination of operational and technological measures.”

• Israeli defense minister threatens to burn Lebanon: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a brazen ultimatum to United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Monday, warning that Lebanon faces total destruction if Hezbollah is not disarmed. “If the Lebanese government continues to shelter under the shadow of the Hezbollah terror organization, fire will burn the cedars of Lebanon,” Katz said.

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, one Palestinian was killed and five were injured across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,594 killed, with 172,404 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 818 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,301, while 762 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Two brothers killed weeks apart while gathering firewood in Gaza: A 9-year-old boy, Adel al-Najjar, was shot and killed by Israeli forces Tuesday while collecting firewood in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital via the Associated Press. He was about 400 meters (1,312 feet) from the “Yellow Line” separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. His younger brother had reportedly been killed under similar circumstances in the same area just a month earlier. At least 226 children and 179 women have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the start of the so-called ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

• Israeli army chief warns of renewed fighting on all fronts: Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said Monday that intense fighting could resume across all of Israel’s active fronts this year. “We remain ready and on alert for the possibility of a resumption of intense fighting on all these fronts—2026 could still be a year of fighting on each of them,” Zamir told army officers during a meeting. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to say whether the Trump administration would support Israel resuming the war in Gaza, but said that “the entirety of this project only works if Hamas is demilitarized.” Hamas has consistently refused to discuss disarmament until Israel ceases its violations of the ceasefire and fulfills its Phase One obligations.

• Drop Site reports on Gaza’s municipal elections: Deir al-Balah became the first municipality in Gaza to hold local elections since 2005 on Saturday, with voters casting ballots across 12 centers—nine of them tents—after Israel blocked the entry of standard electoral supplies, forcing organizers to improvise with locally sourced materials. Turnout reached just 22.7%, with one analyst attributing the low participation to widespread fatalism over Israel’s continued control of Gaza’s crossings, electricity, water, and reconstruction access. The “Rise of Deir al-Balah” slate, considered close to Fatah, won six of 15 council seats. One voter described to Drop Site the importance of elections to the Strip. “The scene of the elections gives people hope that it is possible to stop this war and return life to what it was,” she said. Read Mohamed Suleiman’s full dispatch for Drop Site News here.

• Israeli forces coerce West Bank municipal official to resign after election win: Former mayor of Deir Samet, Atef al-Awawdeh, says Israeli forces forced him to resign from his newly won municipal council seat under threats of arrest or violence, according to an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Al-Awawdeh, from the Dura area southwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, said he was detained prior to his election victory and warned by an officer identifying himself as “Captain Zidan” that “if you do not withdraw from the elections, you will be arrested and your home will be destroyed…and it could go as far as killing you.” He recounted being detained again and subjected to abuse after his win, before he ultimately resigned. The officer cited al-Awawdeh’s personal background as a factor, saying his son—who was part of the resistance in Jenin and was killed in 2023—had previously targeted Israeli soldiers. Al-Awawdeh, however, suggested the move reflects broader Israeli interference in shaping local governance in the occupied West Bank, saying authorities seek to exclude certain figures from municipal councils.

• Palestinian Authority detainee hospitalized after alleged torture at Nablus prison: Moataz Ibrahim al-Baytawi, a political prisoner held for 15 months by Palestinian Authority security forces at al-Junaid Prison in Nablus in the occupied West Bank has been hospitalized after a sharp deterioration in his health amid allegations of torture, according to Palestine Online. His cousin said Moataz has been detained without criminal conviction, and had staged a hunger strike protesting his continued imprisonment and the PA’s refusal to implement a court order for his release. He was reportedly subjected to torture throughout his detention. The family is calling for an immediate independent investigation into conditions at al-Junaid Prison and demanding that he receive full medical care and protection from further abuse.

• Gaza’s emergency medical system is nearing collapse as Israeli blockade cuts off ambulance fuel and parts: Gaza’s emergency medical system is on the verge of total collapse due to a severe shortage of motor oil and spare parts after Israel classified the materials as dual-use goods subject to blockade, Ultra Palestine and the Gaza Center for Human Rights reported Monday. Paramedics in central Gaza are cannibalizing broken ambulances to keep others running, reducing the operational fleet from 10 vehicles to three and tripling response times from 30 minutes to two hours. One of the main generators at Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza’s last large hospital, has already shut down, threatening power to operating rooms, intensive care units, and neonatal wards. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have targeted and destroyed or damaged 211 ambulances and 23 civil defense vehicles.

• Ben-Gvir directive left deaf Palestinian detainee without cochlear implant batteries; he was beaten when he failed to hear guards: Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has blocked families from depositing funds for medical equipment for Palestinian prisoners since October 7, 2023. The consequences of this policy are illustrated by the story of Adam Oweineh, a 24-year-old deaf detainee from the occupied West Bank village of Battir held in administrative detention without charge since January 2025. Oweineh had the batteries for his cochlear implant confiscated upon arrival and was beaten by guards when he failed to hear orders during a headcount. Guards then imposed collective punishment on his entire cell—withholding food, sheets, and mattresses for three days and deploying tear gas and dogs. Haaretz’s full report on Oweineh is available here.

• MSF: Israel uses water as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza: Israel has used access to water as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza, systematically depriving people of water in a campaign of collective punishment, according to a new report released by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The report documents how Israeli authorities’ repeated weaponization of water is part of a recurrent, systematic and cumulative pattern. “Israeli authorities know that without water life ends, yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza, whilst consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering,” Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency manager, said in a statement. “Palestinians have been injured and killed simply trying to access water,” San Filippo said. “This deprivation, combined with dire living conditions, extreme overcrowding, and a collapsed health system, create a perfect storm for the spread of diseases.”

• Gaza health ministry says 494 fetuses have died in the womb: Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that at least 494 fetuses have died in the womb during the genocide. One such case is that of Islam al-Tanani, 41. She was four months pregnant with twins when an Israeli shell struck her family’s home in Beit Lahia on Friday afternoon, killing her and the twins. Her 14-year-old son Hamza was killed instantly, and five-year-old Naya survived only one hour in intensive care; her husband Khaled, 43, and daughter Shatha survived with shrapnel wounds. “The occupation destroyed our dreams, our children’s childhoods, and killed our wives,” Khaled said. “This is not a war. This is genocide.”

• Israel extends detention of Gaza hospital director Dr. Abu Safiya: Israeli authorities have extended the detention of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, without charge and without setting a time limit, as his health deteriorates in Israeli custody, the doctor’s family announced after a hearing on Tuesday. Dr. Abu Safiya has been denied access to a lawyer for more than two months since being transferred to Ketziot Prison in the Negev Desert. His family warns his health is seriously deteriorating due to physical violence inflicted on him, ongoing significant weight loss, and systematic medical neglect. Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested in December 2024 after refusing to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital despite repeated Israeli strikes on the facility.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• California man charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was formally charged Monday with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. Allen allegedly breached a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday, shooting and wounding a Secret Service agent before being arrested. Allen arrived in Washington on April 24, checked into the Washington Hilton, where the event was held, and ran through a magnetometer carrying a long gun; the agent, who was wearing a ballistic vest, fired five shots at Allen without hitting him.

• Rep. Gottheimer’s WPR comes up for a vote in the House: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), whose War Powers Resolution will come to the floor for a vote today, told Drop Site that he hasn’t spoken with Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), the lone Democratic defector on the last WPR but an initial co-sponsor on this resolution. With Golden’s “NO” vote, the last WPR failed 214-213, allowing President Trump to continue waging an unconstitutional war at the behest of the Israeli government without any congressional oversight. Gottheimer’s WPR was originally conceived of as a more conservative alternative to the resolution filed by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to end the war immediately pending congressional approval, instead granting the Trump administration a 30-day grace period from the day the bill was filed before having to come before Congress and explain its motives and objectives.

• Senate to vote on resolution blocking Trump from military action against Cuba: Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is forcing a Senate vote Tuesday on a war powers resolution that would bar President Donald Trump from launching military action against Cuba without congressional authorization and declare the current U.S. oil blockade an act of war—one of the first serious congressional challenges to Washington’s campaign of economic pressure on the island. The resolution, co-introduced by Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and backed by a coalition of more than 40 advocacy groups, comes as Cuba faces its worst humanitarian crisis in decades, with nationwide blackouts, fuel and food shortages, and a collapsing public health system that a 2025 Lancet study linked to sanctions disproportionately killing children under five. Read more about the measure from Aída Chávez at Capital & Empire, here.

• NYC Council Speaker to join Mamdani in calls for tax increase on hedge funds and law firms: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are set to announce a call for a state-level tax increase on hedge funds and major law firms this morning, Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and THE CITY’s Katie Honan report. The hike, which would reverse a Cuomo-era tax cut, would increase state funding to the city through the state’s Aids and Initiatives for Municipalities program. It is expected to generate up to $1 billion in revenue if passed. Menin’s inclusion is notable: Menin had previously resisted calling for any tax increases and is a close ally of Governor Kathy Hochul.

• Ala Stanford pauses when asked about ICE: Pennsylvania congressional candidate Ala Stanford, whose platform includes a call to abolish ICE, froze up during a local television interview when asked about the issue. Stanford then unsuccessfully asked for the interview to be paused, and answered the question indirectly, saying that her position was that the power to enforce immigration law should reside not in the executive branch, but with Congress. Last week, we reported on Stanford’s AIPAC backing; that report is available here.

• Kid Rock joins Hegseth on helicopter joy ride: Kid Rock flew to Fort Belvoir this morning on his private jet “for a ride” on two Apache helicopters with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Hegseth confirmed Monday evening on X; Drop Site’s Ryan Grim broke the story hours earlier. “Apaches typically have 2 pilots, but they went up with one so the boys could each ride shotgun,” Grim reported. The incident follows a separate controversy last month in which two military Apache helicopters flew over Kid Rock’s home.

• CBS News removes London bureau chief following editorial clashes over Gaza and Iran coverage: CBS News has ousted London bureau chief Claire Day, a nearly 25-year network veteran, following tensions with editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over the network’s coverage of Iran and Gaza, the New York Post reports. Day had pushed back on editorial decisions made by Weiss, a self-described Zionist, and faced an internal investigation after a freelance cameraman accused her of running the bureau like a “Hamas cell”—an allegation the probe ultimately rejected. Her replacement, Shayndi Raice, a former Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent based in Israel with no prior television or large-scale management experience, takes over on May 11.

• Supreme Court reinstates Republican-drawn Texas map as redistricting war expands to Florida: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a Texas congressional map expected to flip up to five Democratic-held House seats, with the court’s six conservative justices overruling a lower court finding that the map was likely racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. The ruling comes as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday proposed a separate redistricting map that would likely give Republicans 24 of the state’s 28 House seats—up from a current 20-8 majority—with a special legislative session called for Tuesday. Republicans in Virginia are also challenging in court a Democratic-backed redistricting plan approved by voters last week, which would leave four Republican seats in the state vulnerable.

Other International News

• Pakistan and Afghanistan trade accusations of cross-border attacks: Pakistan and Afghanistan accused each other Monday of launching fresh cross-border strikes, marking the most serious breach of a China-mediated ceasefire agreed during Eid al-Fitr in March. Taliban Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said Pakistani mortar and rocket fire wounded 45 people in Kunar province, striking homes and Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University in the provincial capital Asadabad and killing four; Pakistan’s Information Ministry dismissed the university attack as a “blatant lie” while its border forces described the South Waziristan incident—in which at least three civilians were injured—as the most serious clash since the ceasefire. The renewed violence is reportedly linked to the shooting of a child by Pakistani forces near the Afghan border city of Spin Boldak on Sunday, with the heaviest fighting between the two countries in years having erupted in February after Afghanistan launched operations along the Durand Line and Pakistan responded with airstrikes on Kabul.

• China blocks Meta’s acquisition of AI startup Manus amid tech rivalry with U.S.: China’s National Development and Reform Commission on Monday moved to annul Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Singapore-based AI startup with Chinese roots, tightening Beijing’s scrutiny of U.S. acquisitions of domestic AI talent and intellectual property. Meta announced the deal in December, with the company saying there would be no continuing Chinese ownership of Manus and that it would shut down its China operations—a structure designed in part to navigate U.S. investment restrictions on Chinese AI firms. Meta said the transaction complied fully with applicable law and anticipated an appropriate resolution, while the White House said it would defend American technology from undue foreign interference. The move comes weeks before a planned mid-May summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

• U.S. sanctions drove 148% rise in Cuba’s infant mortality rate since 2018, report finds: Cuba’s infant mortality rate has nearly tripled over seven years—rising from 4 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 9 in 2025—with U.S. sanctions serving as the primary cause, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report traces the surge to a dramatic tightening of sanctions beginning in 2017 and singles out the Trump administration’s current fuel blockade as the most damaging American unilateral measure imposed to date. Every comparable country in the region saw stable or declining infant mortality rates over the same period, making Cuba’s trajectory a stark outlier and the latest indicator of the humanitarian toll of U.S. economic pressure on the island.

• Congo to deploy U.S.- and UAE-funded paramilitary mining force, starting in copper and cobalt heartland: The Democratic Republic of Congo will establish a paramilitary unit to police its mines, funded by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, the country’s General Inspectorate of Mines announced Monday. The agency plans to invest $100 million and deploy up to 3,000 armed recruits by December in the southeastern Katanga region—the heart of Congo’s copper and cobalt production—with an eventual target of 20,000 mining guards nationwide by 2028, according to Bloomberg. Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer and second-largest copper source, both critical to electric vehicle batteries and global supply chains; the U.S. and Congo signed a strategic economic partnership in December granting preferential mining access to American and allied companies. The agency declined to identify whether the U.S. and Emirati funds are private or government in origin.

• Gunmen kidnap 23 children from Nigerian orphanage; 8 remain missing after partial rescue: Gunmen raided an unregistered orphanage in Lokoja, the capital of Nigeria’s Kogi State, late Sunday, abducting at least 23 children and the wife of the facility’s proprietor, Kogi Information Commissioner Kingsley Fanwo announced Monday. Security forces rescued 15 of the children but eight remain missing, with intensive operations underway to locate them and apprehend the perpetrators. No group immediately claimed responsibility. Mass kidnappings for ransom have become common across Nigeria, particularly in rural areas with limited government presence, and the North Central Zone where Kogi is located has seen a series of violent raids on schools in recent months.

• ISIS-affiliated group kills 29 in attack on Nigerian village in Adamawa State: Armed men killed at least 29 people in a hours-long assault on Guyaku village in Nigeria’s Adamawa State, with a regional Islamic State affiliate claiming responsibility via Telegram, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Adamawa Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri visited the community Monday and pledged to intensify security operations in coordination with military and vigilante groups.

• Iraq’s Shiite bloc nominates businessman Ali al-Zaidi as consensus prime minister candidate: Iraq’s Coordination Framework, the Shiite parliamentary alliance controlling roughly 185 of 329 seats, nominated businessman Ali al-Zaidi as its consensus prime minister candidate Monday, ending months of deadlock over the previous nominee, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Maliki had faced significant opposition from the United States, other Shiite leaders, and some Sunni parties—with President Donald Trump threatening to withdraw American support for Iraq if Maliki took office. The new nominee leads Dijlah TV and Al-Janoob Islamic Bank, which was banned by Iraq’s Central Bank in 2024 for dollar transactions linked to money laundering and currency smuggling to Iran. Zaidi now faces the task of assembling a cabinet capable of winning the two-thirds parliamentary approval required to take office.

• Pirates hijack St. Kitts-flagged cargo vessel off Somalia, second seizure in a week: Pirates seized the cargo vessel Sward on Monday approximately 11 kilometers northeast of the Somali coastal town of Garacad, the second hijacking off Somalia in less than a week, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations and maritime security group Vanguard. Nine pirates boarded the ship, which was carrying cement from Suez to the Kenyan port of Mombasa with a 15-person crew of two Indian nationals and 13 Syrians, and were steering it toward the Somali coastline as of Monday. The Puntland Maritime Police Force said it was monitoring the situation. The attack comes as global maritime routes face compounding disruptions from the Strait of Hormuz blockage during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, with anti-piracy patrols having declined since 2023 as naval resources were redirected to counter Houthi threats in the Red Sea.

• Sudanese army drone strike on Zalingei displacement camp wounds 15: A drone strike attributed to the Sudanese army struck Square 4 of the Hamidiya displacement camp in Zalingei, Central Darfur, on Monday morning, wounding at least 15 displaced persons and destroying several homes, according to the General Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur. The strike is part of an intensified Sudanese Armed Forces aerial campaign across RSF-held Darfur states. Separately, a UNHCR truck delivering emergency shelter kits to Tawila, a city in western Darfur hosting more than 700,000 displaced people, was destroyed by a drone strike Friday, the UN refugee agency said Sunday.

• RSF holding over 2,400 detainees in dire conditions in el-Fasher, including 20 doctors, report finds: The Sudan Doctors Network reported Monday that the Rapid Support Forces are holding more than 2,400 people in dire conditions across multiple detention facilities in el-Fasher—including 20 doctors, 370 women, and 426 children confined in sites such as Shalla Prison, a children’s hospital, and cargo containers. The NGO said the RSF is committing severe violations inside the facilities, including killings during torture and interrogation, ethnically motivated killings, and field executions, with a cholera outbreak spreading since February amid malnutrition and a lack of clean water. El-Fasher fell to the RSF in late October, and UN-backed experts said in February that the paramilitary group’s campaign against non-Arab communities there bears the hallmarks of genocide.

• Ukraine-Israel dispute over stolen grain shipments escalates: Ukraine summoned Israel’s ambassador Tuesday after a second Russian-flagged vessel suspected of carrying thousands of tons of grain stolen from occupied Ukrainian territory docked at the Israeli port of Haifa. At least four suspected stolen-grain shipments have already been unloaded in Israel this year from Ukraine, according to reporting by Haaretz. In a public statement, President Zelenskyy said the imports violate Israel’s own laws, stating, “in any normal country, purchasing stolen goods is an act that entails legal liability,” and that “Israeli authorities cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying.” The European Union said that it is exploring sanctions targeting Tel Aviv, while the Israeli government has denied wrongdoing in the matter.

More from Drop Site: Drop Site’s Ryan Grim, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Maysa Mustafa are joined by Jacquline Sweet to discuss her investigation revealing the highest paid employees of the Israeli group running Canary Mission, the infamous pro-Israel doxxing site. And NYU journalism professor Mohamad Bazzi discusses Israel’s 50-year war on Lebanon. Watch the live stream here:

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Story by Mohamed Suleiman

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza—Leaning on a small cane, 73-year-old Mohammed Rihan was determined not to let the broken road stop him from casting his ballot in municipal elections in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. A retired Arabic language teacher for whom walking is difficult, Rihan covered more than a kilometer between his home to the polling station on foot, because, he said, he had no other choice.

“It doesn’t matter that we’re voting in tents,” Rihan told Drop Site News. “What matters is that we express our opinions and take our right to elections and to change.”

On Saturday, Deir al-Balah became the first and only municipality in Gaza to hold local elections in over two decades. Polling stations opened across 12 centers, nine of them in tents supplied by UN agencies to the Central Elections Commission, set up inside a rented five-a-side football stadium with a handwritten banner marking the entrance. Only three polling centers operated in actual buildings.

The vote was the first municipal election held anywhere in Gaza since 2005. At the same time, 420 local elections took place across the West Bank. While the elections were lauded as a step forward, they came in a context of an ongoing genocide and occupation of Gaza, a recent law limiting which candidates can run, and a severe escalation of violence and expulsion of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

Turnout was low in Deir al-Balah: a participation rate of 22.7%, according to official figures. The “Rise of Deir al-Balah” slate—whose candidates are considered close to Fatah—won six of the fifteen council seats. Independent “Future of Deir al-Balah” won five. Independent “Peace and Construction” and “Deir al-Balah Unites Us,” whose candidates are known to be close to Hamas, each won two.

Saeid Abu Rahma, a political analyst, attributed the low turnout to a deeper fatalism: people believe that Israel ultimately controls every aspect of life in Gaza and will prevent any elected council from properly functioning.

“Israel controls the crossings, electricity, water, and access to reconstruction materials and more,” Abu Rahma told Drop Site. “Without sustained international pressure, local bodies will be unable to fulfill their mandate regardless of their democratic legitimacy, and the elections will yield no tangible value.”

But he did not dismiss what the vote represented. “Despite this weakness, no one can deny that what happened was a democratic celebration, but a sad one, from the weight of pain and the absence of hope. The message of the elections is that Gaza is still alive, even if it is in the intensive care unit.”

Voting in Tents

The election infrastructure told its own story. Israel blocked the entry of basic electoral supplies, like ballot boxes, special ink, locks, and paper into Gaza, according to Jamil al-Khalidi, regional director of the Central Elections Commission in Deir al-Balah. The commission sourced substitutes locally: boxes lined with thick transparent nylon, paper printed at Gaza’s remaining print shops, and improvised ink alternatives.

Inside the tent polling stations, constructed from fiberglass panels rather than the nylon or fabric more common in Gaza, the process was, by multiple accounts, orderly. Voters had their details verified against the registry, crossed off their names, cast their ballots behind a cardboard privacy screen, and deposited them in the box.

More than 500 government employees from across ministries and institutions in Gaza participated in organizing and securing the vote in Deir al-Balah, according to the Government Information Office.

In Deir al-Balah, just 15,962 out of 70,449 eligible voters cast a ballot. In the 2005 elections, 16,576 people voted out of 30,530 registered, meaning the eligible population has more than doubled—much of it as a result of mass displacement from other parts of Gaza—yet the number of people who actually turned up at the polls actually dipped slightly. Turnout in the West Bank stood at 56%, according to official figures.

The vote was also controversial for coming in the wake of a decree-law issued by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in November 2025 that imposed new regulations for local elections. The law states that all candidates for office must “commit to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s program platform—its international commitments and the decisions of international legitimacy.”

That clause essentially prohibited Hamas, and other political factions, from fielding candidates. At the time, Hamas blasted the decree, saying it effectively made “recognition of the Israeli occupation a prerequisite for candidacy [and] constitutes a serious infringement on citizens’ right to freely choose their representatives,” charging that it “represents a clear attempt to exclude national and Islamic forces as well as independents…. and aligns with Israeli and American pressure.” A coalition of secular and nationalist parties, known as the Democratic Forces, also denounced the law as did a coalition of dozens of major Palestinian NGOs, civil society groups, and women’s rights organizations.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, on Sunday praised the symbolic significance of holding any vote in Gaza while sharply criticizing the structural weaknesses of the broader municipal election process, noting in an interview on Al Jazeera Mubasher that out of 429 local councils in the West Bank, competitive elections took place in just 83, while 197 councils saw only a single list submitted and 49 had no candidates at all. He also noted that local elections were not a substitute for legislative and presidential elections.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Hamas in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, said in a statement that the vote was “an important and necessary step” and called for presidential and legislative elections to follow.

In Deir al-Balah, all four competing lists, “Peace and Construction,” “Deir al-Balah Unites Us,” “Future of Deir al-Balah,” and “Rise of Deir al-Balah,” campaigned as independents. None of the Palestinian factions formally endorsed a slate. But voters and analysts drew their own maps.

“All the lists and their candidates carry independent names,” said 62-year-old Abd al-Majid al-Kurd as he sat at a small street stall trading in gold. He was skeptical about holding any elections in Gaza but said he would take part anyway. “The truth is that Deir al-Balah’s people know that the majority of candidates belong to various Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah and others. The factions, for many reasons, don’t want to announce that officially”.

Political analyst and writer Mohammed Joudeh, who lives in al-Zawayda just north of Deir al-Balah, agreed. The factions stayed quiet partly out of security concerns, he said, partly because “people are furious at factional alignments and consider factional infighting to be what destroyed Gaza.”

“The elections are an indicator of what is coming,” Joudeh added. “At minimum, any future election could produce the same scene. People are now inclined toward independence and choosing independents and technocrats.”

First-Time Voters

Nineteen-year-old Sajaa Bashir, a student of occupational therapy at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, voted for the first time on Saturday. She said she came not to express political affiliation but to choose who would represent Deir al-Balah’s municipal council based on announced programs.

“We didn’t come to elect parties or express political positions,” she said. “We came to exercise our right to choose who represents us.” Bashir also voiced a hope that went beyond sanitation networks and roads: that a democratically elected body might offer some protection.

“We want to present Deir al-Balah as a model city for life and recovery and reconstruction, through an elected administration that the world recognizes, and that stops using the excuse that the municipal council is unelected or appointed,” she said.

Rowan Abu Moussa, 24, and Iman al-Nakhala, 22, walked to the commission’s office together to collect voter information pamphlets before casting their ballots, also for the first time. Abu Moussa, a graduate in accounting from Palestine University, said the image of the election itself carried meaning.

“The scene of the elections gives people hope that it is possible to stop this war and return life to what it was,” she said. “Any result is also an opportunity for the world to find an elected body that removes the excuse from all those who talk about Gaza needing elections before it can be helped.”

Both women noted the timing alongside the vote in the West Bank. “It is a confirmation of the unity of the Palestinian homeland,” Abu Moussa said, “which the occupation wants to sever, to erase the Palestinian Authority’s official role in administering Gaza.”

The Weight of Twenty Years

Assad Mohammed, 48, described the elections as a rejection of years without democratic representation—and a reckoning with what those decades cost him personally.

“We were lost throughout the previous period and I don’t want my children’s futures to be lost,” he said. He has three children, all currently enrolled in universities whose buildings were targeted and destroyed by the Israeli military.

“I understand that reality is difficult and the world is not so easy that it will support us,” he said, “but at least we withdraw pretexts and say to donors: here is an elected municipal council, elected in a free and democratic way, you must support it and support the city.”

Faten Harb, 52, a community and family welfare practitioner and a mother of four and grandmother to six children, won one of the seats on the “Rise of Deir al-Balah” list that was considered aligned with Fatah.

“The claim that the lists are independent is not true, even if they include independents,” she said. “The larger number of candidates across the four lists are affiliated with specific political entities.” She said the decision to distance from factional branding was a collective choice, shaped by electoral calculations and wartime conditions.

Harb campaigned with limited resources, spending most of her days and nights on door-to-door visits, without any material support from Fatah. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education and is completing a master’s in administration and leadership.

“These elections are different because they come after a break of around twenty-two years, and because they come amid a war of extermination and the continuation of Palestinian division,” she said. “They are important with the hope that they become a spark for providing elected bodies across all areas of Gaza.”

“Gaza Is Still Alive”

Dr. Hassan Hammad, assistant coordinator of the civic campaign monitoring the local elections, took a more forward-facing view.

“Municipalities have a fundamental role in the recovery and reconstruction phase,” he said. “That is why it is important to conduct these elections and extend them to the remaining municipalities in central Gaza—which have seen less destruction—and eventually to all twenty-five municipalities in the Strip.”

He noted that international institutions had long claimed the appointed, politically affiliated status of Gaza’s councils as an excuse to withhold infrastructure funding. The election, he said, removed that justification.

Al-Khalidi, the elections commission official, confirmed that the commission intends to expand elections to other Gaza municipalities as conditions allow.

Rihan, the retired teacher who walked more than a kilometer on a cane to cast his ballot on Saturday, held out some hope for the future. “Elections in Deir al-Balah strengthen democracy and the people’s right to choose. Deir al-Balah is the least damaged in terms of destruction, but it has been scorched by the reverberations of war. No electricity, no fuel, no hospitals, no infrastructure. Everything has been wrecked since before the war,” he said.

“The hope is great for the possibility of change in the city.”

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Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi goes on weekend diplomatic tour to Russia and Oman. Trump cancels U.S. negotiating trip to Pakistan. Israel deployed Iron Dome battery to UAE, Axios reports. Iranian official threatens fourfold retaliation against U.S.-allied Gulf state infrastructure. Iran attempts to repair damaged economy. Israeli attacks continue on day 11 of “ceasefire.” Hezbollah: Ongoing Lebanese-Israel talks irrelevant to the resistance. Israeli forces kill 14 in Lebanon on Sunday, including children and women—and at least 14 over the weekend in Gaza. 1,500 patients have died awaiting medical evacuation as Israeli restrictions block treatment abroad: Gaza Ministry of Health. Palestinian teen dies of heart attack during Israeli pursuit. Settler attacks sweep occupied West Bank. Abbas loyalists win Palestinian municipal elections after Hamas was barred from running. Bennett and Lapid merge parties to form unified opposition bloc against Netanyahu ahead of Israeli elections. Six Israeli teens arrested in deadly restaurant worker stabbing. Gunman opens fire at Washington Hilton during White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Suspect Cole Tomas Allen to be arraigned in federal court. Wall Street billionaires funnel millions into super PAC targeting Graham Platner with new attack ad. Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on Bayer-Monsanto’s cancer-causing pesticide. Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions. U.S. military kills three in latest vessel strike in the Pacific. Insurgents launch attacks across Mali. RSF drone strike kills seven, wounds 22 in El-Obeid. Leaked photos contradict Uribe’s denials of a relationship with Noboa. Russian attacks kill five across Ukraine. FARC dissidents kill 14 in highway bombing. Peruvian authorities raid former election chief’s home. U.S. modifies Venezuela sanctions to allow government to fund Maduro’s legal defense. U.S. agents killed in Mexico were not authorized, Mexico says.

NEW from Drop Site: As Trump’s narrative on negotiations flails, Iran is setting its wn terms for ending the war: the latest from Jeremy Scahill. Maine’s House Majority Leader Matt Moonen is getting paid by Gov. Janet Mills’ Senate campaign (Details below from contributor Nathan Bernard). Displaced Lebanese pool money to buy satellite images to see what remains of their homes.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• Iranian FM weekend diplomatic tour: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Russia on Monday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials. Araghchi again blamed the United States for the failure of ceasefire talks: “The U.S.’s approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite the progress that had been made, not to reach its objective—the excessive demands they made and the incorrect approaches they adopted,” he said. Araghchi also met Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said in Muscat on Sunday, with talks covering navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, security in the Persian Gulf, and the ongoing negotiations with the U.S. After the visit, Araghchi returned to Islamabad for talks aimed mainly at laying out Iran’s position regarding a potential deal with the U.S.

• Trump cancels envoy trip to Pakistan: After reports that Iran’s Foreign Minister and an American delegation were set to convene in Islamabad for an informal round of talks over the weekend, with Iran insisting there would be no negotiations and the visit was for “bilateral” discussions, President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that he canceled plans to send U.S. envoys to Pakistan. Iran has continuously demanded the lifting of the U.S. blockade on its ports prior to a second round of talks. Trump summed up the U.S. position by saying, “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Very simple,” and claimed that the U.S. has “all the cards.”

• Axios: Israel deployed Iron Dome battery to UAE: Israel sent an Iron Dome air defense battery and several dozen Israel Defense Forces operators to the United Arab Emirates early in the war with Iran, according to a report from Axios. This marks the first time Israel has ever deployed the system to another country and the first time it has been used operationally outside of the U.S. and Israel. A senior Israeli official said the battery intercepted dozens of Iranian missiles. “It was a real eye-opening moment. To see who our real friends are,” a senior Emirati official told Axios. “We are not going to forget it.”

• Iranian official threatens fourfold retaliation against U.S.-allied Gulf state infrastructure: Iran’s Vice President and Head of the Organization for Energy Optimization and Strategic Management, Ismail Saqab Esfahani, issued a direct threat warning that any damage to Iranian oil infrastructure caused by the U.S. naval blockade would be met with retaliation four times as severe against the same category of infrastructure in countries supporting the U.S. “We will respond to any act of war,” Esfahani wrote on X. The warning is directed at Gulf state energy facilities—including those of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE—whose oil infrastructure and ports have already sustained damage during the war and remain highly vulnerable to Iranian strikes.

• Iran attempts to repair damaged economy: Iran’s cabinet reinstated a preferential exchange rate of 285,000 rials per dollar—far below the open-market rate of 1.55 million rials—to fund up to $3.5 billion in subsidized imports of wheat, medicines, medical equipment, and baby formula, as the war with the U.S. and Israel continues to strain the economy. Authorities also authorized drawing up to $1 billion from the National Development Fund to replenish strategic reserves of sugar, rice, barley, corn, and meat, while the Food and Drug Administration said it would begin centralized distribution of strategic medical goods within two days. Millions of jobs have been lost or suspended during the war, food prices have risen dramatically, and some residents of Tehran have begun stockpiling canned goods and water, with fears over long-term food security in the country persisting.

Lebanon

• Israeli attacks continue on day 11 of “ceasefire”: At least one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the town of Al-Qulaylah in southern Lebanon on Monday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israeli warplanes and drones carried out multiple strikes targeting areas around Majdal Selm, Al-Mansouri, Tebnine, and Kafra in the Bint Jbeil and Tyre districts. Artillery shelling also hit several southern villages. Additionally, Israeli forces carried out demolitions of houses between Yaroun and Bint Jbeil. The casualty toll due to Israeli attacks on Lebanon from March 2 to April 26 has risen to 2,521 killed and 7,804 injured, according to the Ministry. At least 38 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the announcement of the “ceasefire” on April 16.

• Hezbollah: Ongoing Lebanese-Israel talks irrelevant to the resistance: Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem rejected direct negotiations with Israel, stating any reported agreements between the Lebanese government and Israel are “as if they do not exist” from Hezbollah’s point of view. He reaffirmed that the group “will not give up weapons and defense,” and criticized the Lebanese government, accusing it of “abandoning Lebanon’s rights,” and giving up land. Qassem said any solution must be based on five conditions: ending Israeli attacks, Israel’s withdrawal, the release of detainees, the return of displaced residents, and reconstruction. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended the direct talks with Israel, saying in a statement on Monday, “What we are doing is not treason. Rather, treason is committed by those who take their country to war to achieve foreign interests,” he said in a reference to Hezbollah’s ties to Iran.

• 14 killed by Israel on Sunday, including children and women: Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday killed 14 people, including two children and two women, and injured 37 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, in the deadliest day since the “ceasefire” was announced on April 16. An Israeli airstrike struck a café at a crowded displacement hub in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tibneet in the Nabatieh district Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding many others. The IDF later claimed it carried out strikes targeting “Hezbollah terrorists and military infrastructure” in Lebanon.

• Israel attacks on Saturday: At least six people were killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, four of them in two strikes on Yohmor al-Shqif, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. Israeli airstrikes hit the southern Lebanese towns of Hadatha, Sultanieh, Bazourieh, Zebqin, Safad al-Battikh, and al-Jmayjmeh in the Bint Jbeil district, according to Al Mayadeen. Two people were dead and 17 injured in southern Lebanon following an Israeli raid on the southern town of Safad al-Bateekh, Bint Jbeil.

• Hezbollah drone killed Israeli soldier, wounded six after tank became stranded: A Hezbollah drone strike killed one Israeli soldier and wounded six others—four seriously—after an Israeli tank from the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion became stranded in the village of Al-Taybeh in southern Lebanon, roughly four kilometers from the Israeli border, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday. When a rescue crawler was deployed to retrieve the tank, a Hezbollah drone struck the site at around 9:30 a.m.; as an Israeli Air Force helicopter landed inside Lebanese territory to evacuate the wounded, Hezbollah launched two additional drones at rescue forces, one of which was intercepted while the second fell within meters of the evacuation helicopter. On Monday, Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops and vehicles near Kfarkela with a guided missile, claiming a direct hit.

• Israeli forces destroy solar panels and strike power substation serving dozens of villages in southern Lebanon: Israeli forces destroyed solar panels supplying electricity and water to Debel, a Christian village surrounded by Israeli troops whose residents have refused evacuation orders, Al Jazeera English journalist Heidi Pett reported Sunday from southern Lebanon. A nearby electricity substation serving Tebnine and 27 other locations was also struck in an Israeli airstrike. Debel is the same village where an Israeli soldier was previously filmed destroying a statue of Jesus, prompting a public apology and replacement by the Israeli military.

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,593 killed, with 172,399 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 817 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,296, while 762 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Israel kills at least 14 over the weekend in Gaza:

  • A 15-year-old boy, Aiham Al-Omari, was killed by Israeli gunfire Monday in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, according to WAFA.

  • Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians Sunday in a series of strikes across Gaza, according to Palestine Online, citing Civil Defense and local sources. Three Palestinians were killed near the Kuwait Roundabout and the Al-Saqa Mosque south of Gaza City, and two others were killed by an Israeli drone strike south of Gaza City. A displaced woman was also shot and killed by Israeli forces south of Khan Younis.

  • At least six people were killed across Gaza on Saturday. Israeli warplanes struck a densely populated Ramzun area of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood Saturday evening, killing three people and wounding several others. One Palestinian was shot in the head by Israeli forces in Jabalia, and another Palestinian, a child, died from gunshot wounds she sustained from Israeli fire in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. A man also died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia.

• Hamas official accuses “Board of Peace” mediator of pushing Phase Two talks while Israel skips phase one obligations: Senior Hamas political official Dr. Basem Naim marked 195 days since the Gaza ceasefire agreement Saturday with a public rebuke of mediator Nickolay Mladenov and Trump’s Board of Peace, accusing Mladenov of pressing for Phase Two negotiations without compelling Israel to fulfill its Phase One commitments. “All he asks for is ‘dismantling the resistance project’ in exchange for improving prison conditions and empty promises,” Naim wrote in Arabic on X. He closed the post with “No pasarán”—the Spanish anti-fascist phrase meaning “they shall not pass.”

• Gaza health ministry: 1,500 patients have died awaiting medical evacuation as Israeli restrictions block treatment abroad: The head of Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported Sunday that more than 1,500 patients on the medical evacuation list have died while waiting for treatment abroad due to Israeli restrictions blocking their departure, with 20,000 patients still trapped and unable to access care outside the territory. More than 90 percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been severely damaged by Israeli attacks or are entirely out of service.

• Palestinian teen dies of heart attack during Israeli pursuit: 17-year-old Obada Montaser Asaad Al-Qadi died after suffering a heart attack while being pursued and detained by Israeli occupation forces. He was from the town of Surif, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

• Settler attacks sweep occupied West Bank; six Palestinian deaths recorded in the past week: Armed Jewish settler groups carried out widespread attacks across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, including forced displacement, arson, and armed assaults monitored by the Settlement Observatory, with incidents recorded in the Qalqilya, Nablus, Salfit, al-Khalil, and Jordan Valley governorates. Around 20 families in the Arab al-Khawli Bedouin community near Kafr Thuluth were forced to flee after settlers attacked their tents and land, while armed settlers opened fire and burned Palestinian vehicles and equipment in Qusra and Jalud, and an Islamic preacher was assaulted and worshipers detained in Khirbet Tana by settlers and Israeli soldiers.

• Abbas loyalists sweep Palestinian municipal elections as Hamas barred from running: Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah voted Saturday in the first municipal elections to include Gaza since 2005 and a subsequent Fatah-Hamas split, with Fatah-aligned slates sweeping the West Bank—often running unopposed. Turnout reached 54% across 522,000 ballots cast across the West Bank, with women winning 33% of seats. Hamas and other political factions were barred from participating under a November 2025 decree by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas requiring candidates to commit to agreements made by the PLO with Israel. In Deir al-Balah—the sole Gaza constituency included—turnout was just 23% among roughly 70,000 eligible voters; a Fatah-backed slate won six of 15 seats, with Hamas-aligned candidates taking two. Hamas deployed over 500 personnel to support the process logistically.

• Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, praised the symbolic significance of holding any vote in Gaza while sharply criticizing the structural weaknesses of the broader municipal election process, noting that out of 429 local councils in the West Bank, competitive elections took place in just 83, while 197 councils saw only a single slate submitted and 49 had no candidates at all. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called the vote “an important and necessary step” and for presidential and legislative elections to follow. Polls continue to show Hamas as the most popular faction across both territories.

• Bennett and Lapid merge parties to form unified opposition bloc against Netanyahu ahead of Israeli elections: Former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced Sunday the merger of their parties—Bennett 2026 and There is a Future—into a new party called Together, with Bennett as its leader, in a bid to unite a fragmented opposition ahead of elections expected later this year. The alliance joins a right-wing and a centrist former prime minister whose primary common ground is opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Bennett pledging to establish a national commission of inquiry into failures leading up to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack and Lapid having called the recent ceasefire with Iran a “political disaster.”

• Six Israeli teens arrested in deadly restaurant worker stabbing: Six Israeli teenagers aged 13 to 17 were arrested in the killing of 21-year-old pizzeria worker Yemanu Binyamin Zelka in Petah Tikva, Israel according to the Times of Israel. Zelka was stabbed to death after asking a group of youths to stop using party spray inside the restaurant where he worked. The group allegedly waited outside for Zelka to finish his shift before assaulting and killing him.

Correction: This post originally stated that Palestinians in the West Bank and Deir al-Balah voted Saturday in their first municipal elections since the 2007 Fatah-Hamas split. While the elections were the first to be held in Gaza since then, the West Bank held municipal elections in 2022.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Gunman opens fire at Washington Hilton during White House Correspondents’ Dinner: A gunman opened fire Saturday night in the lobby of the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and senior administration officials were evacuated from the ballroom, and hundreds of journalists and celebrity guests were ordered to shelter under tables as heavily armed guards swarmed the venue. No injuries among dinner guests or officials have been reported; Trump had returned to the event this year as both guest of honor and keynote speaker after skipping it throughout his entire first term and the first year of his second.

• Suspect Cole Tomas Allen to be arraigned in federal court: Authorities identified Allen, 31, of Torrance, California—a Caltech-trained mechanical engineer and indie game developer, and part-time tutor once named “teacher of the month”—as the alleged shooter. Allen was reportedly armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives, exchanging gunfire with law enforcement before being tackled and taken to a hospital without a gunshot wound. Minutes before the attack, Allen sent family members a note stating that Trump administration officials were “targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” He wrote: “I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” Allen had never been flagged by the FBI’s domestic counterterrorism apparatus, a senior FBI official told Ken Klippenstein. Allen faces two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court today.

• Wall Street billionaires funnel millions into super PAC targeting Graham Platner with new attack ad: Pine Tree Results PAC, a super PAC backing Republican Sen. Susan Collins, is spending nearly $2 million for attack ads against Democratic primary frontrunner Graham Platner ahead of Maine’s June 9 primary. The PAC has drawn funding from powerful figures in American finance, including Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($2 million); Elliott Management CEO Paul Singer ($1 million); Reyes Holdings executives ($1 million); Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan ($50,000); and Palantir CEO Alex Karp ($100,000). Platner, a Marine veteran and oysterman running on Medicare for All and a billionaire minimum tax, has outraised both Collins and his primary opponent, Governor Janet Mills, for two consecutive quarters on small-dollar donations.

• NEW from Nathan Bernard in Maine: FEC filings show Maine House Majority Leader Matt Moonen has received more than $28,000 from Gov. Janet Mills’ U.S. Senate campaign since October. The Mills campaign paid him nearly $5,000 in biweekly salary installments throughout the fall, while the state legislature was in session. Majority Leader Moonen has not publicly endorsed Gov. Mill despite the campaign payments. To date, he has not attended any campaign events or made public statements in favor of the Governor’s Senate bid. As Majority Leader, Moonen controls floor scheduling, directs the House Democratic caucus, and determines which bills advance to a vote. He also chairs the Joint Rules Committee, governing how legislation is procedurally reviewed, and sits on the Legislative Council, the body that decides which bills are considered at all, including those sent by Mills’s own administration. Neither Majority Leader Moonen nor the Mills campaign responded to requests for comment regarding these potential conflicts of interest, or if they would support Graham Platner if he becomes the Democratic nominee.

• Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on Bayer-Monsanto’s cancer causing pesticide: RoundUp weedkiller, a Bayer-Monsanto commercial product, has become the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by customers who claim it caused their cancer diagnoses, specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Nonetheless, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, led by former congressman and BlackRock consultant Lee Zeldin, has called the pesticide “safe” and is formally supporting Monsanto in its legal battle before the Court to keep the product on the market and dismiss claims against the company. The position marks a seismic reversal from the Biden administration’s stance. The majority conservative U.S. Supreme Court, known to take pro-corporate and deregulatory stances in recent years, will hear arguments today.

• Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions: The Justice Department announced on Friday it will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution to kill condemned federal prisoners as it moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases. The Justice Department also said it was reauthorizing the use of lethal injections with pentobarbital, which was banned by the Biden administration over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after former President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.

Other International News

• U.S. military kills three in latest vessel strike in the Pacific: The U.S. military conducted a strike against a boat in the Eastern Pacific on Sunday, killing three people, according to U.S. Southern Command. SOUTHCOM posted a video of the strike and said, “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action” without providing evidence. Over 185 people have been killed in dozens U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific since September.

• Insurgents launch attacks across Mali: Mali saw one of its largest coordinated insurgent operations in recent years over the weekend, with the West Africa al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, partnering with the Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front to strike simultaneously in more than half a dozen locations, including near Bamako’s airport and in Mopti, Sevare, and Gao. Mali’s Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed in one attack on Saturday after a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into his residence in Kati, roughly 15 kilometers north of Bamako. The strategic northern city of Kidal—a former Tuareg stronghold—appeared to have fallen to insurgents, with the Azawad Liberation Front claiming a deal was struck to allow Russian mercenaries to withdraw from a besieged camp outside the city, though Mali’s army chief of staff said forces had “tactically repositioned” and that operations were ongoing.

• RSF drone strike kills seven, wounds 22 in El-Obeid: The Rapid Support Forces launched a drone attack Saturday on residential neighborhoods in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, killing at least seven people and wounding 22, the Sudan Doctors Network reported. The network said the drones deliberately targeted densely populated civilian areas, calling the strike a “grave violation” of international law, and warned that local hospitals are struggling to cope with the wounded.

• Leaked photos contradict Uribe’s denials of meetings with Noboa: Drop Site News published photos posted on Instagram last year showing former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez meeting with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and First Lady Lavinia Valbonesi inside what appears to be the couple’s residence, revealing a longstanding relationship that Uribe has denied. Allegations have circulated that Uribe coordinated with Noboa to interfere in Colombia’s presidential race ahead of the May 31 vote, with Uribe’s visits having coincided with Ecuador’s imposition of tariffs on Colombian goods that escalated first to 50%, then to 100%. President Gustavo Petro accused Noboa of “handing over the border to the mafia,” and his allies suspect that Noboa is attempting to engineer a crisis to undermine Iván Cepeda Castro, Petro’s favored successor to the presidency.

• FARC dissidents kill 14 in highway bombing: A bomb detonated Saturday on the Pan-American Highway in the El Tunel sector of Cajibio, in Colombia’s Cauca region, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 38, including five minors, in an attack Colombia’s Armed Forces commander General Hugo López attributed to the network of a fugitive known as “Iván Mordisco” and the Jaime Martínez faction—both dissidents of the demobilized FARC armed group. Southwestern Colombia has seen at least 26 violent incidents in over two days, including a shooting at a police station in Jamundi, an attack on a civil aviation radar facility in El Tambo, and vehicle bombs detonated near military units in Cali and Palmira on Friday.

• Syria opens first public trial of Assad-era official: Syria opened its first public trial of an official from Bashar al-Assad’s government, with proceedings beginning in Damascus on Sunday against Atef Najib—a cousin of al-Assad and former head of political security in the southern Deraa province. His charges include “crimes against the Syrian people” related to his oversight of the violent crackdown on protesters during the 2011 uprising. Al-Assad, his brother Maher, and other senior security officials were charged in absentia on counts including killings, torture, extortion, and drug trafficking. Authorities also recently arrested Amjad Yousef, the main suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre in Damascus, where nearly 300 civilians were killed.

• Russian attacks kill five across Ukraine: Russian attacks killed at least five people across multiple Ukrainian regions over the weekend, with drone strikes killing two civilians in the Sumy region’s Bilopil district, two more in the Zaporizhzhia region, and one person in Dnipropetrovsk. Seven people were wounded in shelling in Kherson. In Odesa, Russian forces struck port and logistics infrastructure, damaging warehouses, cargo storage tanks, and a civilian vessel flying the flag of Palau that was loading at the time, though its crew reported no injuries.

• Peruvian authorities raid former election chief’s home: Peruvian police raided the Lima home of Piero Corvetto, the former head of the National Office of Electoral Processes, on Friday as part of a judicial warrant, seizing mobile phones, laptops, and documents, with five other officials’ homes and offices of ballot transport company Galaga also targeted. Corvetto resigned Tuesday—denying any wrongdoing—amid mounting public frustration over the slow count from the April 12 presidential election and an effort by political elites in the capital to avoid a runoff vote that would include a left-wing challenger to four-time candidate Keiko Fujimori.

• China drills off Luzon as Japan joins U.S.-Philippine exercises: Beijing conducted live-fire military drills in waters near the Philippines this weekend, activities that coincided with annual U.S.-Philippines military drills, which kicked off this week with over 17,000 troops. For the first time the U.S. exercises also included Japanese combat forces participating, amid growing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing. China’s decision to drill on the Pacific-facing side of Luzon, rather than the western South China Sea approaches, has been widely read as a signal that Beijing can project military force beyond the first island chain in a naval conflict.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• U.S. modifies Venezuela sanctions to allow government to fund Maduro’s legal defense: The United States agreed to modify its sanctions on Venezuela to permit the government to pay legal fees for kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro, backing away from a restriction that had threatened to derail his federal “narcoterrorism” case, according to a court filing made public Friday. Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein had signaled skepticism toward the sanctions restriction at a March 26 hearing, noting that Maduro and Flores “present no further national security threat” and that the right to constitutional counsel was “paramount over other rights.”

• U.S. agents killed in Mexico were not authorized, Mexico says: Two CIA agents who died in a car crash in northern Mexico were not permitted to conduct operations there, Mexico’s government said Saturday. The agents were allegedly returning from destroying a drug lab in Chihuahua when their vehicle drove into a ravine and “exploded.” Two Mexican officers also died. Mexico’s security cabinet said one agent entered as a visitor, the other on a diplomatic passport, adding that foreign agents cannot take part in local operations. The CIA has declined to comment.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been on a strategic tour to prepare for two dramatically different paths that could unfold in the coming days: a return to diplomacy or a resumption of the war with the U.S. and Israel. While President Donald Trump has claimed that the Iranian government is in a state of internal chaos and his administration is waiting for Iran to capitulate, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Tehran is establishing the conditions under which a new round of direct talks could take place.

“We’re currently moving forward with our own design, and we feel continuing negotiations doesn’t make sense until the U.S. government lifts the maritime blockade,” said the official who has direct knowledge of internal diplomatic deliberations in Iran. He requested anonymity because he is not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. “The scope of the conflict has expanded, and naturally the issue is no longer purely nuclear.”

Tehran, the Iranian official said, remains firm in its demand that the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz be lifted as a condition to move forward. If that happens, a formal second round of top level direct talks can happen.

“Araghchi is Iran’s top diplomat. So even if there’s a 1% chance for a breakthrough, he would embark on it,” said Hassan Ahmadian, a prominent Iranian analyst and associate professor at the University of Tehran. He told Drop Site that Iran has crafted a multi-phase outline for ending the war: A real ceasefire must be imposed on Israel in the region, specifically Lebanon, and a settlement must be reached in the Strait of Hormuz “without harming Iran’s national security and also regional security.” Once these conditions are met, comprehensive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and a long-term non-aggression agreement could commence.

“The Iranians are saying time is working in our favor for the three Ms: munitions, markets, and the midterms. These three Ms help Iran in its position and weaken U.S. positions,” Ahmadian said. “Obviously in the U.S., they want something to say, ‘We squeezed Iran and we got this.’ My perception is that the Iranians are keen to deny the United States that—they wouldn’t give what Trump wants as a victory.”

While White House officials claim Iran presented the U.S. with a “new” proposal over the weekend and pushed this narrative through their preferred media outlets, the Iranian official said the characterization was false. Trump claimed Iran softened its stance over the weekend, but not enough for a deal. Ahmadian said there has been a recent Iranian shift, but it is toward a clearer set of conditions for resuming negotiations, not acceding to American demands on its nuclear program. “There are changes, as I understand,” he said. “The main change is for Iran to insist on the stop of the war regionally. That’s pivotal in Iran agreeing to discuss other issues.”

As a practical matter, Tehran is facing an unprecedented challenge in dealing with Trump. Twice in one year, Israel and the U.S. have bombed Iran in the middle of negotiations. Trump is erratic and frequently contradicts himself—vascillating between expressing optimism for a deal and claiming Iran has surrendered to sweeping U.S. demands only to turn around and threaten to destroy Iranian civilization and to carpet bomb its civilian infrastructure. Iran also believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been given unprecedented influence over U.S. intelligence estimates and White House decision-making.

“Our country has had negotiations with the Americans at various levels over the past 30 years— formal and informal, public and back-channel,” the senior Iranian official said, referencing previous U.S.-Iran negotiations that involved months—at times years—of diplomacy and technical talks. “It’s as if they are showing up to a football match with rugby rules.”

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Iran has total disdain for Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and views him as both oblivious of diplomatic processes and totally ignorant of technical issues. Kushner is viewed by Iran as Israel’s man at the table. Iran, the senior official said, does not see any reason to deal with these two without a figure like Vice President JD Vance present.

Last week, the Iranian government announced that Araghchi would be visiting Islamabad for bilateral talks with Pakistani leaders. This set off a flurry of media speculation that a new round of negotiations would happen. Trump announced that Vance was en route to Islamabad and once again characterized Iran as pleading for new negotiations. But Vance, it turned out, was not on a plane, and Iran continued to deny it had any intention of meeting with U.S. officials in Pakistan.

Trump then said he was dispatching Witkoff and Kushner, and the media was flooded with stories about a meeting with Iran. Some news outlets, citing White House sources, claimed that planes were en route to the meetings, and the White House suggested Iran was lying about the forthcoming talks. “The Iranians want to talk, they want to talk in person,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Friday. “Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out.”

Iran continued to reject suggestions that any talks would happen. “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S.,” Iran’s Foreign Minister spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said soon after Araghchi arrived in Pakistan. Iran, he said, discussed a range of issues, including trade. On Sunday, Islamabad announced it was expanding the transportation of third-country goods through Pakistan destined for Iran. While the transit routes had been under discussion since 2008, the timing—with Trump claiming his naval blockade was “strangling” Iran—was impossible to ignore.

After Araghchi left Islamabad on Saturday and flew to Oman, Trump scrambled to spin the narrative and control the damage, claiming he had actually called off the planned negotiations. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”

Trump then claimed that as a result of his refusal to send his emissaries, Iran had softened its stance, submitting a new proposal to the U.S. “They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said.

Trump continues to claim that he extended the initial two-week ceasefire agreed on April 7 because Iran’s leadership was in a state of disarray and infighting. This narrative has been widely parrotted in Western media. “That’s part of the cognitive warfare on Iran,” said Ahmadian. “It’s targeted at the society, the elites, and the position of the Supreme Leader. It’s not news, it’s not intel that they’re talking about. It’s basically an agenda to create what they are calling division. And I think the main aim within Iran is to increase mistrust and decrease trust among elites, which I think the Iranians are now very well aware of.”

Ahmadian said that Iran’s perception is that it is the U.S. leadership that is in deep disarray, as evidenced by Trump’s flip-flops, unrealized threats and the recent chaos over which officials would be heading to Islamabad to negotiate with Iran. During the first round of direct talks held in Islamabad on April 11, the Iranian team arrived with “a clear message coming out of Tehran, with a team that represents all of the system, and it came with a very strong case for showing the unity within the country,” Ahmadian said. He added that the Iranian side left the talks with the impression that there were stark differences between Vance on the one hand and Witkoff and Kushner on the other. “The Iranians see Witkoff and Kushner as representatives of the Israeli interests, not those of the United States, as opposed to Mr. Vance, who is representing the U.S. interests in those talks,” he said. “They were divided in their way of approaching the Iranians.”

“I Don’t Take That as a Bluff”

Abbas Araghchi’s three nation tour, the senior Iranian official told Drop Site, is aimed in part at laying out Tehran’s position in clear terms to mediators and key strategic players who could play a role in any future deal. Oman has decades of experience serving as the mediator on nuclear issues between the U.S. and Iran, but Muscat was blindsided by the surprise attack on Iran a day after its foreign minister visited Washington and was led to believe an agreement was within reach. Given Oman’s vast experience and technical knowledge, Iran is eager to see Muscat reenter the diplomatic process. Araghchi also discussed the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, as Oman and Iran are the only two littoral states in the strategic waterway. “Our focus included ways to ensure safe transit that is to the benefit of all dear neighbors and the world,” Araghchi wrote on X.

During his talks with Pakistani officials, Araghchi offered a comprehensive overview of Iran’s position on a range of issues, including nuclear enrichment and the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. The senior Iranian official said it did not constitute a new proposal, but rather a reiteration and extrapolation on the terms laid out by Iran since February. “We explained our technical positions to the Pakistani side. Regarding the nuclear issue, solutions that we had previously proposed were raised again so that we could reach a shared understanding with them,” the official said. “Our remarks were not directed at the Americans given that these are bilateral discussions. We believe that the intermediaries themselves should also be technically briefed on the proposals.”

While some Iranian officials have expressed frustration with Pakistan’s role and a perception that it has shown an inability to manage Trump, Ahmadian said Tehran will not publicly criticize Islamabad. “They don’t want these talks to burden their relationship with Pakistan with any negative outcomes,” he said.

Ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Araghchi held the U.S. responsible for the stalled progress in negotiations. “The Americans’ approaches caused the previous round of talks, despite the progress that had been made, not to reach its objective,” he said, decrying “the excessive demands they made and the incorrect approaches they adopted.”

Araghchi’s meetings in Russia—a key strategic and military ally—also serve a dual purpose. If war resumes or if it stretches into a prolonged unresolved state with no comprehensive agreement, Iran will need to craft an alternative path to rebuild the country, stabilize its economy and prepare for future U.S.-Israeli military attacks. Support from Moscow would be crucial to all of these efforts, especially military and intelligence cooperation.

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During his meeting with Araghchi Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised “how courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence and sovereignty,” and pledged that Moscow would offer its assistance to Iran in efforts to bring the war to an end. “Russia, just like Iran, intends to continue our strategic relationship.”

Russia played a key role in the 2015 nuclear deal and could emerge as an important guarantor of Tehran’s interests in any agreement reached with the U.S. Following the 2015 agreement, Iran shipped more than 25,000 pounds—roughly 98 percent of its enriched uranium—to Russia. At the time, Iran was believed to possess only a small quantity of highly enriched uranium, and nearly all of that stockpile was sent to Moscow along with the less enriched material. After Trump unilaterally canceled the landmark agreement, Iran increased its enrichment activity and is, at present, believed to have roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Trump falsely claimed recently that Iran had agreed to allow the U.S. to send troops into Iran to take custody of the uranium, which Trump refers to as “nuclear dust.”

Iran has said it will not transfer its enriched uranium outside of the country. Instead, it has said it would agree to dilute its enriched uranium under international supervision. Whether this stance would change if Russia was brought into the process remains a wild card.

“Russia, and to my understanding, China, are the main parties that the Iranians might think of,” said Ahmadian. “A partner that is trusted more than the United States that can play a mediating role and then can be the destination if there is an agreement for the highly enriched uranium. These are things that I think are part of any negotiations with China and Russia.”

Iran has given no public indication it would alter its position opposing a transfer of its enriched uranium, but has also maintained it is willing to resolve the issue as part of a comprehensive settlement with the U.S. “These issues, on the ground, have clear and practical solutions, and we have always examined them in meaningful negotiations,” said the Iranian official. “Any serious negotiation on the American side must involve a large team, including experts and multiple government departments, so that they can properly understand and process a meaningful agreement that covers the various cross sectoral dimensions on their side.”

At present, Iran still believes it is likely that the U.S. and Israel will resume the war. “Our assessment is that we do not see [Trump] as capable of shaping the agreement,” the Iranian official said. “Our take is that they’ve basically decided to keep the war going until there’s a regime change,” which the official predicted will continue to fail.

Tehran has indicated it has prepared new forms of retaliatory strikes and other actions, including in the Strait of Hormuz. On April 22, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, published maps of undersea cable infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, raising concerns it was suggesting Iran could cut the cables, causing widespread internet outages and disrupting commerce, further harming the global economy. Iranian military commanders have said that while the U.S. has moved more military assets into the region during the ceasefire, Tehran has also taken this period to prepare its own weapons systems for more fighting. Iran has made no secret that it would target U.S. military assets, as well as infrastructure in any Gulf states who aid American attacks in any way.

All of this is unfolding amid an increasingly tense standoff in the Strait of Hormuz marked by nearly daily incidents, including the seizure, interdiction, and forceful redirection of ships. “I think the Iranians will not sit on their hands watching the United States harass and seize their ships. They would rather go for a war,” said Ahmadian. “If there’s no breakthrough in the next week, I think escalation will happen. I expect the United States to increase the pressure on Iran militarily. But the Iranians will go heavier this time,” he added. “Iran is saying that if its infrastructure is targeted, we will target four times what’s hitting Iran. I don’t take that as a bluff. I think they will do that because the more the pain on the other side, the less likelihood of it continuing the targeting of Iran’s infrastructure.”

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BEIRUT, Lebanon—Ali Murad knew his hometown of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel was under heavy assault by the Israeli military. Since it was impossible for anyone to go there to check on his family house, he turned to satellite imagery to try and find out.

Once home to some 20,000 people, Aitaroun has been completely displaced by the Israeli military, which has re-invaded and occupied swathes of southern Lebanon with tanks and troops over the past seven weeks. Now based in Sweden, Murad, 39, could only watch from afar as his hometown—where he spent his childhood—was taken over. Videos began circulating online of the Israeli military engaged in widespread destruction and systematic demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in the area. Aitaroun, whose name is of Aramaic-Syriac origin and means “the high dwellings,” lies within the Bint Jbeil district, where some of the heaviest Israeli assaults have taken place.

The Israeli military has continued the demolition campaign in places like Aitaroun despite a ceasefire announced earlier this month. In the first week of the ceasefire, Israel committed nearly 500 ceasefire violations, according to Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research, a government-affiliated body, including 142 cases of demolition.

Murad, who inherited the home in Aitaroun from his grandparents, last spent time in Aitaroun during a visit back to Lebanon last year. “It’s a simple village home surrounded by a small garden,” he told Drop Site News, “it has great emotional value to me.”

“It’s what keeps me connected to Lebanon,” he added.

But now there is no prospect for people to return to their homes. The Israeli military published a map last week, showing a newly established “Yellow Line” line running 5-10 km deep along the border into Lebanese territory where its troops were deployed and would remain. The map named more than 50 villages in the south, including Aitaroun, to which residents were ordered not to return. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz last month declared they would “accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes in border villages…in accordance with the Beit Hanoun and Rafah model in Gaza,” referring to two areas of Gaza that have been completely razed to the ground.

The only way Murad could check on his home was to obtain a satellite image of the village to try and discern whether it was still standing. He decided to purchase an image from OnGeo Intelligence, a U.S.-based company that provides satellite imagery for a fee. He had first turned to OnGeo during the earlier phase of the war that stretched from 2023 to 2024 to see the status of his hometown.

“I identified the geographic location I wanted and paid around $350 for a single image,” Murad said. He eventually pooled money together with other displaced residents and ordered 10 images covering the entire village. Once the results arrived, he forwarded the PDF reports to a WhatsApp group made up of displaced residents with some 1,200 members. “People want to see their homes, and this is the only way today,” he said.

The images were devastating.

“My house was burned down in the last war, but it held on. In this war, it was completely destroyed, nothing is left,” he said, adding that the ancient olive trees on his property had disappeared without a trace. “I didn’t spend much on my family’s home, but what it means to me is the smell of the past and the memories of my childhood. It’s an old house we restored to preserve its soul.”

On most streets in the village, not a single structure could be seen standing in the images, which Murad shared with Drop Site. The destruction was near total.

“The whole village is gone,” Murad said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Over 1.1 million people in Lebanon—about one fifth of the population—have been displaced since Israel escalated its assault on March 2, according to the United Nations. More than 2,300 have been killed. The vast majority have been displaced from the south and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Israeli military has issued repeated sweeping displacement orders for all residents south of the Zahrani River to displace to the north.

For many residents unable to return to their homes in the south, satellite imagery has become the only way they can find out the state of their homes. Some scour the internet for images publicly available online, while others, like Murad, pool resources with their former neighbors to purchase images of specific locations.

OnGeo says the granularity of its images sets it apart from other services. “We provide current satellite imagery from civilian satellites in the highest resolution available. All imagery is undistorted and includes the exact date and time of capture,” the company said in an emailed response to questions from Drop Site. “The images provided do not exceed 1 square kilometer, so our product faithfully reproduces terrain details.”

Typically used by governments and energy companies for investment projects and disaster response, OnGeo has taken on a different role in Lebanon, becoming a resource for displaced residents from frontline towns and villages who can no longer check on their homes in person.

OnGeo said it has observed an increase in demand for satellite imagery of Lebanon during both the earlier and current phases of the war. “One indication has been the higher number of refunds for unfulfilled orders related to that area,” the company said. “This can occur when the requested images include military sites or other restricted locations, which are subject to the operators’ internal policies and regulatory limitations.”

Murad says he received a similar response to some of his requests. While he was able to buy seven images covering the entire village, three to four other requests were denied by OnGeo with no explanation other than: “The service provider declined to provide the image.”

A young man from Yahmar al-Shaqif, a village just north of the Litani river, told Drop Site he also recently resorted to pooling money with a group of friends to purchase three satellite images from OnGeo. “I went to my village a week before the ceasefire decision, but I won’t be able to go back now,” he said. He spoke to Drop Site on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The images have yet to arrive, a feeling he compared to waiting for exam results. “You don’t know if you passed or failed,” he said. “Our hearts race, and anxiety takes over.”

However, resorting to satellite imagery platforms like OnGeo is not without its privacy risks, according to Abed Kataya, Program Director at SMEX, a digital rights organization focused on the West Asia and North Africa regions.

“We don’t know if [OnGeo] shares this information with third parties, or how the purpose behind requesting these images might be interpreted, and what conclusions could be drawn from them,” Kataya told Drop Site. “Purchasing satellite images requires a high degree of caution, especially in the context of war and conflict,” he said.

Part of the concerns extend beyond the images themselves to the technical data involved in the ordering process. Using a mobile phone or computer to pinpoint a specific geographic location may allow for the tracking of the user’s IP address, Katya said.

“From our side, we only see the location of the requested images. We do not review or analyze the content of the images themselves,” OnGeo replied. “We do not engage in political activities. Our role is purely technical and service-oriented, and we operate in accordance with the policies and licensing frameworks of our data providers,” noting that it relies on civilian satellites for images.

“Our lives hang by a photo”

Nabih Awada, 62, who fled Aitaroun with his family to Beirut when the war began in October 2023, recalled a satellite image they purchased to try and survey the damage.

“I searched the image for every corner of my village,” he told Drop Site. “I didn’t just look at my home. I examined every house in my village. With the last image that reached us a few days ago, I spent about four hours zooming in and scrutinizing the details, reliving my memories and childhood through it.”

“Our lives hang by a photo,” he said, recalling earlier wars, when his home was also destroyed. “In the July 2006 war I witnessed the destruction of my house, and before that, my family’s home was destroyed in the 1980s.”

He continued: “There is something strange about looking for memories in a photograph. At the start of the 2024 war, I used to wait for an image, and sometimes it would take about a week before I could see my house. And even after it was destroyed, I kept searching for it, even if it was just rubble.”

Awada said his brother spent 20 years abroad to save enough money to return and build a stable life in retirement in Aitroun. “He had retired, dreaming of spending the rest of his life in the villa which cost over $100,000. Today he looks at the images and weeps for his memories, his childhood, and everything he built, all of it collapsing before him.”

Suha Mansour, 36, who fled Aitaroun with her family to Mount Lebanon amid the latest Israeli assault, told Drop Site that the feeling of waiting for a photo of the house she inherited from her father, is like “waiting for a death sentence.”

“We wait to see if the house was blown up, bulldozed, or burned,” she said.

After the initial ceasefire in November 2024, Mansour said she spent thousands of dollars repairing the home to safeguard her father’s memory. Scrolling through images from social media and satellite maps, Mansour again scrutinized the details of her village.

“What a curse technology is, when all it shows you is your home in ruins,” she said. “I die and come back to life, over and over again.”

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Iran’s Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan, Russia, and Oman in regional tour. Third U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in Middle East. Israel threatens to return Iran to the “Stone Age.” President Donald Trump claims Iran’s oil infrastructure will “explode” within days without a deal. Analysis: Less than a third of buildings hit in Tehran linked to military. NYT says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gravely wounded and governing via handwritten messages. The Iran war has eaten into U.S. stockpiles: report. Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon despite ceasefire extension. Hezbollah targets Israeli troops and downs drone. Trump says Lebanon ceasefire to be extended by three weeks. Israeli attacks continue across the Gaza Strip. Parents describe Israeli attack that killed their children. Gaza’s amputee crisis deepening. Israel approves new settlement-linked school in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli minister says West Bank settlement expansion has Trump’s support. Netanyahu treated for early-stage prostate cancer. U.S. soldier charged with using classified information to win $400,000. Justice Department wants to strip 384 naturalized citizens of citizenship: NYT. Warner Bros shareholders approve merger with Paramount. Meatpacking workers win historic strike against JBS in Colorado. Pentagon email floats suspending Spain from NATO. Javier Milei bars accredited journalists from Argentina’s presidential palace. Gunmen kill at least nine at copper-gold mine in Pakistan. Meningitis and measles in eastern Chad. Russian drone strike on Odesa kills elderly couple, wounds at least 14.

From Drop Site: AIPAC moving secret money to Philly House race. Meet the Top “Content” Producers Linked to Canary Mission.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• Iran’s Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan, Russia, and Oman in regional tour: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Islamabad with a small delegation as part of a regional diplomatic tour that may contribute to efforts to restart talks with the United States. Pakistani officials confirmed the visit following recent phone calls between Araghchi and senior Pakistani leaders. However, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the trip is currently bilateral in nature, focused on “consultations” with Pakistani officials rather than immediate negotiations with the U.S. Araghchi is also expected to travel to Moscow and Muscat as part of the same diplomatic tour.

• Third U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in Middle East: A third U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East in a further buildup of naval firepower. “For the first time in decades, three aircraft carriers are operating in the Middle East at the same time,” U.S. Central Command said in a social media post. “Accompanied by their carrier air wings, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) include over 200 aircraft and 15,000 Sailors and Marines.”

• Israel threatens to return Iran to the “Stone Age”: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israeli forces are waiting for a “green light from the United States” to renew war with Iran. Israel is ready, Katz said in a video, “to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty,” and he threatened to “return Iran to the Dark Age and the Stone Age by destroying key energy and electricity facilities and dismantling its national economic infrastructure.”

• Trump claims Iran’s oil infrastructure will “explode” within days without a deal: President Donald Trump warned Thursday that if a deal is not reached soon, Iran’s “whole oil infrastructure is going to explode” within days. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was “in no rush” for a deal and felt no “pressure whatsoever,” repeating his claim that delays were due to the Iranian government being “disorganized.” He also commented on the Strait of Hormuz, saying that Iran “came to us and said, ‘we will agree to open the Strait.’” He said, however, that he is the “one who kept” the Strait closed. “And it’ll open,” he threatened, “when they make a deal, or something else happens.”

• Analysis: Less than a third of buildings hit in Tehran linked to military: An analysis of damaged and destroyed buildings in Tehran by Bloomberg found that between the start of the Iran war on February 28 and the ceasefire on April 8, at least 2,816 buildings were hit in the capital, of which 32%—less than a third—were linked to the military. The analysis found that 25% were linked to industry, 21% to civilians, 19% were commercial and 2% governmental.

• NYT says Khamenei gravely wounded and governing via handwritten messages: A report from the New York Times alleges that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sustained severe injuries during the war—including a leg requiring three surgeries and awaiting a prosthetic, a hand that was operated on, and burns to his face and lips that have made speaking difficult. The Times also says that senior military commanders and government officials no longer visit him directly, fearing Israel could track them to his location; messages are instead passed through a human courier chain by car and motorcycle in handwritten, sealed envelopes. Khamenei is described as “mentally sharp and engaged,” with President Masoud Pezeshkian—a heart surgeon by training—involved in his care.

• Iran’s Supreme Leader, top officials issue coordinated rebuke of Trump’s claim that they are too divided to negotiate: Iran’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches issued near-identical statements on X Thursday, directly rejecting President Donald Trump’s assertion that Iran’s leadership is too fractured to negotiate. President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Ejei wrote in unison: “In Iran, there are no ‘radicals’ or ‘moderates.’ We are all Iranian and revolutionary. With the firm unity of the nation and the state, and in full obedience to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, we will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei also emphasized national unity in a post, saying that as a result of this unity among Iranians, “the enemy has been fractured.”

• Trump amplifies op-ed calling for assassination of Iranian leaders: President Donald Trump reposted a Washington Post opinion column by Bush administration speechwriter Marc Thiessen, arguing he should resume bombing Iran and specifically target its leaders if Tehran fails to submit a serious counteroffer within days. Thiessen argued that Iran is “on the ropes” due to near-exhausted oil storage, impending domestic gas shortages, and a military dependent on oil revenue, and called on Trump to give Iran 72 hours before resuming strikes.

• The Iran war has eaten into U.S. stockpiles: report: The war in Iran has cost the United States between $28 billion and $35 billion, or roughly $1 billion a day, with $5.6 billion in munitions expended in the first two days alone, according to a new joint report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Meanwhile, the United States has expended approximately 1,100 JASSM-ER stealth cruise missiles—nearly matching the total remaining stockpile—along with more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, more than 1,200 Patriot interceptors, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles during the 38-day Iran war, leaving inventories at worrisomely low levels, according to a New York Times report. The drawdowns have forced the Pentagon to redirect weapons from commands in Europe and Asia, including THAAD interceptors from South Korea. At current production rates, Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) warned this week, “reconstituting what we have expended could take years.”

• Kuwait says drones fired from Iraq struck border posts: The Kuwaiti military said on Friday that two drones launched from Iraq targeted border posts on its northern frontier. “This morning, two of Kuwait’s northern land border posts were targeted in a criminal act of aggression involving two explosive-laden drones guided by fibre-optic cables, originating from the Republic of Iraq, resulting in material damage but...no human casualties,” the military said in a statement.

Lebanon

• Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon despite ceasefire extension: Israel continued to carry out air strikes and demolitions across southern Lebanon during and after U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials at the White House on Thursday. An Israeli airstrike on the town of Touline in the Marjayoun district early Friday killed two people, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israeli forces also continued demolition operations in Al-Bayyada and Khiam, where multiple blasts were reported. Artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of Al-Mansouri and Bayt al-Sayyad in the Tyre district, as well as the town of Qantara in Marjayoun. Israeli forces issued an evacuation warning to residents of Deir Aames in the Tyre district, ordering them to leave their homes immediately.

• Hezbollah targets Israeli troops and downs drone: Hezbollah said Friday it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Qantara in southern Lebanon using an explosive drone, in response to “Israeli violations of the ceasefire by attacking civilians in Touline.” In a separate statement, the group also announced that it had shot down an Israeli military drone of the “Hermes 450” type over the Tyre–Al-Housh area using a surface-to-air missile.

• Trump says Lebanon ceasefire to be extended by three weeks: President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which was due to expire on Sunday, would be extended for three weeks. The announcement came after Trump hosted a meeting at the Oval Office with Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors at the White House for a second round of direct talks between the two countries. Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said that thanks to Trump’s leadership, “the possibility of degrading Hezbollah and liberating Lebanon from their occupation is real.” The Lebanese ambassador, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, thanked Trump and said, “I think with your help, your support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Trump said he plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun for a joint meeting at the White House “over the next couple of weeks.”

• Hezbollah rejects ongoing negotiations, warns they grant Israel “exception” to continue attacks: Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc chief, MP Mohammad Raad, called on Lebanese authorities to withdraw from direct negotiations with Israel. In a statement on Friday, Raad said that “the authorities should be ashamed of their people and withdraw from what is called direct negotiations with the Zionist enemy,” warning that any “so-called truce” could give Israel “a special exception to open fire or carry out any military movement or action in areas of confrontation within Lebanese territory.”

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Israeli attacks continue across the Gaza Strip: Two Palestinians were killed and others injured Friday in an Israeli drone attack on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, according to WAFA. A Palestinian girl was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a separate attack on displacement shelters in the Beit Lahia Project area. Several other displaced civilians were also injured inside a shelter at Khalifa School amid artillery shelling and gunfire. Israeli forces shelled the Al-Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, while naval forces opened fire off the coast of Khan Younis. Nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since a so-called ceasefire agreement was signed in October.

• Parents describe Israeli attack that killed their children: Funerals were held at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday for five Palestinians, including three children, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia. Amna Al-Abed, the mother of two children killed in the attack—9-year-old Abdullah and 10-year-old Salah—told Drop Site her sons had gone out to eat with their father when an Israeli strike hit. “My husband was injured. My kids were dead,” she said, through tears, adding that one of her sons “took his last breath” in front of her after calling out, “Mama.” Bahaa Balousha, whose 14-year-old son Mohammed was also killed in the strike, told Drop Site the family had gone out after his children encouraged him to get dinner. “We go down to shop. Then tragedy struck us.” Balousha said despite the declared ceasefire, “There isn’t an hour of quiet during the day.”

• Gaza’s amputee crisis deepening: Gaza’s already unprecedented amputation crisis will continue to worsen, Humanity & Inclusion UK warned this week, as Israel continues to restrict medical supplies. The World Health Organization estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 people have undergone amputations since the October 2025 ceasefire. At the height of the genocide, reports indicated up to 10 children per day were undergoing one or both leg amputations. Six months into the ceasefire, only nine prosthetists are operating in Gaza. Humanity & Inclusion UK has itself been blocked from bringing humanitarian supplies and prosthetics into the territory since February 2025.

• Israel approves new settlement-linked school in occupied East Jerusalem: Israeli authorities have approved plans to build a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, according to WAFA. In a statement, the Jerusalem governorate said the approval reflects “a clear exploitation of the current regional escalation” to push forward settlement plans, warning the project could lead to “dangerous demographic and geographic changes” in Sheikh Jarrah. The governorate described the move as part of a wider pattern of policies in the neighborhood, calling it a “full-fledged forced displacement” strategy amid ongoing threats to evict dozens of Palestinian families.

• Israeli minister says West Bank settlement expansion has Trump’s support: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told the Jerusalem Post that Israel’s accelerating settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank is being carried out with full U.S. support, coordinated directly with President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Over the past four years, over 51,000 housing units have been approved for the West Bank, according to Smotrich’s office. He acknowledged Trump has not yet backed full West Bank annexation, but claimed “we will also succeed in that.”

• UK shuts unit monitoring Israel’s international law violations: The British Foreign Office has closed the internal unit responsible for tracking potential breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, the Guardian reports, citing budget cuts. The shutdown ends UK funding for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project, run by the Centre for Information Resilience, which operated the world’s largest open-source monitoring system for human rights incidents across Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon. Officials warned this closure means the Foreign Office will lose access to a database of 26,000 verified incidents in the Middle East.

• Netanyahu treated for early-stage prostate cancer: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed, in a post on X, that he was treated for an early-stage prostate cancer, saying the condition was detected during routine medical monitoring and has since been successfully removed. Netanyahu said he asked to delay the publication of his annual medical report “so that it would not be released at the height of the war,” adding that he did not want it to be used by Iran for “false propaganda against Israel.”

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• U.S. soldier charged with using classified information to win $400,000: A U.S. Army Master Sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, has been charged with using classified information about the January operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place roughly 13 bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket, winning more than $400,000, federal prosecutors in New York announced Thursday. Van Dyke, a special forces soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, allegedly created a Polymarket account in late December and bet on outcomes including U.S. forces being present in Venezuela and Maduro being removed by January 31, 2026; after the operation he moved most of his winnings into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and asked Polymarket to delete his account.

• Justice Department wants to denaturalize 384 U.S. citizens: NYT: The Justice Department will seek to revoke citizenship for 384 foreign-born Americans, anonymous officials told the New York Times in what a Justice Department spokesman said was “the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history.” The officials described it as “the first wave” of a broader denaturalization campaign and a dramatic escalation. Between 1990 and 2017, the government filed an average of 11 denaturalization cases per year.

• Warner Bros shareholders approve merger with Paramount: Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Thursday that shareholders had voted to approve a $111 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who are both vocal supporters of President Trump. The deal will still require approval from regulators in the U.S. and Europe. The merger would create the largest media conglomerate in U.S. history, spanning news, sports, movies, video games, theme parks, and more.

• Protest outside Ellison-Trump dinner: Dozens of protesters, including members of Congress, gathered on the National Mall in Washington D.C. close to where David Ellison hosted an invitation-only dinner attended by Trump at the U.S. Institute of Peace “in celebration of the First Amendment” and “honoring the Trump White House and CBS White House Correspondents.” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland criticized the deal at the demonstration, saying “In the building behind us, David Ellison is hosting a dinner to honor President Trump, a dinner that’s designed to cement the Ellisons to the president in their years-running corrupt merger scheme.”

• AIPAC moving secret money to Philly House race: AIPAC has been funneling money into the campaign of Dr. Ala Stanford in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, before the next slate of Democratic primaries, new federal campaign filings reveal. Stanford has denied taking AIPAC money in the race for an open Philadelphia seat, but the records show the pro-Israel group has been routing money directly to her campaign, using the AIPAC-linked Democracy Engine platform, as well as into a super PAC supporting her. The structure allows Stanford, a pediatrician, to distance herself from the group’s increasingly toxic political reputation with the American public, while still benefiting from its cash outlays. Read the full report from Ryan Grim and Julian Andreone here.

• EEOC allegedly refuses to enforce civil rights laws in cases involving LGBTQ Americans: The Legal Accountability Center filed a complaint Thursday with the Virginia State Bar alleging that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas violated professional conduct rules by directing agency investigators to stop processing certain discrimination claims—including all charges based on disparate impact, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The complaint also alleges Lucas sent unauthorized information demands on official EEOC letterhead to 20 major law firms seeking extensive data on their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. The complaint argues Lucas had no legal authority to send the firm letters, characterizing them as “an effort to intimidate and scare these employers into abandoning their DEI efforts in violation of Title VII — the very federal law the EEOC is supposed to enforce.”

• Trump administration considers doubling refugee cap for white South Africans: The Trump administration may expand the current 7,500-person annual refugee cap by 10,000 to allow more Afrikaners into the United States, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has been redirected almost exclusively toward white South Africans since Trump paused all other refugee admissions at the start of his term. Of the roughly 4,500 South Africans admitted as refugees through the first six months of fiscal year 2026, the only non-South African refugees to enter the country were three Afghans, according to State Department statistics—a dramatic departure from the program’s 125,000-person ceiling under former President Joe Biden.

• Meatpacking workers win historic strike against JBS in Colorado: Some 3,800 workers at UFCW Local 7’s JBS Greeley beef packing plant in Colorado ended a three-week strike with near-total victory, winning $1.50 an hour in wage increases over two years, reimbursement for out-of-pocket protective equipment costs, and an end to the company’s practice of garnishing wages—sometimes up to $1,100—to replace lost or damaged safety gear. The strike united a workforce speaking 57 languages and cost JBS an estimated $20 to $30 million in daily revenue. Read more about the strike at Labor Notes here.

Other International News

• Pentagon email floats suspending Spain from NATO: An internal Pentagon email circulated within the Defense Department outlines potential measures against NATO allies—including suspending Spain from the alliance and re-evaluating Washington’s position on the British-held Falkland Islands—over what it describes as insufficient support for the U.S. war on Iran, a U.S. official told Reuters. The email, which alleges “a sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” is intended as a signal to NATO partners and asserts that basing and overflight rights should be “just the absolute baseline for NATO”; Spain has refused to allow U.S. attacks on Iran from its airspace or bases, while the United Kingdom initially withheld authorization before allowing use of two British bases for what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as “defensive purposes.”

• Javier Milei bars accredited journalists from Argentina’s presidential palace: Argentine President Javier Milei’s administration blocked accredited journalists from entering the Casa Rosada on Thursday, after two journalists were accused of secretly filming restricted areas of the governmental palace. Since taking office in 2023, Milei has called journalists “repugnant trash” and limited access at the palace, prompting Reporters Without Borders to condemn the “sharp decline in press freedom” in Argentina.

• Gunmen kill at least nine at copper-gold mine in Pakistan: At least nine employees, including two security guards, were killed when gunmen attacked National Resources Ltd’s Darigwan copper and gold project in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday evening, a local official told Reuters.

• Meningitis and measles in eastern Chad: Médecins Sans Frontières reported Thursday that a deadly meningitis surge in eastern Chad has killed 25 of 212 children admitted to its facilities between March and April—a case fatality rate the group called “shocking”—in an area housing more than 1.3 million Sudanese refugees, including survivors of mass killings and famine in Darfur. Measles is also spreading in the border town of Adre, where a recent surge in arrivals has left camps overcrowded, with MSF medical activity manager Isabelle Kavira warning that bed occupancy for meningitis is “close to 100%.” Chad’s health ministry and MSF are administering emergency vaccinations.

• Russian drone strike on Odesa kills elderly couple, wounds at least 14: A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa overnight killed a married couple, both aged 75, and wounded at least 14 others, Ukrainian officials said Friday. The strike wrecked two two-story buildings and damaged two others, triggering fires and leaving a visible hole in the side of one structure, according to emergency services.

More from Drop Site

• Unmasking Canary Mission: The pro-Israel doxxing site Canary Mission has been notoriously secretive since its creation in 2015. The anonymous website, which began as an online blacklist targeting academics and activists who expressed pro-Palestine views, over the last year has been used by the Trump administration to select international students for arrest, detention, and deportation. Despite its increasingly high profile, the website’s operators have remained largely unknown. Drop Site contributor Jacqueline Sweet has now identified five more people employed by Megamot Shalom, a closely related group, as content writers, editors, and consultants. Read Drop Site’s full investigation.

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AIPAC has been funneling money into the campaign of Dr. Ala Stanford in Pennsylvania’s 3rd congressional district, before the next slate of Democratic primaries, new federal campaign filings reveal.

Stanford has denied taking AIPAC money in the race for an open Philadelphia seat, but the records show the pro-Israel group has been secretly routing money directly to her campaign and into a super PAC supporting her that backs candidates who are involved in science or medicine. The structure allows Stanford, a pediatrician, to distance herself from the group’s increasingly toxic political reputation with the American public, while still benefiting from its cash outlays.

The super PAC is called 314 Action Fund, and as of April 21, had spent more than $2.6 million boosting Stanford, according to the latest filings. The group’s most recent monthly filing reveals a $500,000 donation from Kimbark Foundation, a group whose only other donation is $500,000 to EDW Action Fund, another PAC that has previously acted as an AIPAC shell organization. In the 2024 cycle, AIPAC used EDW Action to secretly funnel money to support Maxine Dexter, also a pediatrician, in her race against Susheela Jayapal in Oregon. It’s stated purpose is to elect pro-choice Democratic women. 314 Action has reported just $2.8 million in independent expenditures, meaning their support for Stanford represents the bulk of their independent spending so far.

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Stanford has also taken in more than $27,000 through Democracy Engine from major AIPAC donors in the first quarter of 2026; Democracy Engine is a vehicle used by AIPAC to bundle donor money and funnel it to preferred candidates.

Stanford raised eyebrows when she made the argument that referring to Israel’s genocide in Gaza as a genocide was tantamount to using the “N-word,” calling it “the G-word.”

“I know when you use the G-word how hurtful it is to a group of people,” she said. “It’s like someone saying the N-word around me.” She was recently pressed on her answer, and doubled down, saying, “For Israelis who’ve been accused of committing it, it’s hurtful for them.”

Neither Stanford nor AIPAC responded to requests for comment. Asked about reporting from 2024 that AIPAC was using 314 Action as a subsidiary to donate to candidates outside of its name or ideological affiliation, Stanford denied taking any money from AIPAC, whether directly or funneled through 314 Action, in a candidate forum on March 30: “That’s not me. Not to my [campaign].”

Erik Polyak, 314 Action executive director, declined to respond to detailed questions from Drop Site, and instead spoke generally about its pro-science mission, while noting accurately that the group has on occasion gone up against AIPAC. While that’s true, it doesn’t speak to the Philadelphia race. “314 Action’s only mission is to elect doctors and scientists,” Polyak said. “Founded in 2016, we have existed for ten years and provide operational, financial and communications support to help STEM candidates run winning campaigns.”

Polyak noted that 314 Action had supported Daniel Biss in the recent Chicago race, while AIPAC was backing Laura Fine. That 314 Action is not always aligned with AIPAC can make them more useful when they are.

In 2024, Polyak vociferously denied 314 Action was funneling money from AIPAC. “The day before the May 21 primary election in Oregon, 314 Action’s executive director Erik Polyak wrote on Twitter that he was waiting on [Drop Site] reporter Ryan Grim to issue a retraction,” reported the news outlet Sludge. “The tweet showed a screenshot of 314 Action’s FEC filing information for April, which did not show an AIPAC-affiliated group. When 314 Action’s next monthly FEC filing was released on June 20, it showed the $1 million donation from UDP.”

Polyak this cycle is not attempting such a strident denial, as campaign finance records will continue to be released, though many of them will be too late to inform voters ahead of the primary.

Stanford on Thursday announced endorsements from Democratic Reps. Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. She faces Sharif Street Jr., a local machine-backed state legislator, and State Rep. Chris Rabb, who has the support of DSA-Philly, Justice Democrats, and a growing number of progressive Democrats like Reps. Jamie Raskin and Ro Khanna.

EDW was created on December 22, 2023 and in May 2024 was given $100,000 by United Democracy Project (UDP), AIPAC’s official super PAC, which it spent in the Dexter-Jayapal race. That same month, UDP sent $1 million to 314 Action and $1.3 to “Voters for Responsive Government.” The three super PACs combined to swamp Jayapal, making Dexter a member of Congress. In the 2026 cycle, AIPAC funneled more than $10 million into Illinois Democratic primaries, spending heavily to back Fine in one primary. But AIPAC’s shell PACs—called “Elect Chicago Women” and “Affordable Chicago Now”—were outed as fronts for the pro-Israel group. In swept EDW Action Fund.

The Kimbark Foundation registered as a Delaware nonprofit on December 19, 2025. On February 23, 2026, Kimbark transferred $500,000 to EDW Action Fund, which in March disclosed it was spending on behalf of Laura Fine. In March 2026, Kimbark transferred $500,000 to 314 Action Fund.

On March 10, according to the new FEC filings, 314 Action transferred $2,000,000 to 314 Action Fund, further obscuring the origin of the money. (Not all of 314 Action Fund’s money comes from AIPAC or its donors, of course; for instance, Nobel Prize winner Drew Weissman gave $240,000 in March to the group and also donated directly to Stanford. What makes 314 Action valuable as a pass-through vehicle is that some of its money is authentically related to pro-science politics, while at other times it disguises money for AIPAC. Other AIPAC shells act only as shells.)

Margot Pritzker, wife of Tom Pritzker, recently ousted from his role as head of Hyatt due to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, gave $50,000 to 314 Action Fund on January 21, 2026.

This tactic, also used in the New Jersey 11th district special election—in that race a popup group called the Guzman Foundation did the work— involves creating new 501(c)4 organizations that previously didn’t exist specifically in order to hide money and its ideological ties, giving cover to pro-Israel Democrats who want to avoid the group’s toxicity.

In NJ-11, that strategy ultimately failed, sending former Bernie Sanders’ aide Analilia Meijia to Congress. The Guzman foundation was eventually linked to the billionaire financier Robert Granieri, of Jane Street Capital. An entity called Article One Inc. had spent $350,000 to back the AIPAC candidate in that New Jersey race. Article One Inc. had previously formed a joint fundraising committee with Article One Victory, which was also funded by Granieri.

In April 2024, Granieri participated in the AIPAC play against Jayapal in Oregon, giving 314 Action Fund $350,000. The fall before, he gave $250,000 to AIPAC’s super PAC UDP.

Not enough information exists yet about the Kimbark Foundation to identify its donor.

Stanford has also received 27 individual donations through the Democracy Engine donation platform. The Guardian exposed Democracy Engine for covertly distributing AIPAC money in 2024, describing the group as “a donation platform that allows unpopular PACs to obscure their donations and lists AIPAC as a client on its LinkedIn page.”

AIPAC has ended up being a lucrative client for Democracy Engine at that. FEC reports show that in 2025 to 2026 alone, AIPAC paid Democracy Engine more than $1.42 million for “processing fees” and “technological services.”

AIPAC is not the only organization able to use Democracy Engine, but the donors who used it for Stanford have also been major donors to AIPAC. A number of the individuals financially backing new AIPAC-aligned shadow PACs have also been repeat donors directly to AIPAC, other shadow PACs and AIPAC-endorsed candidates. Jeffrey Snyder, a member of the AIPAC Board of Directors, donated $2,000 to Ala Stanford through Democracy Engine, $25,000 to United Democracy Project and $5,500 directly to AIPAC in February 2025. Real estate executive Scott Copeland followed suit, donating $1,500 to Stanford through Democracy Engine, $8,500 directly to AIPAC in 2025, and he too contributed to other passthrough organizations like United Democracy Project and Elect Chicago Women during the March Illinois primaries.

Andrew Milstein, president of the Bacchetta Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has issued philanthropic grants to the Anti-Defamation League and other pro-Israel groups, donated $3,500 to Stanford through Democracy Engine and $25,000 to Democracy Engine itself. He also made maximum contributions to AIPAC candidates including Laura Fine, Rep. Haley Stevens, Donna Miller, and Melissa Bean.

AIPAC donors’ secret attempts to continue propping up pro-Israel candidates through obfuscated methods comes as Democratic primary voters, in poll after poll, have rejected Israel’s influence over U.S foreign policy and bribery tactics on Capitol Hill. A new poll in Michigan commissioned by Drop Site and Zeteo and conducted by Data For Progress found that 64% of likely Democratic primary voters are less likely to support candidates who receive donations from AIPAC, while just 10% said they are more likely. A CNN poll recently found that Democratic voters who identify as “liberal” have a -74 point net favorability of Israel, as compared to -26 points in 2022, and those who identify as “not liberal” have a -55 point net favorability of the country, as compared to +3 in 2022.

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U.S. Navy intercepts at least four Iranian oil tankers in Asian waters. President Donald Trump says new Iran talks possible as soon as Friday. Trump orders Navy to shoot and kill Iranian boats laying mines in Strait of Hormuz. Israeli strikes and violations continue in southern Lebanon. Lebanese and Israeli envoys meet Thursday as Beirut seeks ceasefire extension and Israeli withdrawal. Hezbollah carries out four attacks on Israeli positions in southern Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations. Haaretz: Israeli soldiers engaged in widespread looting in Lebanon. Israeli strikes kill at least nine Palestinians across Gaza, including three children. Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed 40 Palestinians in 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fires Navy Secretary John Phelan mid-war. Senate Republicans advance $70 billion immigration enforcement funding blueprint. FBI opened inquiry into New York Times reporter who wrote about Kash Patel’s use of bureau resources for his girlfriend. Kalshi penalizes three political candidates for betting on their own elections. Chemical leak at West Virginia silver recovery plant kills two, hospitalizes nearly 30. Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin acquitted in Kuwait after 50+ days in detention. Peru’s defense and foreign ministers, electoral chief resign. Sudanese military resumes manned air strikes over Kordofan. ICC confirms charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. King Charles will not meet Epstein victims during U.S. state visit.

From Drop Site: Lebanese Journalist Amal Khalil Bombed and Left to Die by Israel. Two Iranian Women in ICE Detention are not related to Qasem Soleimani. Meet the Top “Content” Producers Linked to Canary Mission.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• U.S. Navy intercepts at least four Iranian oil tankers in Asian waters: The U.S. military has intercepted at least four Iranian oil tankers in waters near India, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka in recent days, redirecting them as part of its naval blockade on Iran, Reuters reports. U.S. Central Command confirmed that the supertanker Dorena is under Navy escort in the Indian Ocean, with the Department of War reporting forces seizure of the tanker Majestic X also in the Indian Ocean; shipping sources also reported the interception of the Deep Sea and the Sevin, while a fifth vessel, the Derya, may have been stopped after last being tracked off India’s west coast Friday. CENTCOM also claimed to have directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of its blockade against Iran in a post on X.

• Trump says new Iran talks possible as soon as Friday: President Donald Trump told the New York Post Wednesday that good news on a second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations could come “as soon as Friday,” texting the paper: “It’s possible!” Pakistani sources told the Post they are working a 36-to-72-hour diplomatic window with Tehran, with one source saying “the ceasefire is holding despite heightened rhetoric, indicating positive intent on both sides.” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran remains open to dialogue and a negotiated agreement, but meaningful talks are being undermined by “breach of commitments, blockade and threats.” In a post on X, he also accused the United States of “hypocritical rhetoric” and of acting in contradiction to stated positions.

• Two Iranian Women in ICE Detention are not related to Qasem Soleimani: Drop Site News reviewed Iranian birth records, identification papers and other personal documents and found no evidence connecting Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her daughter Sarina Hosseiny, 25, to the late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, whose green cards Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked on April 3 after right-wing activist Laura Loomer flagged them on social media. Soleimani’s own daughters publicly denied any family connection, with his youngest daughter, Zeinab Soleimani, calling the State Department’s allegations “false.” Hamideh, who suffers from autoimmune hemolytic anemia, has been repeatedly denied blood transfusions at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in San Antonio, where friends say she recently lost consciousness for more than ten minutes. “She’s basically just trapped in there watching her mom die,” a friend said of Sarina’s detention. Read the full report from Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain here.

• Trump orders Navy to shoot and kill Iranian boats laying mines in Strait of Hormuz: President Donald Trump announced Thursday on Truth Social that he has ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, adding “there is to be no hesitation.” Trump also said he was ordering minesweeping operations already underway to continue “at a tripled up level.” The Pentagon told members of the House Armed Services Committee in a classified briefing Tuesday that fully clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz could take up to six months and would likely not begin until the war ends, according to three officials who spoke to the Washington Post.

• Pakistan’s army chief emerges as lead U.S.-Iran mediator: Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s most powerful figure, has taken on the role of the primary broker between Washington and Tehran, spending days in the Iranian capital meeting political leaders and Revolutionary Guards commanders while maintaining constant contact with the White House, the Financial Times reports. Analysts and diplomats are increasingly questioning, however, Pakistan’s ability to serve as an honest broker, citing its mutual defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, deepened financial ties with figures close to President Donald Trump, and its silence on the ongoing naval blockade.

Lebanon

• Israeli strikes and violations continue in southern Lebanon: Israeli violations of the ceasefire continued across southern Lebanon on Wednesday and Thursday, including airstrikes, demolitions, and forced displacement orders, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. A drone strike targeted the Rihan heights in the Jezzine area, while another strike on the town of Yahmar al-Shaqif in Nabatieh killed two people and wounded two others Wednesday. Israeli forces also set fire to homes in the Mufailha neighborhood west of Mais al-Jabal on Thursday morning. Separately, the Israeli military re-issued warnings ordering residents not to approach areas near the Litani River, while prohibiting returns to dozens of villages across southern Lebanon.

• Lebanese journalist bombed and left to die by Israel: Prominent Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed on Wednesday in southern Lebanon after what appeared to be a targeted Israeli strike, according to her employer Al-Akhbar. Khalil and freelance photojournalist Zeinab Faraj had been reporting on attacks in Bint Jbeil when a nearby vehicle was hit by a drone, killing two people, prompting the two journalists to take shelter in a house that was later bombed. Rescue efforts were obstructed amid continued Israeli fire, with reports that Red Cross teams and vehicles came under attack while attempting to evacuate the wounded. Faraj was eventually rescued with critical injuries, while Khalil’s body was recovered later after access was granted. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the incident, citing “repeated strikes on the same location” and the obstruction of humanitarian access as a serious violation of international law. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed his condolences over Khalil’s death and said in a post on X that Israel’s “deliberate and consistent targeting of journalists” was aimed at “concealing the truth of its aggressive acts against Lebanon” and that such acts constitute “crimes against humanity punishable under international laws and conventions.” Read the full report from Drop Site contributor Jeremy Loffredo here.

• Lebanese and Israeli envoys meet Thursday as Beirut seeks ceasefire extension and Israeli withdrawal: Lebanese and Israeli envoys meet Thursday at the State Department—their second round of direct talks in two weeks and the first sustained direct negotiations between the two countries in decades—with Secretary of State Marco Rubio chairing the session. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed that Beirut cannot accept any deal without a “full withdrawal” of Israeli forces. In an interview with The Washington Post, Salam rejected the idea of a buffer zone, and urged an extension of the ceasefire. Salam said Lebanon is entering negotiations “convinced that the U.S. is the party that can have leverage over Israel.” President Joseph Aoun said any extension of the ceasefire, which expires Sunday, should be “significant, not just for a few days.”

• Hezbollah carries out four attacks on Israeli positions in southern Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations: Hezbollah said Wednesday it struck an Israeli artillery bunker on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast in Al-Bayyada using loitering drones, and targeted a command vehicle and troop gatherings in Al-Qantara and the nearby Nabatieh-region villages of At-Tiri and Yohmor Al-Shaqif. The group also claimed it shot down four Israeli reconnaissance drones over Al-Mansouri, a coastal town south of Tyre. Hezbollah described the operations as retaliation for Israeli ceasefire violations and strikes on civilians in southern Lebanon, calling them the minimum necessary to deter further attacks and defend Lebanese territory.

• Haaretz: Israeli soldiers engaged in widespread looting in Lebanon: Israeli soldiers have been looting significant amounts of property from homes and businesses in southern Lebanon, according to testimonies given to Haaretz by Israeli soldiers and commanders stationed inside the country, including stealing motorcycles, televisions, paintings, sofas, and rugs on a wide scale.

Genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, six Palestinians were killed and 18 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,568 killed, with 172,338 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 792 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,235, while 761 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Israeli strikes kill at least nine Palestinians across Gaza, including three children: At least nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday, according to WAFA. Three people were killed Thursday when an Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle at the entrance to Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. In Khan Younis, a man was killed and three others injured after a drone strike hit an area south of the city. An Israeli drone strike on civilians near a mosque in the Beit Lahia Project area of northern Gaza killed five people, including three children, and wounded others Wednesday evening.

• Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed 40 Palestinians in 2026: At least sixteen Palestinians have been killed by settler gunfire in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry—surpassing the total killed by settlers in 2025. Additionally, over 24 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied territory since the start of 2026, reported OCHA. Data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission shows that Israeli forces and settlers carried out 1,819 attacks in March alone, including 1,322 by Israeli forces and 497 by settlers.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Hegseth fires Navy Secretary Phelan mid-war: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out Navy Secretary John Phelan on Wednesday, giving him the choice to resign or be fired, with the Pentagon announcing the departure as effective immediately and offering no public explanation. A person familiar with the situation told Axios that Hegseth believed Phelan “didn’t understand he wasn’t the boss,” was moving too slowly on shipbuilding reforms, and had irritated Hegseth by communicating directly with President Donald Trump. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as acting Navy secretary.

• Senate Republicans advance $70 billion immigration enforcement funding blueprint: The Senate voted 50-48 just after 3:30 a.m. Thursday to adopt a budget blueprint that would send roughly $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol, and other agencies through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, with only Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska breaking from their party. The vote completed the first step in the GOP’s plan to fund the agencies through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process, bypassing Democrats who have refused to approve the funding without new restrictions on how the agencies operate.

• Rep. Scott dies at 80: Rep. David Scott of Georgia, the first Black man to serve as chair of the House Agriculture Committee, died on Wednesday at the age of 80. Scott was seeking his 13th term in office despite concerns about his health. His death leaves Democrats with 212 seats in the House, compared to 218 members for Republicans

• FBI opened inquiry into New York Times reporter who wrote about Kash Patel’s use of bureau resources for his girlfriend: The FBI investigated New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson last month after she wrote about Director Kash Patel using bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, with government security and transportation—interviewing Wilkins, querying databases for information on Williamson, and recommending a preliminary investigation into whether her reporting broke federal stalking laws, according to a person briefed on the matter. Justice Department officials determined there was no legal basis to proceed and blocked the inquiry, which some viewed as retaliation for an article Patel and Wilkins disliked. Times executive editor Joseph Kahn called the FBI’s actions “a blatant violation of Elizabeth’s First Amendment rights and another attempt by this administration to prevent journalists from scrutinizing its actions.” On Monday, Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over an article that discussed allegations about his excessive drinking and mismanagement at the FBI.

• Kalshi penalizes three political candidates for betting on their own elections: Prediction market platform Kalshi announced Wednesday it had sanctioned three unnamed U.S. political candidates—from a Minnesota Democratic congressional primary, a Texas Republican congressional primary, and Virginia’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary—for placing bets on the outcomes of their own races, with fines ranging from $539 to $6,229 and five-year platform suspensions in each case. Kalshi and Polymarket are regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, though Arizona became the first state to attempt to regulate the platforms, filing criminal charges against Kalshi in March for running an “illegal gambling platform.”

• Chemical leak at West Virginia silver recovery plant kills two, hospitalizes nearly 30: A chemical reaction involving nitric acid during a shutdown process at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute, West Virginia, killed two workers and sent approximately 30 others to hospitals on Wednesday, with one person in serious condition, according to Kanawha County officials. The reaction, believed to have occurred during a cleaning process, produced toxic hydrogen sulfide. Among the injured were seven ambulance workers who responded to the scene. A shelter-in-place order for the surrounding area was issued and lifted more than five hours later, with authorities saying all deaths occurred on the plant site and that local air quality and water supply were believed unaffected.

• Texas refineries emit benzene at rates five times higher than California peers: A new Environmental Defense Fund study published in Environmental Research Letters found that from 2018 to 2023, Texas and Louisiana refineries averaged five times the fenceline benzene levels of facilities in California and Washington state, with nine of the 20 worst benzene polluters in the country located in Texas—including Port Arthur’s TotalEnergies refinery, which ranked third nationally despite processing significantly less crude oil than California’s largest refinery. Pointing to a 2019 tank fire in the Houston area, one advocate said about the rising benzene levels: “It’s not just an immediate impact, but a multigenerational toxic harm that we experience because of emissions like benzene and all of these other petrochemicals.” More on Texas’ benzene problem from Capital & Main here.

Other International News

• Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin acquitted in Kuwait after 50+ days in detention: U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was acquitted of all charges by a court in Kuwait on Thursday and is expected to be released imminently, according to Caoilfhionn Gallagher, international counsel to Shihab-Eldin’s sisters. Shihab-Eldin was arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on March 3 reportedly over social media posts related to the Iran war. “We are relieved that, after 52 days in detention, Ahmed has been found innocent on all charges. Our focus now is upon ensuring the liberty and safety of our client,” Gallagher said in a statement. In its first ruling, a newly established court overseeing state security and terrorism crimes on Thursday issued verdicts for 137 defendants accused of “inciting sectarian strife on social media platforms,” according to Al-Rai newspaper. 17 defendants were sentenced to three years in prison; one was sentenced to 10 years; nine were acquitted; and 109 were not subject to any criminal penalty. Read Drop Site’s coverage of his case here.

• Peru’s defense and foreign ministers, electoral chief resign: Peru’s Defense Minister Carlos Diaz and Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela resigned Wednesday after interim President Jose Maria Balcazar announced he would defer the decision to buy 24 F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin to the country’s next elected leader, with Diaz writing that “a strategic decision has been taken in the area of national security with which I have a fundamental disagreement.” The decision to postpone the $3.5 billion deal, drew a pointed warning from U.S. Ambassador Bernie Navarro, who posted on social media that if Peru dealt “with the U.S. in bad faith,” he would “use every available tool” on behalf of President Donald Trump to protect U.S. interests. Piero Corvetto, head of Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes, also resigned Tuesday amid what legislators and analysts describe as a coordinated campaign by right-wing political forces to exploit logistical failures in the first-round vote and lay the groundwork for annulling results in certain districts.

• Sudanese military resumes manned air strikes over Kordofan: Sudanese army MiG fighter jets returned to the skies over South Kordofan on Wednesday, carrying out heavy strikes on Rapid Support Forces positions in the Al-Dulaymah, Al-Hujayrat, and Birno areas around Dilling—the region’s second-largest city—marking the first manned air operations over Kordofan and Darfur in months, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Sudan Tribune. The resumed air campaign signals a broader Sudanese military effort to degrade RSF defensive capabilities, following a February operation in which the army said it neutralized a K-2000 air defense system in South Kordofan and destroyed drones at Nyala Airport.

• Report links UAE-backed Colombian mercenaries to RSF’s capture of El Fasher: A new report by the Conflict Insights Group found that Colombian mercenaries operating through a UAE-backed network provided direct military support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces during the October 2025 takeover of El Fasher, using commercially available advertising technology data, satellite imagery, and flight-tracking to identify more than 50 devices associated with the mercenaries operating in Sudan last year. The fighters were associated with the “Desert Wolves” brigade, employed by Global Security Services Group—a UAE-based company linked to senior Emirati government officials—and led by a U.S.-sanctioned retired Colombian army colonel; their roles included flying drones, training RSF troops and child soldiers, and serving as artillerymen throughout the El Fasher siege, with one device connecting to a Wi-Fi network named “ATACADOR”— Spanish for “attacker”—during the October 26 takeover. The mercenary pipeline ran through staging points in Somalia, Abu Dhabi, and Libya before deployment to Darfur. The fall of El Fasher was followed by mass atrocities, including the killing of more than 460 patients at the Saudi Maternity Hospital and filmed executions of elderly civilians. The group’s full report is available here.

• ICC confirms charges against former Philippine President Duterte: International Criminal Court judges on Thursday found “substantial grounds” to believe former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, 81, played a key role in the murders of 76 people and the attempted murder of two others as part of his “war on drugs,” confirming all three counts of murder as crimes against humanity and committing him to trial. Prosecutors allege Duterte created, funded, and armed death squads to kill suspected narcotics dealers and users during his presidency from 2016 to 2022, with estimates of the overall death toll ranging from 6,000—the police figure—to 30,000 according to some human rights groups. Duterte, who was arrested in the Philippines last year, denies the charges and his defense team claims he is mentally unfit to follow proceedings.

• King Charles will not meet Epstein victims during U.S. state visit: Lawyers for King Charles III and Queen Camilla informed Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that the king will not meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse during his state visit to the United States next week, citing “ongoing police inquiries” in the United Kingdom that prevent him from meeting survivors or commenting directly on related matters. Charles and Camilla are expected in Washington from April 27 to April 30 for events marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, including a White House state dinner and an address to a joint session of Congress; Khanna, one of Washington’s most vocal advocates for broader Epstein record disclosure, said Wednesday he was disappointed by the decision and called on the king to reconsider.

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The pro-Israel doxxing site Canary Mission has been notoriously secretive since its creation in 2015. The anonymous website, which began as an online blacklist targeting academics and activists who expressed pro-Palestine views, over the last year has been used by the Trump administration to select international students for arrest, detention, and deportation. Despite its increasingly high profile, the website’s operators have remained largely unknown.

In January, Drop Site reported on unlisted websites used by Canary Mission to plan and execute its doxxing operation and was able to confirm that the site is operated in Israel. The unlisted website data revealed that an employee paid by the Israeli nonprofit Megamot Shalom as a writer provided content for Canary Mission’s dossiers of targets, confirming earlier reporting by The Forward that Megamot Shalom’s only known activity appears to be providing support to Canary Mission.

Drop Site has now identified five more people whom Megamot Shalom has employed as content writers, editors, and consultants. These individuals—Elihu David Stone, Yehuda HaKohen, Abigail Bornstein, Aharon Dikel, and Alexander Malbin Duncan—were identified through a review of Megamot Shalom’s business filings with the Israeli government from 2016 to 2024, where they were listed as the nonprofit’s highest-paid employees. They are all Americans who moved to Israel and are connected to one another and individuals reported to be involved with Canary Mission.

In comments received after publication, HaKohen denied any involvement with Canary Mission. The others did not respond to requests for comment.

Drop Site is not publishing the names of two other individuals listed in Magamot Shalom’s filings because additional identifying details were not publicly available.

The Canary Mission website was launched in the spring of 2015; Megamot Shalom was incorporated in late 2015 and made its first filing in 2016. A series of reports by The Forward in 2018 uncovered evidence that Megamot Shalom was formed as the entity running Canary Mission’s operations by a UK-born businessman named Jonathan Bash, who now lives in Jerusalem.

Bash and Megamot Shalom did not respond to requests for comment.

MORE FROM JACQUELINE SWEET ON CANARY MISSION

• BlackNest: Inside Canary Mission’s Secret Web of Unlisted Sites

• From Long Island to the Baltics: Drop Site Investigation Reveals New Details About Canary Mission’s Operations

Drop Site’s previous investigation confirmed that Megamot Shalom appears to run Canary Mission, with non-public websites revealing staging material for Canary Mission’s website showing that someone uploading content for a dossier of a pro-Palestine activist on the site matched the name of a person listed as a content writer on Megamot Shalom’s business listing, a UK-born writer named Alex Ben Carson, now living in Jerusalem.

Megamot Shalom’s filings reveal that it receives millions from overseas donors, including funds from major American nonprofits that were earmarked for Canary Mission on their tax filings, another indication that Megamot operates the website. American donations are moved to Megamot via a New York-based nonprofit called the Central Fund of Israel. Drop Site previously uncovered ties between Bash and a New York interior design business that shares an address with the Central Fund of Israel.

The American Israelis who appear to be providing content for Canary Mission’s operations via Megamot Shalom come from all over the U.S., and have been involved in American organizations like settler nonprofits, the Wexner Foundation, and Israeli groups with reported ties to the Israeli government such as the legal nonprofit Shurat HaDin.

A number of the Megamot Shalom content writers are also associated with Aish HaTorah, a Jewish Orthodox educational nonprofit based in Jerusalem to which Bash, some his family members, and other Megamot Shalom board members have longstanding ties.

The Wexner Fellow

Elihu David Stone appears in the Megamot Shalom government fillings every year from 2016 through 2024, in a section that lists the organization’s five highest paid employees. His title is given as content writer or content editor, depending on the year, and his top annual compensation was about $80,000 (236,682 shekels), which made him the highest paid employee for five years.

An Elihu David Stone originally from Boston and now living in Israel has previously written pro-Israel content for outlets like The Times of Israel. Stone shared Canary Mission posts on his Facebook account and is connected on social media with two other highly paid Megamot Shalom content writers identified by Drop Site.

Stone did not respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer and life insurance broker who “served in leadership roles for a variety of Jewish communal organizations,” Stone relocated to Efrat, a settlement in the occupied West Bank, in 2017.

Stone has been involved in nonprofit and advocacy work since the 1990s, when he was selected as one of the 1992 Wexner Heritage Program fellows. Stone stayed involved with Wexner, attending an alumni retreat in 1994 and writing for the group’s website several times, most recently in 2017. The Wexner Heritage fellowship program was funded by the Wexner Foundation at the time, which by then had already appointed late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as a trustee. The foundation described the Heritage program as designed to “strengthen Jewish community leaders by making educational resources and experienced clergy and faculty available to selected Jewish communities, allowing the intensive study of biblical text, history, philosophy and law.”

(There is no indication that Stone has any connection to Epstein aside from their shared affiliations with the Wexner Foundation.)

Stone penned a dozen blog posts for The Times of Israel from 2013 until 2023. In a 2023 post for a Wexner Foundation blog he discussed his life in Israel and interactions with Palestinians: “I have cordial relations with the Palestinian Arabs building my home. We talk about religion, but not politics. We shop at the Gush Etzion Junction Rami-Levy supermarket, where on any given day many hundreds of Palestinian Arabs and Jews of numerous stripes and descriptions work together and shop together. It’s hardly all sweetness and light, but Israel—including Yehuda and Shomron—is no ‘apartheid state.’ The briefest visit to the Jerusalem malls or hospitals where Jews and Arabs work, shop, and heal together bears testament to that.”

In a March Facebook post, Stone mocked reports that American influencers were being paid $7,000 per pro-Israel post. “I’m not sure what to be more worried about: The mind virus that has gripped so many who were once rational and thoughtful, or the fact that I have yet to be paid a single installment of seven thousand dollars or - anything at All- for anything have posted in support of Israel. The world is SO unfair,” he wrote.

In February he shared a Canary Mission post on Facebook about The Young Turks podcast, writing “antisemitism is a virus […] see what it does to people?”

The “Post-Zionist” Rabbi

Yehuda HaKohen, a well-known Israeli settler and rabbi originally from New York, appears as one of Megamot Shalom’s highest-paid employees in 2016 and 2017 and is friends with Stone on Facebook. HaKohen is listed as a “content consultant,” earning roughly $14,500 (43,494 shekels) for part of 2016 and $57,000 (169,657 shekels) in 2017.

Born Jason Weisbrod in New York, HaKohen joined the Jewish Defense League after graduating from a Manhattan preparatory school, and then moved to Israel in 2001 and enlisted in the IDF, according to a 2020 profile.

HaKohen has been involved with other pro-Israel campus outreach groups, including another group led by Jonathan Bash called Video Activism. A 2016 promotional video for the group—that includes the tagline, “Want to fight for Israel and build your resume?”—shows HaKohen sitting with Bash on a panel.

After this article was published, HaKohen denied that he was part of Canary Mission. He said he knows Bash but has not seen him in years. “He brought me to speak a few times to his students at Video Activism. But that was a long time ago,” HaKohen said. “I didn’t consult on any content for him. He brought me to speak to Diaspora Jewish students a few times. At least twice as part of a larger panel of speakers. If he paid me to speak, I’m pretty sure it would’ve been from Video Activism (the organization he headed). But it was a long time ago so I can’t be sure.”

HaKohen said he has known Aharon Dikel, who is also listed in Megamot Shalom’s filings, “for many years,” and that they studied in yeshiva together from 2001–2003. “If you take a look at my articles, podcasts, and videos over the years, I think you’ll quickly realize that you’ve got the wrong person and that I wouldn’t be involved in something like this. In fact, I’d argue that Canary Mission’s activities actually reinforce what I call ‘systemic anti-Semitism’ by pushing Jews to side with the power structure against other marginalized groups for a false sense of security.”

Writer Josephine Riesman spent several months with HaKohen in 2020, exploring his enigmatic views that mixed some seemingly leftist and progressive ideas with Israeli nationalism. HaKohen called himself a “post-Zionist” but lived in West Bank settlement Beit-El. According to Riesman, HaKohen held classes in Jerusalem that were funded via the Central Fund of Israel, the same American nonprofit that donations to Canary Mission are earmarked through.

The New York Lawyer

In Megamat Shalom’s 2020 filings, a new writer appeared among the top five highest paid employees section. Abigail Bornstein was paid $46,400 (139,000 shekels) for “content writing.”

An Abigail Kazhdan Bornstein living in Jerusalem is connected on Facebook to several people known to have worked with Canary Mission, including two Bash associates whose names and emails were reportedly used for early Canary Mission social media accounts. Several Facebook posts from her husband were liked by Aish HaTorah consultant Todd Rosenblatt, who previously worked for Bash at Video Activism, and whose email was reportedly used as the recovery email for the Canary Mission Facebook account when hackers accessed it in 2015. Another Bash associate who engages with Bornstein’s husband on Facebook is Betzalel Lapidus. When Canary Mission first launched in 2015, links on the website meant to direct to the group’s Twitter profile pointed instead to Lapidus’s personal Twitter page. Lapidus was also involved with Video Activism.

On LinkedIn, Bornstein lists her job since 2014 as social media manager for Shurat HaDin, or the Israel Law Center, a Tel Aviv-based organization known for aggressive litigation accusing individuals and companies—including John Kerry, Hilary Clinton, President Jimmy Carter, and Facebook—of supporting terrorism. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the group’s founder, described in a 2017 book how she worked directly with Mossad to choose the group’s legal targets. A 2007 U.S. embassy cable published by Wikileaks also detailed the group’s activities.

Bornstein’s husband was involved with Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem and founded an Israeli peer-to-peer fundraising platform called CauseMatch that is used for a range of pro-Israel fundraising efforts, and that has been cited in a UK complaint about donations to Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza.

Bornstein and Shurat HaDin did not respond to requests for comment.

The DC Emigrés

Aharon Dikel is listed as Megamot’s social media manager in 2016 and 2017, though the group, unlike Canary Mission, has no public social media presence or publicly known work output. Dikel earned about $59,500 (177,966 shekels) in 2017, making him the highest listed earner that year. In 2016, Megamot reported partial year earnings for Dikel of $9,400 (28,142 shekels).

An Aharon or Aaron Dikel working as a social media manager and living in Israel interacts with Elihu Stone and Yehuda HaKohen on Facebook. Dikel attended the University of Maryland, where he was involved with campus group Hillel. He grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, before moving to Israel in 2002 and joining the Israeli military.

Dikel says on his LinkedIn profile that he was voted top soldier in his military unit: “The year I made Aliyah I went into the IDF as an infantry soldier in the Shimshon brigade. In spite of the new language and culture I became friends with everyone. My Hebrew was still very basic, but I put all of my heart into helping the team achieve.”

In March 2024, he wrote “I see two differences between the anti-Semitism of today versus the anti-Semitism during the time of the Holocaust. 1) Today Jews have a State and and a military and more ability to defend themselves 2) Anti-Semitism is way more pervasive today than during the time of the Holocaust

But the writing’s on the wall and it’s time for all of the Jewish people left in the diaspora to try to get home now. Let me know if you need help.”

In 2023, he noted that he finished his reserve military service five years earlier, which coincides with the time period he was employed by Megamot Shalom.

Dikel did not respond to requests for comment.

Alexander Malbin Duncan, another highly paid Megamot employee, also appears to be from Bethesda, Maryland. The filings list Duncan as a content writer from 2019 through 2024. Duncan earned $95,500 (285,981 shekels) in 2024.

An Alexander Malbin Duncan—living in Jerusalem, originally from Bethesda, Maryland—and his wife interact with Jonathan Bash’s wife and relatives of Elihu Stone on social media.

Duncan attended Johns Hopkins University, then briefly worked as a reporter for a trade publication covering nuclear weapons, and registered a domain for writing work, according to a review of public records and his known emails.

Duncan did not respond to requests for comment.

Canary Mission’s dossiers were used by the Department of Homeland Security in 2025 to build lists of foreign students who expressed pro-Palestine views, with over 75 people identified based on Canary Mission’s anonymous blacklists, according to deposition testimony by DHS officials in a federal lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association. In January, a federal judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and said the case revealed an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to violate the First Amendment.

The State Department, Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.

In February, a coalition of 70 American religious and civil rights organizations demanded that the Department of Justice open a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation into Canary Mission, based on Drop Site’s previous reporting indicating the group’s operations are based in Israel.

“If this Justice Department will not act to protect Americans from the Israeli government and its agents,” said the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), “it must at least stop using Canary’s blacklists to target college kids and state attorney generals should open their own investigation.”

“It’s not surprising but ironic that this group would use opaque and evasive tactics to hide who they are,” Christina Abraham, who directs CAIR-Chicago’s Litigation Clinic, told Drop Site.

“The fact that there’s a foreign interest behind Canary Mission,” added Abraham, who tracks the consequences of Canary Mission’s doxxing operation, “means a lot of Americans would be concerned now more than ever. It absolutely does not make sense that our government would listen to sources like this, people with an extremist agenda, saying they openly want to use intimidation tactics to suppress our free speech.”

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Update, April 27, 2026: This article has been updated with comments from Yehuda HaKohen that were received after publication, denying that he consulted on content for Canary Mission.

Correction, April 23, 2026: A previous version of this article said that Efrat is located in Israel. It is a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Prominent Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed on Wednesday in what appeared to be a targeted attack by the Israeli military in the town of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Her employer, Al-Akhbar, confirmed the death of their correspondent Wednesday evening.

Khalil and Zeinab Faraj, a freelance photojournalist, were both on assignment in southern Lebanon, reporting on recent attacks on the southern village of Bint Jbeil. According to Al-Akhbar, which published a timeline of the events, the car they were driving behind was targeted by an Israeli drone at 2:45 p.m, killing two men inside. Khalil and Faraj took shelter in a nearby house.

At 2:50 p.m., Khalil contacted her editors and family, according to Lebanon-based journalist Courtney Bonneau. News of the incident quickly spread, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to put out a statement calling on the Red Cross to rescue the two journalists in coordination with the Lebanese Army and the United Nations.

At 4:27 p.m., the house where the two journalists were taking refuge was bombed by the Israeli military and contact with the journalists was lost, according to Al-Akhbar.

Israel did not respond to requests for access, obstructing any rescue operation, according to a Lebanese military official speaking to Al Jazeera. The Red Cross was eventually granted limited access to the site, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which remained under active fire.

They were able to evacuate Faraj, who reportedly sustained critical head injuries, and to recover the bodies of two other civilians who were killed. But they were forced to withdraw before finding Khalil because of continued shelling and the direct firing on rescue crews and vehicles. The Red Cross vehicle that transported journalist Faraj to Tubnin Governmental Hospital was hit by Israeli gunfire, with bullet marks visible on the vehicle, according to the state-run National News Agency.

The Red Cross was eventually able to return to the area after which Khalil was pronounced dead.

“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said in a statement.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Referred to by Al-Akhbar as their “correspondent of the south,” Khalil grew up in Baysariyyeh, a coastal town in Saida district about a 45-minute drive from the Israeli border. She spent more than a decade and a half covering the cyclical wars and occupations of southern Lebanon by the Israeli military. Founded in 2006, Al-Akhbar’s editorial line is widely seen as supportive of Hezbollah and the Shiite resistance, and it identifies itself as a secular, independent progressive outlet.

Khalil had previously received explicit death threats on her phone in September 2024 from Gideon Gal Ben Avraham, a media commentator who runs a Middle East analysis channel on YouTube, appears on Israeli television, and describes himself as a retired military officer who continues to “help” Israeli intelligence. The messages told her to leave the country “if you want to keep your head on your shoulders” and asked whether her house was “still standing.”

When contacted by Drop Site on Wednesday before news of Khalil’s death emerged, Ben Avraham confirmed he sent the threats in 2024. “Send greetings to all journalists affiliated with Hezbollah, for anyone who works for the organization should know that they are destined for death,” he wrote, later clarifying that he considered Al-Akhbar “Hezbollah-affiliated” and that “only Hezbollah related should be afraid,” while Maronites and Sunnis should face no such threats.

It is not clear what—if any—formal relationship he has to the Israeli military. When pressed about Khalil’s predicament being trapped under the rubble of a house that was targeted by the Israeli military, he responded: “We don’t share our intel with journalists.” When asked directly whether he was a soldier when he sent the original threats to Khalil in 2024, Ben Avraham replied: “No comment.”

Last month, the Israeli military openly admitted to assassinating prominent Lebanese journalist Ali Shoeib, a correspondent for Al-Manar TV who had covered southern Lebanon for nearly three decades. The Israeli military falsely claimed that Shoeib was a Hezbollah intelligence operative. Also killed in the March 28 strike in the Jezzine district in southern Lebanon were Al-Mayadeen TV reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. Their car, which was clearly carrying press equipment, was struck multiple times, with Ftouni initially surviving and attempting to flee, before she was targeted and killed in a strike by Israel.

Israel has killed at least 14 journalists, including Khalil, in Lebanon since October 2023, according to CPJ. In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 260 Palestinian journalists since October 2023, making it the deadliest war for journalists ever recorded.

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Two Iranian women remain in immigration detention, arrested earlier this month on accusations of being the niece and grandniece of Qasem Soleimani, despite no connection to the late Iranian military commander. Drop Site reviewed Iranian birth records, identification papers, a family will, and other personal documents and found no connection whatsoever to him or his extended family. One of the women is now seriously ill in a Texas facility, her chronic blood condition left effectively untreated.

On March 8, right-wing activist Laura Loomer posted on X calling for the deportation of a woman she claimed was Soleimani’s niece. The commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Soleimani was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike, ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. The day after Loomer’s original post, she tagged Secretary of State Marco Rubio on X, claiming to have reported the woman to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for “posting content sympathetic to the Iranian regime and Ayatollah.”

On April 3, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, Sarina Hosseiny, were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at their home outside Los Angeles. Rubio issued a statement headlined, “Secretary Rubio Revokes Green Cards of Foreign Nationals with Ties to Iranian Terror Regime,” identifying them as “the niece and grand niece of deceased Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qasem Soleimani” and describing them as “green card holders living lavishly in the United States.”

The claims made headline news in the U.S., while triggering immediate denials from Soleimani’s family that the two women were relatives of the military commander. The Trump administration has gone largely quiet about the women’s cases since their arrest, as they remain in ICE detention pending deportation to Iran.

As attention has faded, the situation for the women has turned dire at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in San Antonio, particularly for Hamideh, 47, who lives with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which requires regular treatment and blood transfusions she isn’t getting.

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As a student in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hamideh was active in protest movements in Iran, and, she says, even spent a week in prison after getting arrested at one demonstration. Sarina, in a phone interview from the ICE facility where they are being held, said that her mother—not one to hold back her opinions—was most looking forward to having “freedom of speech” when she moved here to the United States. She remains opposed to the son of the former Shah, Reza Pahlavi, as well as Trump’s current war. “She’s kind of a passionate person overall, and she thought that she was going to come here and be able to talk freely when she’s been threatened and imprisoned in Iran for speaking about politics, and now she’s again in prison for speaking out about politics,” she told Drop Site.

They were forced to leave Iran under duress after Sarina took part in a dance performance on vacation in Turkey at the age of 12. The dance competition was filmed and later aired by the satellite channel “TV Persia” and her dance went viral. (Two of her performances are still viewable on YouTube.) The channel is illegal in Iran but many residents have access to it. She said she was expelled from her public school, only to enroll in a private school and later to be expelled from that one, too, when the scandal recirculated. Some of her more conservative family members, who had connections to the government, beat and threatened her mother, Hosseiny said, and the situation became increasingly unbearable. At 14, she came to the United States on a student visa and the two of them applied for asylum.

In terms of its alignment with how the United States professes to see its place in the world, and the claims it makes about Iran’s treatment of women and girls, it’s hard to think of an asylum claim that would more neatly fit into the American agenda.

Sarina translated for her mother, who added that she doesn’t know where to turn if the U.S. isn’t safe either. “We came to America to seek calm and to feel safe and protected from that regime,” Hamideh said, according to her daughter’s translation. “And now we’re being treated almost the same—even worse than there. We’ve been here for three weeks now. I don’t know where to go from here.”

Sarina, 25, has also spoken with friends outside the detention facility, conveying that her mother has been denied the treatment she needs, is regularly in and out of consciousness, with dangerously low hemoglobin levels. Her mother recently passed out and was left unconscious on the floor for over ten minutes, Sarina reported to her friend Shawna Ruhland.

“She’s basically just trapped in there watching her mom die,” Ruhland said of Sarina. Ruhland, who served for eight years in the U.S. military, has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the family’s legal bill, which Drop Site verified is legitimate. (Update: GoFundMe had not yet approved the fundraiser, so she started a different on here.)

The South Texas ICE Processing Center, where the women are being held, declined to provide information on them other than to confirm they were in custody; their attorney, Sam Faragalla, did not respond to requests for comment.

Both were legal permanent residents until Rubio revoked their legal status. A State Department spokesperson, in an odd statement, said the government stood by its determination. “While we do not comment on matters of classified intelligence, we remain certain of the Secretary’s determination,” said Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson. “If ‘Drop Site News’ is aware of anti-American green card holders with ties to terrorists presently in the United States, we would gladly investigate those individuals for possible termination of legal status and deportation.”

A review of personal documentation undercuts the allegation of a personal connection to Soleimani. Birth certificates from Iran, collected by the family, lay out a documented family tree spanning multiple generations with no connection to Qassem Soleimani, or even to relatives of the late general. Drop Site also reviewed other personal identification documents, including passports, family photographs, and work documentation from both Iran and the U.S. that strongly contradict the allegations that the two women were connected to the late Iranian military commander, or living lavishly from any connection to the Iranian government.

In order for Qasem Soleimani to be Hamideh’s uncle, based on her last name, he would need to be the brother of Hamideh’s father, Ali Soleimani-Afshar, who was born in Tehran in 1947. Yet according to the documents, Soleimani-Afshar had no brothers at all and his father died in the early 50s. Gen. Soleimani was born years later—in 1957—in a small village in the southern province of Kerman. Ali Soleimani-Afshar’s parents died in his childhood. Historical passport documents also show that Soleimani-Afshar’s family origins go back generations to the city of Yazd in central Iran, a province away from the roots of Gen. Soleimani.

The late general is also known to have two brothers, Sohrab and Hossein, who have previously given interviews about their upbringing in rural Kerman that identify themselves as his only brothers and make no mention of a connection to Ali Soleimani-Afshar.

Qassem Soleimani’s own family in Iran issued numerous strident denials that they had any relation to the late general. Soleimani’s youngest daughter, Zeinab Soleimani, a well-known political figure inside Iran, said in Iranian media that the State Department’s allegations were “false” and that “the individuals arrested in the United States have no connection whatsoever to our family.” Another daughter, Narjes Soleimani, went further in a separate statement, adding that, “To this day, no member of the Soleimani family, nor any relative of General Soleimani, has resided in the United States.”

To be clear, even if the women were in fact distantly related to Soleimani, such a link would not, under any version of justice, make them guilty of anything. While the U.S. says spouses and children of alleged terrorists can be detained, the law deems arresting other relatives inadmissible. The U.S. recently took immigration action against leading Emory University cancer researcher Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, simply for being the daughter of Ali Larijani, a top Iranian official and Kantian scholar assassinated by the U.S. and Israel in March, along with his son. She was out of the country at the time her legal permanent resident status was stripped and barred from re-entering. Emory fired her.

In the wake of their detention, the State Department said that the asylum claim filed by the two Los Angeles women was undercut by the fact that they had visited Iran in subsequent years.

In general, a grant of asylum is indeed called into question if the asylum seeker travels back to the country where they have claimed they are unsafe, immigration lawyers say. Hosseiny said that because they are not political dissidents wanted by the government, but rather a girl and her mother who had pushed the boundaries of gender politics in a repressive environment, they deemed the trips home safe enough. She said that she had informed the government about the trip and there was no objection until they were arrested years later. “They’re about to lose everything that they’ve built here, because no one’s willing to help,” said Demi Uredi, a friend of Sarina, who is figuring out how to pay the mortgage for their house or sell it entirely.

Patrick Taurel, an immigration attorney at Grossman Young & Hammond, questioned the merits of the arrest. “Based on what I have seen firsthand as an immigration lawyer… I would not be surprised if the recent targeting of Iranians is based on shoddy and unreliable evidence,” he said. “That was true in the Mahmoud Khalil case and the cases of the other Palestinian dissidents; that was true with my client, Reginald Boulos; and that could well be true here. Congress must rein in this power.”

Sarina’s friends also disputed characterizations by the State Department that the family had been living lavishly in the United States, pointing out that they had been behind on mortgage payments and that they had been relying on the support of friends to pay for legal support in ICE detention. The jewelry and handbags flaunted on Instagram and highlighted by the U.S. government were, like much else in North Hollywood, entirely fake, her friends said.

“They’re not blood money, like regime trust fund kids, none of this is true whatsoever,” said Uredi.

In the meantime, Sarina’s mother is at severe risk. “The only thing that they can do is a blood transfusion with a match, because she has a severe anemia,” said Uredi. “And Sarina might be a match, but they’re like, we don’t even have the equipment here to do this for you. And that was two weeks ago, and now this week, they’re like, Yeah, we still don’t have the equipment. They just put her on antibiotics. That’s not going to save her life.”

Loomer, reached for comment, was unmoved, insisting the women were indeed related, but that it didn’t matter either way. “I want all Islamic immigrants deported. I don’t support any of their asylum claims,” she said.

Areeba Fatima contributed reporting.

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Iran seizes two ships in Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump extends U.S.-Iran ceasefire indefinitely. EU Energy Commissioner warns war will affect prices for years. Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite ceasefire. Hezbollah fires rockets and drones at Israeli artillery. Israel commits 220 violations in ceasefire’s first three days, report says. Lebanese president says talks to extend ceasefire are ongoing, ahead of meeting with Israel. Israeli attacks continue in Gaza. Raids and detentions in the occupied West Bank. Four Palestinian members of Board of Peace committee offer to resign in protest. Israeli military conducts operations in Syria’s Golan. Israel honors rabbi accused of war crimes as Independence Day torchbearer. Virginia voters approve Democratic redistricting map. Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigns from Congress. Poll shows likely Democratic primary voters in N.J. district souring on U.S. support for Israel. Eleven Democratic senators accuse Hegseth of violating U.S. and international law. Treasury sanctions 14 targets across Iran, Turkey, and UAE. Justice Department indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on federal fraud charges. Trump administration blocks $500 million to Iraq, stops security cooperation programs. Paraguay agrees to accept 25 U.S. deportees with no ties to country. Russian drones strike Odesa port and Zaporizhia railway, killing train driver. U.K. parliament passes lifetime tobacco ban for anyone born after 2008.

From Drop Site: Trump Blinks First, Extending Ceasefire with Iran as Hormuz Deadlock Continues. Rare Survivors of Pacific Boat Strikes Allege U.S. Forces Kidnapped and Tortured Them.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• Iranian Revolutionary Guard seizes two ships: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, damaging the vessel without causing casualties or environmental harm, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which said a Guard gunboat opened fire without warning. Iran’s state-linked Nour News disputed that account, saying the ship had ignored warnings and suffered extensive damage, framing the attack as enforcement of Iranian control over the strait. In addition to this, the Iranian Navy captured two foreign commercial vessels on Wednesday and had moved them to the Iranian coast, according to Iranian state media. The move came a day after U.S. forces boarded and seized an oil tanker linked to Iran, the second one intercepted by the U.S.

• Trump extends U.S.-Iran ceasefire indefinitely: President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States would extend its ceasefire with Iran indefinitely at the request of Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he has directed the military to maintain the naval blockade and remain on full readiness for the duration of the extension. The ceasefire will hold, Trump said, “until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded—one way or the other.” This follows reporting from Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill, who right before this announcement confirmed that Iran would not attend a second round of talks, primarily because Pakistan had promised that Trump would lift the blockade and he did not. This remains the position of the Iranian government after the announcement of the extension, according to Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN. “As soon as [the U.S.] breaks the naval blockade, the next round of negotiations will take place in Islamabad.” Read the latest on the state of the ceasefire from Jeremy Scahill here.

• EU Energy Commissioner warns war will affect prices for years: European Union Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Wednesday the Iran war was costing Europe around 500 million euros (approx. $585 million) each day and would affect prices for years to come. “This is not a short-term, small increase in prices. This is a crisis that is probably as serious as the 1973 and the 2022 crises combined,” he said on Wednesday according to AP.

• CNN: Oil spills from Iran war visible from space: Multiple oil spills spreading across the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are visible from space after Iranian and U.S.-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and vessels in the region, according to CNN, with environmental experts warning of an impending ecological disaster. One image, taken on April 7, shows a spill spanning more than five miles in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran’s Qeshm Island. An Iranian vessel leaked oil in the same area after U.S. forces struck it on February 28, Greenpeace Germany spokesperson Nina Noelle told CNN.

• UK and France to lead multinational Hormuz conference: Britain is hosting military planners from more than 30 countries for two days of talks starting Wednesday on a UK- and France-led multinational mission aimed at protecting navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The defense ministry said the meeting will “advance detailed planning” to reopen the strait when conditions allow. UK Defense Minister John Healey said the goal is to “translate diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Strait and support a lasting ceasefire,” adding he is confident “real progress can be made.” The initiative follows a Paris meeting co-chaired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron, with both countries stressing the force would be strictly defensive and deployed only once a lasting regional peace agreement is reached.

Lebanon

• Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite ceasefire:

  • An Israeli drone strike on the village of Jabbour killed one person and wounded two others Wednesday, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

  • Two people were also killed in a separate Israeli attack on a car in at-Tiri in southern Lebanon.

  • Israel continued its demolition operations in Bint Jbeil and in the villages of Beit Leef, Shamaa, Tayf Harfa, and Hanin on Wednesday, NNA reported. Israeli shelling also targeted the towns of Houla and Al-Qusayr in the Marjayoun district.

• Hezbollah fires rockets and drones at Israeli artillery: Hezbollah said Tuesday it launched rockets and attack drones at an Israeli artillery position in Kfar Jaladi, in response to Israel’s continued ceasefire violations. Hezbollah also announced Wednesday that it targeted an Israeli artillery position in the town of Al-Bayyada using an explosive drone.

• Israel commits 220 violations in ceasefire’s first three days, report says: Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research and National Center for Natural Hazards and Early Warning recorded 220 Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement across more than 15 categories in the roughly 72 hours between midnight April 16 and noon April 19, according to figures published by legal research organization Al-Mofakira Al-Qanouniya. The violations included 52 artillery bombardments, 50 mining and detonation operations, 30 aerial violations by combat and surveillance aircraft, 15 ground patrols with automatic weapons, 7 airstrikes, 4 phosphorus bomb and sonic device deployments, and 62 additional recorded incidents. Three people were killed and seven were injured during the period, including four paramedics.

• Lebanese president says talks to extend ceasefire are ongoing, ahead of meeting with Israel: Lebanese President General Joseph Aoun said that “contacts are underway to extend the ceasefire deadline,” in meetings with parliamentary and political delegations Wednesday, ahead of a direct meeting with Israel on Thursday. Aoun also noted that Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington will “raise the issue of extending the ceasefire deadline and halting Israeli demolition operations in villages and towns in southern Lebanon,” amid continuing Israeli demolitions.

Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed—one during new attacks, and another from wounds sustained during earlier attacks—and four were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,562 killed, with 172,320 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 786 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,217, while 761 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

• Israeli attacks continue in Gaza: An Israeli drone strike on Jabaliya killed one and wounded others Wednesday morning, WAFA reports. The residents were struck as they were trying to remove rubble from their homes. Several Palestinians were also wounded on Tuesday after Israeli shelling near Al-Atatra roundabout in Beit Lahia, in the northwest of the Gaza Strip.

• Raids and detentions in the occupied West Bank:

  • Israeli forces fired on a funeral procession in Al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah on Wednesday. They reportedly fired live ammunition, stun grenades, and tear gas at the group. The mourners were attending the funeral of two Palestinians, one of whom was 14 years old, killed in an Israeli settler attack on a school on Tuesday.

  • A man was detained on Wednesday by Israeli forces in Masafer Yatta as settlers attacked Palestinian property in the area, WAFA reports. Israel also detained an employee of a charitable organization in Jerusalem.

  • At least 90 Palestinian women are currently being held in Israeli detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, including minors, a pregnant woman, journalists, and administrative detainees who are held without charge, the group stated Wednesday. The statement says detainees are subjected to harsh conditions including starvation, medical neglect, solitary confinement, and sexual abuse.

• Four Palestinian members of Board of Peace committee offer to resign in protest: At least four of the 13 members of the Palestinian committee appointed in January as part of President Trump’s Board of Peace offered their resignations in protest against the lack of any progress allowing the body to begin its work in Gaza, according to the Emirati-newspaper The National. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), as it is formally known, is the only committee within the Board of Peace organizational structure to include any Palestinians. NCAG members have been based in Cairo since January, though Israel has not allowed them to cross into Gaza, saying their entry is conditional on Hamas disarming. Nickolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian diplomat who was appointed as High Representative of the Board of Peace and who supervises the NCAG, rejected the resignations, and urged the four members to stay on, The National reported.

• Israeli military conducts operations in Syria’s Golan: Israeli forces entered Quneitra, in the Syrian countryside, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, raiding multiple villages and detaining at least three residents, including two children.

• Israel honors rabbi accused of war crimes as Independence Day torchbearer: Israel selected Avraham Zarbiv, a 52-year-old army reservist and state rabbinical judge facing an International Criminal Court complaint over his conduct in Gaza, to light one of 12 ceremonial torches at Tuesday’s Independence Day celebration—one of the country’s highest civic honors. Zarbiv rose to notoriety after being filmed throwing grenades at Palestinians in Khan Younis, recording himself demolishing Palestinian homes in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and boasting on Israeli television of mass destruction, with his name becoming a colloquial verb meaning to flatten or obliterate.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Virginia voters approve Democratic redistricting map: Virginia voters narrowly approved a ballot referendum Tuesday authorizing the Democratic-controlled state legislature to bypass the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission and implement a new congressional map through the end of the decade. This could allow Democrats to pick up as many as four House seats in this fall’s midterm elections, according to NBC News. The approved map is designed to leave just one solidly Republican district among Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, shifting from the current six-to-five Democratic advantage.

• Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigns from Congress: Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigned from Congress Tuesday moments after a House Ethics Committee hearing convened to recommend disciplinary action against her, following a panel finding in March that she committed more than two dozen ethics violations related to allegations she funneled millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds into her 2021 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick, who was separately indicted on 15 federal felony charges last November and has pleaded not guilty, called the ethics process ‘not a fair process’ and said proceeding alongside a pending criminal indictment prevented her from defending herself. A special election will be needed to fill her seat representing Florida’s 20th Congressional District.

• Poll shows likely Democratic primary voters in N.J. district souring on U.S. support for Israel: A poll commissioned by Mussab Ali, a Democratic primary challenger to Rep. Robert Menendez (D) in New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District, found that the majority of likely Democratic primary voters are dissatisfied with U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. Conducted April 11–16 among 416 likely Democratic primary voters by Center for Strategic Politics Strategies, the survey found 40% of respondents calling for a full cessation of military aid to Israel, with an additional 35% calling for reductions or conditions on that aid. Just 16% said an endorsement from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee would make them more likely to support a candidate, compared with 49% who said it would make them less likely. The poll also tested the district’s congressional race between Menendez—son of former Sen. Bob Menendez, who was convicted and sentenced on bribery and foreign agent charges—and progressive challenger Ali. Before candidate biographies were shared, respondents favored Menendez over Ali 42% to 27%. After positive and negative biographical information was presented, Ali moved ahead 43% to 33%.

• Eleven Democratic senators accuse Hegseth of violating U.S. and international law: Led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), eleven Democratic senators have accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of violating U.S. and international law in American military operations against Iran, citing four strikes they say caused unlawful civilian casualties—including a missile attack on a girls’ school in Minab that killed 175 people and a separate strike in Lamerd that killed 21. The senators warned that Hegseth’s “no quarter” remarks breach the laws of war and could invite retaliation against U.S. troops. They also charged that his dismantling of Pentagon civilian harm mitigation programs—including target vetting, risk assessments, and post-strike reviews—has stripped away key safeguards designed to limit civilian deaths and ensure legal compliance.

• Treasury sanctions 14 targets across Iran, Turkey, and UAE: The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 14 individuals, entities, and aircraft Tuesday as part of “Operation Economic Fury,” targeting networks procuring or transporting weapons components for the Iranian regime across Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Targets include a network supplying servomotors found in downed Shahed-136 attack drones, a Turkish company shipping cotton linters used to produce solid rocket propellant to Iranian defense entities, and several individuals tied to Mahan Air, which Treasury says has transported unmanned aerial vehicles and other weapons, including to Venezuela. Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Kharg Island—which handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports—will exhaust its storage capacity within days due to the naval blockade, potentially forcing Iran to shut down oil wells entirely; prolonged shutdowns risk permanently damaging reservoir pressure, Bessent said, meaning Iran could lose production capacity requiring years to recover even after a deal is reached.

• Justice Department indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on federal fraud charges: A federal grand jury in Alabama returned an 11-count indictment Tuesday against the Southern Poverty Law Center, charging the civil rights organization with wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering over a program in which it allegedly funneled more than $3 million to confidential informants embedded in violent extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, between 2014 and 2023. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged the SPLC concealed the payments through fictitious entities and misled donors by claiming their funds would be used to “dismantle” extremist groups, while FBI Director Kash Patel called the informant program “a serious and egregious violation.” SPLC Chief Executive Bryan Fair denied the allegations, saying the informant program “saved lives” and was shared with law enforcement, including the FBI. Fair called the prosecution an attempt to weaponize the federal government against organizations defending civil rights. Legal analysts noted the charges would be unusually difficult to prove against a corporate entity, and the American Civil Liberties Union condemned the indictment as “yet another example of the Trump administration’s extreme attempts to silence its critics.”

• Class action suit accuses North Carolina farm of confiscating immigrant workers’ passports: A class action lawsuit filed Friday accuses Jackson Farming Company of Autryville, North Carolina, and its labor contractors of confiscating the passports and visa documents of Mexican farmworkers on H-2A visas with the explicit goal of preventing them from leaving, while also charging illegal recruitment fees, making unlawful pay deductions, falsifying payroll records, and failing to provide bathrooms, drinking water, or adequate care for workers suffering heatstroke. Lead plaintiff Fernando Javier Rodríguez Luna, who was recruited in Mexico to harvest crops in North Carolina in 2024 and 2025, says contractors threatened workers who tried to leave that they would be blacklisted from future H-2A visas, and charged those who insisted on departing $300 to retrieve their own documents—even instructing workers to conceal the passport confiscations from a Department of Labor investigation. Attorneys with the North Carolina Justice Center, which is representing the workers, said the case reflects a structural vulnerability in the H-2A program that contractor middlemen exploit to shield farm owners from liability, and warned that the Trump administration’s deportation threats and recent cuts to the H-2A minimum wage—estimated to reduce pay for more than 350,000 farmworkers by 26 to 32 percent—are making abuse significantly more difficult for workers to report. For more on the lawsuit, read the American Prospect here.

• CFPB formally eliminates disparate-impact lending protections: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau formally rescinded disparate-impact requirements under the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act Tuesday, ending a decades-old enforcement tool that barred lenders from policies with unintentionally discriminatory effects on borrowers even in the absence of explicit bias, Reuters reported. The change, published in the federal register, leaves intact prohibitions against intentional discrimination but removes a standard that the government has long used to police racial and gender discrimination in housing, lending, and education. Consumer advocates warned the move will make discrimination far harder to detect and prosecute, and said it opens the door to legal challenges, given that the disparate-impact doctrine is rooted in Supreme Court precedent.

Other International News

• Trump administration blocks $500 million to Iraq, stops security cooperation programs: The Trump administration has blocked a nearly $500 million cash delivery from Iraqi oil sale proceeds held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and frozen security cooperation programs with Baghdad’s military, in an effort to pressure Iraq into taking action against Iranian-aligned armed groups, according to the Wall Street Journal. It is the second such shipment delayed since the U.S.-Iran war began in late February. Under a post-2003 arrangement, Washington holds Iraq’s oil revenues at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and ships up to $13 billion annually in physical cash to Baghdad to keep its cash-dependent economy functioning.

• Paraguay agrees to accept 25 U.S. deportees with no ties to country: Paraguay announced Tuesday it will receive an initial group of 25 Spanish-speaking deportees from the United States beginning Thursday, becoming the latest country to join the Trump administration’s expanding network of third-country deportation agreements that send migrants to nations they have no ties to. Countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, and South Sudan have signed similar arrangements. The Associated Press has reported the Trump administration is seeking similar arrangements with 47 additional countries.

• Russian drones strike Odesa port and Zaporizhia railway, killing train driver: Russian drones struck Ukraine’s main Black Sea port in Odesa overnight Wednesday, damaging berths, warehouses, and railway infrastructure, while a separate attack on a sorting yard in the Zaporizhia region killed an assistant train driver and injured the main driver, according to Al Jazeera.

• U.K. parliament passes lifetime tobacco ban for anyone born after 2008: The United Kingdom’s parliament has approved the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will permanently bar anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 from purchasing tobacco products for the rest of their lives, in what Health Secretary Wes Streeting called “the biggest public health intervention in a generation.” The bill, which awaits royal assent next week, will also grant ministers new powers to regulate the flavors, packaging, and advertising of vaping and nicotine products, and will extend smoke-free zones to playgrounds, school and hospital entrances, and cars carrying children. Smoking causes roughly 400,000 hospital admissions and 64,000 deaths annually in England alone and costs the National Health Service an estimated £3 billion per year in treatment costs, according to the Guardian.

More from Drop Site

• Ecuadorian fishermen allege kidnapping, torture by U.S. forces: Survivors of two separate attacks on Ecuadorian fishing vessels in the Pacific alleged Wednesday that U.S. military forces struck their boats with drones, hooded and detained crew members for days without food or medical care, and transported them roughly 900 nautical miles to El Salvador before returning them to Ecuador—accounts that, if confirmed, would constitute violations of international law. Sixteen survivors of the vessel La Negra Francisca Duarte told Drop Site News they were seized by armed English-speaking men aboard a blue U.S.-flagged patrol ship bearing the word “Spear”—a possible reference to Operation Southern Spear, the Trump administration’s counternarcotics program in the Americas—after a drone strike ignited their boat. Twenty additional fishermen from a third vessel, the Don Maca, reported a near-identical ordeal beginning April 3, including being held hooded for eight days and fired on with a pellet gun. “They’ve been threatened not to speak to the press. They’re scared for their lives,” said one wife and mother of the fishermen about the crew. Read the latest from Drop Site contributor Camila Lourdes Galarza here.

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The future of U.S.-Iran negotiations remains in doubt after President Donald Trump and Tehran’s leaders staked out opposing positions on the Strait of Hormuz. “Diplomacy is a tool to secure national interests and security,” said Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a briefing in Tehran on Wednesday. “Whenever we conclude that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from reaching their evil goals are prepared, we will act.”

On Tuesday night, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Iran would move forward with a second round of talks in Islamabad only if Trump extended the ceasefire and ended the U.S. naval blockade. “The Pakistani side indicated that they expect Trump to lift the naval blockade of Iran,” the official said. “If that happens, and the ceasefire is extended, a new round of talks will be held on Thursday.”

Soon after, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was indefinitely extending the ceasefire but added that the blockade will remain in place. “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote. “I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”

The Iranian official dismissed Trump’s claims that Iran’s leadership was in disarray, characterizing it as a desperate attempt by Trump to save face after his recent false claims, including that Iran had offered him sweeping concessions, and “agreed to everything,” including handing over its enriched uranium and allowing the U.S. military to enter Iran to seize it. “Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States,” Trump said April 17. Iran swiftly rejected these claims.

Trump also publicly announced on Monday that JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were on their way to Islamabad and suggested that a deal was almost finalized. “They’re heading over now. They’ll be there tonight,” he told PBS. He added that he was considering personally attending the talks. When Iran ultimately decided not to send a delegation, Trump scrambled to reconcile his messaging and reverted to threatening to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure. On Tuesday morning, he told CNBC he would not extend the ceasefire only to flip flop hours later in the face of Iranian intransigence.

“[Trump] thought we would go into the negotiations under the current conditions. They did everything they could to get our diplomatic delegation sent, and he didn’t expect things to turn out this way,” said the official, who has direct access to Tehran’s internal deliberations. He requested anonymity because he is not authorized to publicly discuss strategy. He added that Tehran’s position remains unchanged: lifting the blockade is a condition for continuing talks.

That position was publicly reiterated by Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. “The naval blockade initiated by the United States is a violation of the ceasefire,” said Amir-Saeid Iravani in an impromptu press conference in New York Tuesday. “Tehran will not enter into negotiations with the United States until the naval blockade is lifted.”

An adviser to Mohammed Bagher-Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and Tehran’s lead negotiator in the first round of talks with the U.S. in Islamabad, denounced Trump’s announcement that he was extending the ceasefire, saying it “means nothing.”

“The losing side cannot dictate terms,” said Mahdi Mohammadi, the Ghalibaf adviser, in a post on X. “The continuation of the siege is no different from bombardment and must be met with a military response. Moreover, Trump’s ceasefire extension is certainly a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike. The time for Iran to take the initiative has come.”

The senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Iran continues to prepare for what they see as a likely resumption of U.S.-Israeli attacks on the country and expressed confidence that Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz and its capacity to conduct strikes in the Persian Gulf and inside Israel would create a crisis for Trump. Iranian officials have said they would not engage in preemptive strikes, but will respond militarily to any attacks.

“In the event of any aggression or action against the Islamic Republic of Iran, [we] will immediately and forcefully strike pre-designated targets,” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s conventional joint military command, in a statement on Tuesday night. “Our capable and powerful forces have long been at full readiness, with their fingers on the trigger.”

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz will be at the center of any deal that is reached to continue negotiations. Trump continued to post on social media late into Tuesday night. “Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!,” he wrote.

On Wednesday morning, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp announced that its naval forces had seized two vessels—saying that they had “endangered maritime security by operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems.” Iranian naval forces escorted the ships, one of which is Greek owned, to Iran’s coastal waters, warning, “disrupting order and safety in the Strait of Hormuz is considered a red line for Iran.”

The possibility for a comprehensive deal between Iran and the U.S. any time soon appears low. Both Iran and the U.S. are so far continuing to speak with Pakistani officials and those from other mediating nations. But, even if another round of negotiations does take place, the stated red lines of Iran and the U.S. stand in stark contrast.

Trump has made the transfer of Iran’s highly enriched uranium the centerpiece of his “victory” narrative. Iran has said it will not hand over its stockpile and Baghaei called it “as sacred to us as Iranian soil,” saying it “will not be transferred anywhere under any circumstances.” Iran has indicated it would be open to diluting it for civilian use under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has also demanded an easing of economic sanctions and the unfreezing of tens of billions of dollars of its assets. Trump has said he will not allow the transfer of funds to Iran and frequently denounces President Barack Obama for the unfreezing of Iranian assets as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, calling it “one of the Worst Deals ever made having to do with the Security of our Country.” In that deal, Iran shipped more than 25,000 pounds—roughly 98 percent of its enriched uranium stockpile—out of the country. Iran is currently estimated to have less than 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium.

Rather than a comprehensive deal, the senior Iranian official told Drop Site he believes a more likely scenario would involve the U.S., through Pakistani mediation, “shaping a de facto end to the war without any formal declaration.” This would leave the major issues unresolved and the possibility for a resumption of war still open.

Perhaps the most vital component for any deal from Iran’s perspective is a non-aggression agreement with the U.S. and crafting terms that would ensure war would not resume if Iran offers concessions as part of a deal. Given Trump’s track record, this would be nearly impossible to guarantee.

“Iranians do not trust the Trump administration at all. But what they’re banking on is the fact that they stood against an aggression and forced [the U.S. and Israel] out of this aggression, short of achieving any of their goals that were stated,” said Iranian analyst Hassan Ahmadian, in an interview with Drop Site. “The Iranians moved past the international community as a protector. The UN Security Council did not stop two wars, illegal wars imposed on the country. And so the Iranians learned it the hard way. It’s about power. If you don’t have power, you will be subject to annihilation,” he added. “The Iranians see that they can balance—asymmetrically—the power of the United States and can push it back. They go for a negotiated settlement, because at the end of the day, you have to stop the aggression.”

But, Ahmadian cautioned, “They don’t trust it.”

On Wednesday, Axios—citing anonymous officials—reported that Trump’s ceasefire extension may only last three to five days. In line with the White House spin about what they claim is chaos within Iran’s ruling elite, a U.S. official told Axios that Trump was offering time “to allow the Iranians to get their shit together.” Trump-aligned media has spent the past 48 hours awash in stories claiming that Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is incapacitated, political leaders have been sidelined, and the IRGC is taking charge of decision-making. The senior Iranian official dismissed these stories as psychological warfare and said Iran continues to run all decisions through its Supreme National Security Council.

Ahmadian said that despite the assassinations of senior leaders and the massive military attacks over the past six weeks, the Iranian government remains a highly structured and organized system of institutions. “Name another system whose top echelon are assassinated and is capable of continuing, and also waging, a retaliatory war effort against two big foes. I don’t see any historical parallel,” he said. “The simplistic view of this institutionalized system is basically wishful thinking.”

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Story by Tom Perkins

For two years, establishment Democrats have led a wide-ranging legal attack on University of Michigan pro-Palestinian student activists, aiming to shut down their protest of Israel. On Sunday, Democratic Party delegates symbolically rebuked the establishment’s draconian campaign. Two pro-Palestinian candidates notched upset wins against pro-Israel-backed opponents in statewide primary races in this critical upper Midwest swing state.

The races, decided by the Michigan Democratic Party’s delegates during a nominating convention, mark material and symbolic victories for pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan (U-M)—some of whom continue to face investigations over their protests of the genocide. And, as more polling shows the extent to which support for Israel has collapsed across the political spectrum, the wins indicate that the pro-Israel playbook is failing even in lower, state-level races.

In the state Attorney General’s race, Ann Arbor’s progressive Jewish prosecutor, Eli Savit, beat Karen McDonald, who was backed by major corporations and pro-Israel donors. And in the race for a seat on the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, defense attorney Amir Makled defeated incumbent regent Jordan Acker, who helped lead the school’s legal attack on the pro-Palestinian students. Makled represented some of the students who beat the U-M prosecutions.

Makled, who is Lebanese-American, overcame an onslaught of allegations that he is antisemitic and supports Hezbollah. He told Drop Site the wins show “the electorate is done with AIPAC-aligned candidates and their smear campaigns.”

“People are done with it, and the establishment has to recognize that,” Makled added. “It is the only way this party moves forward because it’s the right way.” His win also came after The Guardian on Friday reported on lewd text messages Acker appeared to have made about a student and Democratic strategist.

Makled was one of three Democratic candidates vying for two open U-M regent seats. He and the other winner, incumbent Paul Brown, will face GOP candidates in the November general election.

Savit and Makled each opposed U-M’s ongoing investigations into pro-Palestinian students. U-M in May 2024 dispatched police to violently break up a campus pro-Palestinian encampment, and officers forwarded dozens of warrant requests to Savit’s office.

Savit, finding the protesters were largely peaceful, declined to charge, a move that incensed U-M’s leadership. In response, it recruited Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to prosecute students. Nessel has deep ties to the state pro-Israel establishment and regents, and in September 2024 she filed charges against eleven protesters. But she dropped the cases months later as she faced allegations of pro-Israel bias.

She also partnered with Trump’s FBI to raid students’ homes in April 2025 in response to someone vandalizing U-M regents’ houses with anti-Israel graffiti, including Acker’s. A year later, Nessel has not yet brought charges, and she has been silent about the investigations’ statuses.

Nessel is term-limited, and her tenure ends on Jan. 1, 2027. A Drop Site analysis of campaign donations through October 2025 found McDonald had raised $840,000, more than her three opponents combined, and over twice Savit’s total.

At least $200,000 came from local pro-Israel donors, including Acker, and pro-Israel U-M regents Mark Bernstein and Denise Ilitch. Among her other major contributors were leadership in the local, pro-Israel Jewish Federation chapter, AIPAC donors, and Friends of the IDF donors.

McDonald was also the establishment-backed candidate, with endorsements from major unions, Democratic leaders, EMILY’s List, and donations from top state corporations, like DTE Energy and Blue Cross.

But it was not enough to sway the Democratic Party’s rank and file, and delegates picked Savit by a 58-42 margin.

It is widely believed that Savit will end Nessel’s remaining investigations, though he could not be reached for comment on Monday.

In the election’s wake, pro-Israel Michigan State Rep. Noah Arbit wrote that “the party is abandoning us.” Jewish Insider wrote that Jews in Michigan were “politically homeless.”

Acker’s loss “is a warning to the rest of the regents,” said one campus activist targeted by an investigation. Many of Makled’s campaign organizers were students; the advocate said U-M students in 2026 more clearly than in the past understand the regents’ roles in campus attacks on the pro-Palestinian movement.

“It does sort of seem like we can enshrine a clear message to the board of regents that this is a losing strategy,” they added.

Makled’s win, meanwhile, came despite the smear campaign that accused him of being a Hezbollah supporter and antisemitic. He drew criticism for posts on X in 2025, including a retweet that lamented the death of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Another retweet, from Candace Owens, referred to Israelis as “demons” over Israel’s attacks on Palestinian Christians.

“The electorate is seeing through the nonsense and smears,” Makled said.

Makled faced an especially vulnerable candidate in Acker, who was hit by the text messaging scandal in the race’s final 48 hours. He was also widely loathed by many on the left over his attacks on unions, opposition to pro-Palestinian groups, and support for the dissolution of U-M’s DEI program. Nevertheless Acker was endorsed by state senator Mallory McMorrow, now running for U.S. Senate, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, other major Democratic state leaders, and several major unions. They did not rescind their endorsements.

Acker’s and McDonald’s loss shows that “anyone who thinks Palestine is a fringe or ‘wedge’ issue in Democratic politics is fooling themselves,” said Bilal Baydoun, a Dearborn, Michigan-based writer and political commentator.

“Like Democrats across the country, Michigan Dems are tired of being censored and smeared for wanting leaders who will speak out on a defining moral issue of our time,” Baydoun said.

Some Democrats have downplayed the elections’ significance, arguing that the vote took place at a nominating convention, and the delegates in these formats are far more to the left than voters across the state.

However, the Michigan format includes delegates from across the state, and is designed to cap the influence of those in counties that hold Detroit, Ann Arbor, and other activism centers. The delegates come from across the state, and the party has, until now, leaned conservative.

And some attacked progressives for booing US Rep. Haley Stevens during her convention speech and allegedly cursing.

“Responding to this growing consensus with more contempt for the party’s base of support is obviously going to fail,” Baydoun said.

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter in Detroit who covers the antiwar movement locally and nationally.

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Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill discuss the current state of play, President Donald Trump’s comments, Iran’s view of the negotiations, and how developments in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend exacerbated tensions. They also play clips of Jeremy’s interview with prominent Iranian analyst Hassan Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran University.

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QUITO, Ecuador—The last time Roxanna Mero heard from her husband Carlos was January 19. Calling from sea on an emergency line, he said an “American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship” had been circling La Fiorella, the Ecuadorian fishing boat he captained. The presence of an airplane worried him, given that Trump’s extrajudicial airstrikes across the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 170 people in 6 months, but a local coast guard had already inspected the vessel, found nothing and cleared them to continue.

The next day, the boat went up in smoke. The eight fishermen aboard have not been seen since.

Three independent accounts from relatives of the missing crew assert that eyewitnesses, on a nearby raft at the time of the incident, saw La Fiorella engulfed in flames. “They’ve been threatened not to speak to the press. They’re scared for their lives,” said Angelica Lourdes Mero, whose son and spouse are among the disappeared men.

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Ninety days after La Fiorella vanished, Roxanna told Drop Site News, “No search team has been sent out. In Manta, we live with constant military helicopters circling overhead every hour but none of them have been used to find my husband.” The helicopters are part of ongoing US-Ecuadorian joint operations, despite 60% of Ecuadorians voting to uphold the constitutional ban on foreign military presence in their territories this past November. The ban was originally introduced in 2007, precisely due to the U.S. military sinking fishing boats off the coast of Manta.

Under right-wing president Daniel Noboa, Ecuador has become a critical U.S. proxy in the region; described as a “North American colony” by political analyst and former advisor to Ecuador’s Secretary of International Relations Daniel Granja.

The military regime, which rules by martial law, has stonewalled all inquiries into the whereabouts of the fishermen. “They slammed the door in our face,” Angelica Mero told Drop Site News.

The United Nations Committee on Forced Disappearances, which was already investigating Noboa’s armed forces prior to this incident, has issued a letter demanding answers on La Fiorella. Opposition lawmaker Mónica Palacios echoed those calls, announcing she will bring this case directly to the U.N.

Now, 36 survivors of two Pacific attacks fitting a similar profile alleged that they were abducted and tortured by American forces and taken by boat all the way to El Salvador before being returned to Ecuador. Drop Site spoke to multiple survivors and attorneys from both boats.

Drop Site reached out to the U.S. Southern Command for comment on all three incidents; they said they had no information to provide and directed questions to Ecuador. Drop Site asked Ecuador’s Port Authority for comment. They hung up after hearing the call was from journalists.

“Filled the floor of our lifeboat with blood”

On March 23, 16 Ecuadorian fishermen from a second vessel, La Negra Francisca Duarte II, were found by El Salvador’s coast guard, their limbs mangled and backs etched with burns. One man’s foot was spliced open, exposing bone. Another had lesions on the nape of his neck that left him dizzy whenever he moved.

The fishermen told Drop Site News they’d been struck by a drone with a yellow cylinder five days earlier, forced to jump overboard to escape the fire caused by the explosion, and subsequently taken captive by forces on a U.S.-flagged blue patrol ship—just like the one Roxanna Mero’s husband, Carlos Valencia Mero, had described before he disappeared. Captain Hernán Flores, one of the 16 survivors, said the word “Spear” was written on the hull of the blue ship. Trump’s counternarcotics military program in the Americas is named Operation Southern Spear.

“A lot of us had wounds all over our bodies from the explosion. One young man was bleeding so much he filled the floor of our lifeboat with blood,” said Flores. “The drone had flown through our cabin window, torn my nephew’s foot so bad you could see flesh and bone, and made the boat’s roof cave-in on the back of my neck. A few seconds later, an explosion shook the boat causing a terrible ringing in our ears. Out of exasperation, the guys threw themselves into the water, some without life jackets, even the ones who don’t know how to swim.”

As the fishermen made their way toward what they hoped was safety on the nearby blue boat, an aircraft hovered directly overhead. Nearing closer, they spotted blonde-haired men, armed to the teeth, dressed in camouflage uniforms, and yelling “hands-up” in English. Flores said they began to pray, convinced they were going to die.

Guns drawn, the men placed hoods over the fishermens’ heads, handcuffed them, and held them on the blue ship’s scorching metal deck for over 24 hours, blistering their skin. The Ecuadorian crew of La Negra Francisca Duarte II were surprised to find themselves detained following the attack. Like Mero’s husband, they had been cleared to proceed by Ecuadorian coast guard personnel just hours earlier at a checkpoint near the Galápagos.

The gunmen, issuing instructions through an interpreter, offered no explanation for why they were being apprehended, nor did they bother to inquire what had happened, as a rescue team might, or search their boat for evidence, as a counternarcotics operation would. All but one fisherman were denied medical attention, despite the severity of what they had just endured. Held for days, they were refused food and given only one bottle of water.

La Negra Francisca Duarte II burning on March 17, 2026, captured by nephew of Captain Hernan Flores and provided to Drop Site News.

The following day, despite being in Ecuadorian waters near the Galapagos Islands, the kidnappers transported the fishermen roughly 900 nautical miles north, turning them over to El Salvador’s coast guard.

Drop Site News spoke to 11 associates across El Salvador’s Ministry of Defense, coast guard, and navy, all of whom said they were aware of the incident but were unauthorized to comment. In recent years, El Salvador’s government has drawn scrutiny from human rights advocates over President Nayib Bukele’s embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump’s migration policies, labeling him an accomplice to U.S. human rights violations, with several documented cases of torture in its prisons—facilities the Trump administration has contracted to hold deported migrants. On March 24, El Salvador’s authorities began coordinating the return of the fishermen to Ecuador.

“Just like the Americans didn’t do anything to help save us when our boat was bombed, the Ecuadorian government also hasn’t done anything to help us,” Flores told Drop Site. “It was our families who made sure we got home safe.”

“El pueblo salva al pueblo,” he said, a popular Spanish saying about solidarity and mutual support between working-class people.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, cast doubt on the innocence of the fishermen and defended the extrajudicial assault. “Ecuador and North America are working cooperatively with joint activities. I cannot tell you for sure what activities the fishermen were carrying out or the situations they are in,” Sommerfeld told local media.

Throughout her tenure, Sommerfeld has repeatedly come under fire for failing to uphold international law. Most notably, when Ecuador stormed the Mexican embassy to kidnap former Vice President Jorge Glas of left-wing party Revolución Ciudadana, ending diplomatic ties between the two nations for the first time since they were established in 1838. An event that Tamara Lajtman, researcher with the Lawfare Observatory and the Institute for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, said was the foreshadowing for an autocracy rife with abuses, “It revealed a willingness to use state force outside of any legal limits. It’s really not an isolated incident, but rather a symptom of an authoritarian way of exercising power.”

Legal counsel for La Negra Francisca, Jorge Chiriboga, frames the airstrike as a similar breach of international law. “This is an invasion of Ecuador’s airspace and maritime because it occurred within Ecuador’s Insular Exclusive Economic Zone,” Chiriboga told Drop Site. Chiriboga, shared GPS photos with Drop Site News taken at the site of the bombing showing La Negra Francisca was operating within permitted limits.

“These attacks are no longer just a mistake,” he continued. It is a planned and coordinated abuse against working-class civilian fishermen who are unarmed and they should be condemned by international law. Imagine these bombs would’ve killed all of them, it is an extrajudicial action by a foreign nation, it’s an abuse by the biggest force in the world.”

“They treated us like animals”

The second report of torture came two weeks later. On April 3rd, 20 more Ecuadorian fishermen aboard the Don Maca were intercepted by El Salvador’s coast guard. Arriving with vision and hearing loss, bruised limbs, and perforated arms, they reported a strikingly similar account of an alleged attack by U.S. soldiers: a bombarded boat, a round of bullets, and no due process.

This time, the men charged that they had been held hostage and hooded for eight days.

“They treated us like animals,” said Sebastián Palacios of the Don Maca vessel, his thousand-yard stare welling with tears as he embraced his family at the Manta airport upon finally returning to Ecuador weeks later.

Several workers of both the Don Maca and La Negra Francisca remain hospitalized; many are receiving psychiatric care, as well.

The attorney for the Don Maca crew, Pilar Muñoz, recounted her clients’ testimonies to Drop Site News.

“Two small drones and one big drone had been tailing them for 24 hours,” she said. “They informed Don Maca’s owner, Cristian Mendoza, of the sighting, and he assured them not to worry, as the boat and fishermen had all the proper licensing and registration. He told them, ‘There’s no problem since you’re just there to fish.’”

“But the next day,” Muñoz continued, “a drone struck their boat, causing an explosion just 15 centimeters from the gas tank. Had it hit any closer, they would’ve all died from the explosion, and there would’ve been no survivors to tell this story.”

Immediately, the crew scrambled to raise a white flag, signaling they were unarmed and in distress. Men in uniforms on an adjacent boat—who the survivors of Don Maca also identified as U.S. military—followed with multiple rounds of glass pellet gunfire, leaving crew member Erik Coello with 70% vision loss and his arms riddled with puncture wounds and embedded glass. They eventually ceased and instructed them to approach their boat.

The fishermen said the kidnappers were white, spoke English, and accompanied by a translator with an Ecuadorian dialect.

A survivor, who asked not to be named due to pending legal action, told Drop Site News that, once detained on the boat, he was fired on again with a pellet gun. The account resembled what Coello had experienced, though by then the men had been hooded and were unable to see what exactly was being done to them.

Just before men in fatigues forced hoods over their heads, the fishermen caught a glimpse of them doubling back to bomb and sink their already damaged boat.

“If the boat would’ve actually been carrying drugs, they wouldn’t have drowned the boat because they would’ve needed to use it as proof,” Muñoz pointed out.

Ecuador’s interior minister, for example, released video of a different detained vessel around the same time that was found carrying 300 packages of cocaine 180 nautical miles off the coast of Manta. In the video, officials are seen carefully locating, documenting, and preserving the evidence with no signs of a drone strike. Unlike Don Maca or La Negra Francisca’s fishermen, the alleged traffickers aboard the vessel were returned to Ecuador the same day, alive and without apparent serious injuries— paraded in front of TV outlets as a victory lap for the Ecuadorian government.

Noboa’s Unconstitutional War

While no drugs or illicit behavior were found on any of the three boats, the same cannot be said for ships belonging to the family and private enterprises of Ecuador’s right-wing president, Daniel Noboa.

In 2025, Colombian investigative journal, Revista Raya, revealed that €26 million worth of cocaine headed for Croatia had been seized by Ecuadorian authorities from the shipping containers of Noboa Trading. Leaked chats showed Balkan drug traffickers bragging that they had exclusive access to Noboa Trading ports and containers.

An employee of Noboa Trading, Jose Luis Rivera, responsible for inspecting the ports for narcotics, has been arrested by Ecuadorian officials four times in connection to drug trafficking. Noboa’s personal attorney, who he later appointed Minister of Health, served as the legal representation for Rivera. Rivera’s charges were dismissed after Ecuador’s attorney general decided not to pursue charges. In March the head of Ecuador’s notorious cartel, Los Tiguerones, told Spanish newspaper El Mundo that President Noboa struck a deal with the group to whip votes for his election in exchange for immunity, contradicting his primary campaign pledge to combat drug trafficking and corruption.

The Miami-born billionaire was elected president of Ecuador only after the assassination of his political rival, Fernando Villavicencio; American mercenary group, Blackwater, patrolled voting sites on election day. Noboa has since built a military regime, backed by the U.S. through Pentagon-supplied bombs, and enforced using a never-ending decree that the country is in a state of war. The FBI even opened its first office on Ecuadorian soil under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. A UN probe determined there was insufficient legal basis for Noboa’s state of war decree.

Tamara Lajtman, researcher at the Lawfare Observatory, calls it “the consolidation of an authoritarian project with strong elements of militarization and geopolitical alignment with the United States.” “Ecuador is being reconfigured as a strategic enclave in the hemispheric security architecture of the United States, especially in that strategic competition with China,” Lajtman continued. “We’re seeing raids, judicial proceedings, actions in the electoral arena, public stigmatization.”

All the while, drug trafficking has soared under Noboa’s presidency, now accounting for 70% of the world’s cocaine distribution.

The spectacle of “combatting drug trafficking” while actually targeting civilians is reminiscent of Colombia’s 2006 “Falsos Positivos” scandal wherein U.S.-funded armies massacred an estimated 6,000 disabled men, luring them to remote areas under the false promise of a job, then slaughtering and dressing them in guerrilla uniforms to meet wartime quotas.

In March, the New York Times published an investigation that found campesinos, in the indigenous and oil-rich Sucumbíos region of the Amazon, had been kidnapped, waterboarded, electrocuted, and bombed during a joint operation by the Ecuadorian military and U.S. Southern Command. Using U.S. intelligence, the operation had supposedly identified a FARC dissident drug camp. However, the New York Times, and several local journalists, found no proof of a drug camp—only a farm whose workers were left with severe physical and psychological trauma.

A few months prior, 16 Ecuadorian soldiers were convicted for the kidnapping and burning to death of 4 Afro-Ecuadorian children as young as 11 years old. The military tried to justify the atrocity by wrongfully accusing them of drug trafficking.

As executive power continues to be unconstitutionally consolidated in Ecuador, through the banning of political opposition parties, the rescheduling of elections, the kidnapping of democratically elected officials, and the assasination of indigenous workers on strike, a sense that the country has slid into autocracy now prevails. As former president of Ecuador’s National Assembly and the leader of Noboa’s largest political opposition party, Gabriel Rivadeneira, said, “Ecuador is living under dictatorship. Whoever raises their voice to defend the rights of their people either has their life threatened, their house raided, or is sent to jail.”

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Correction, April 21, 2026: Noboa’s personal attorney is the former Minister of Health, not the current minister. The mistake was due to an editing error.