Iran threatens to suspend ceasefire talks after Israel escalates in Lebanon; Pro-Israel groups play big in key Tuesday primaries
Drop Site Daily: June 1, 2026
Iranian state media reports Tehran may be suspending ceasefire talks. U.S. and Iranian strikes resume over the weekend. Nuclear talks stall as U.S. leadership continues to temporize. Qatar open to temporary Hormuz fees for mine-clearing. Aid groups warn of resource shortfall for millions displaced inside Iran. Israeli strikes kill six in Lebanon on Monday. Israeli forces capture crusader-era castle in Lebanon. Netanyahu and Katz order Beirut strikes, Dahiyeh displacement. U.S. reportedly puts forward Lebanon de-escalation roadmap. Security Council to hold emergency session on Lebanon. Israeli attacks on Gaza continued over the weekend. Israeli reservists describe shoot-to-kill orders during Gaza “ceasefire.” Graham Platner hit with sexting scandal. New Jersey State Police take over Delaney Hall perimeter after week of clashes between ICE and protesters. Far-right Israeli ministers appear in New York Israel Day parade. Far-right candidate leads in Colombia’s first-round election results. Sudanese army drone kills ten civilians in West Kordofan. WHO chief visits DRC Ebola epicenter as confirmed cases nearly double. Ukraine strikes Russian energy infrastructure across multiple regions. Ammunition depot explosion kills 39 in northeast Myanmar. Truck carrying Afghan refugees from Pakistan overturns, killing 18. UK bans Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker ahead of SXSW London appearances.
Primary season is in full swing: Pro-Israel groups play big in key California races. Adam Hamawy, retired Army doctor who volunteered in Gaza, faces last-minute smear campaign in New Jersey. And Drop Site reporting shakes up San Francisco congressional race.
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Iran and Ceasefire
Iranian state media reports Tehran may be suspending ceasefire talks: On Monday, Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported that the Iranian negotiating team may be suspending talks through mediators as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Gaza, indicating that Iran may “activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters,” Tasnim said, in addition to completely blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on X: “The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The U.S. and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation.”
U.S. and Iranian strikes resume over the weekend:
IRGC claims downing of U.S. drone over Iranian waters: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone it described as attempting a “hostile operation” in Iranian territorial waters, saying the aircraft was “immediately detected and targeted by the Revolutionary Guard’s modern defense missiles.” The U.S. Air Force officially retired the MQ-1 Predator in 2018, though an upgraded variant, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, remains in active service with the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. It remains unclear whether the downed aircraft was U.S.-operated or used by a Gulf ally.
IRGC says it struck U.S. airbase used to launch attack on Sirik Island: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday its Aerospace Force struck the airbase from which it said a recent U.S. attack on a telecommunications tower on Sirik Island in Hormozgan Province was launched, claiming the “predicted targets were destroyed.” The IRGC warned that “if the aggression is repeated, the response will be completely different.”
U.S. military confirms strikes on Iranian radar and drone sites: U.S. Central Command confirmed that it bombed Iranian radar, drone, and command and control sites on Saturday and Sunday around the city of Geruk and on Qeshm Island “in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters.” U.S. forces also fired a missile into the engine room of a Gambia-flagged cargo ship trying to evade the U.S. blockade.
CENTCOM claims missile interception in Kuwait: CENTCOM said it intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting U.S. forces in Kuwait. Air raid sirens were also activated in Kuwait on Sunday. Last week, an Iranian Fateh-110 ballistic missile reportedly struck Ali Al Salem Air Base in northern Kuwait on Thursday, causing U.S. casualties and significant asset destruction, despite official claims the missile had been intercepted, according to Bloomberg.
Nuclear talks stall as U.S. leadership continues to temporize:
President Donald Trump sent revised and tougher terms to Iran, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing three officials, though the specific changes from the previous proposal remain unclear. One official suggested to the Times that the tougher terms may be intended to pressure Iran into accepting the earlier framework already sent to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for approval rather than to fundamentally alter the offer.
On Fox News on Saturday, President Trump told Lara Trump the U.S. is “slowly but surely” getting what it wants from “nuclear negotiations with Iran and is “close to a very good deal,” while warning that “if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end it a different way.” He claimed that Iran had agreed to terms barring it from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons and that a final agreement would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei denied Iran’s nuclear program was part of the talks. “No negotiations have taken place on the details of the nuclear file. At this stage, our priority is ending the war,” Baghaei said at a news conference on Monday.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump told his congressional critics to “sit back and relax,” writing that it is “much tougher” to negotiate “when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping.’”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Saturday that lawmakers will not approve any nuclear agreement until they are certain “the rights of the Iranian people have been secured,” adding that Iran’s negotiators “have no trust in the words and promises of the enemy” and that “our criterion is tangible achievements.”
Qatar open to temporary Hormuz fees for mine-clearing: Doha and its Gulf partners oppose permanent transit fees through the Strait of Hormuz but would consider temporary charges tied to specific purposes such as mine-clearing operations, according to remarks by Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani. “For certain times that they say they will use it for mine-clearing or some usage of the fees for a temporary time, this is something that is negotiable,” Al-Thani said.
Aid groups warn of resource shortfall for millions displaced inside Iran: Aid organizations lack the resources to address the needs of the more than 3.2 million people displaced inside the country during the recent U.S.-Israeli war, said Norwegian Refugee Council chief Jan Egeland on a visit to Iran. Egeland urged donors to increase support for the country, warning the war’s effects could last for years—a particularly acute concern given that Iran also hosts 4.4 million Afghan refugees.
Iran restores gas production at three South Pars platforms after Israeli strikes: Iran has resumed gas production at three offshore platforms in the South Pars gasfield—the country’s largest domestic energy source—months after Israeli strikes on the facility in mid-March. Workers and engineers at the gas complex told Drop Site News that Israeli strikes on March 18 damaged vital electricity, water, and oxygen infrastructure across the facility, forcing emergency shutdowns of multiple refinery sections to prevent fires from spreading, with one engineer estimating the disruptions affected roughly 12% of gas production capacity linked to the South Pars network. Read more about the reopening in Drop Site’s latest collaboration with Egab here.
Iran executes two on charges related to protests: Iran has executed two more men convicted on charges related to antigovernment protests in January, according to the Mizan news agency. The two men were identified as Mehrdad Mohammadinia and Ashkan Maleki.
Lebanon
Casualty count: At least 3,433 people have been killed, and 10,395 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Six killed on Monday: A series of Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon on Monday killed at least six, including a strike on Zebdine near Choukin that killed two men, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. One person was killed in a strike on Shahabiya, while a drone strike on a car on the Zefta-Nabatieh highway, near a civil defence ambulance point, killed the driver and injured a paramedic. Two more were killed in a drone strike on their vehicle in Breqaa, while another was killed in a strike on Toul. The Israeli military issued forced displacement orders on Monday to residents of a total of 16 towns and villages across southern Lebanon.
Attacks on Sunday: At least 21 people were killed, and 126 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Sunday. An Israeli airstrike on the town of Deir Al-Zahrani in southern Lebanon killed eight people and wounded 19 on Sunday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. A drone strike on a motorcycle in Adoussiyeh, south Lebanon, killed a couple and left their young child wounded beside their bodies, footage from the scene showed.
Israeli forces capture crusader-era castle in Lebanon: The Israeli military captured Beaufort Castle (Al-Shaqif), a crusader-era fortress in southern Lebanon, on Sunday. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the UNESCO-protected heritage site would remain part of a “security zone in Lebanon.” Beaufort Castle overlooks the Litani River and is considered a key observation point over southern Lebanon and northern parts of Israel—though observers say its military significance is more symbolic than tactical. Hezbollah said it is engaged in clashes with Israeli forces near the castle, stating that Israeli forces are facing “great difficulty in stabilizing their positions,” and adding that the fortress “was devoid of any military presence” when the Israelis entered it.
Netanyahu and Katz order Beirut strikes, Dahiyeh displacement: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israeli military to strike targets in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district on Sunday. Netanyahu offered “repeated ceasefire violations” as a pretext for Israeli escalation, despite the nearly daily strikes Israel has carried out in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect in mid-April. The Israeli military spokesperson ordered all residents of Dahiyeh to leave. Residents began fleeing the area en masse, jamming roads in their exodus, according to Al Jazeera.
IDF plans deeper invasion into Lebanon: Israeli military officers told Walla News on Saturday that forces have begun what they described as “extremely important operations” in southern Lebanon. The military reportedly built five bridges over the Litani River to enable a deeper ground invasion into Lebanese territory. The operation had been planned for over a year, according to Israel’s Broadcasting Authority.
U.S. reportedly puts forward Lebanon de-escalation roadmap: A U.S. official told Al Jazeera that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has proposed a roadmap under which Hezbollah would halt all attacks on Israel in exchange for Israel refraining from further escalation in Beirut. The official said the proposal aims to create conditions for a “gradual de-escalation” leading to a complete cessation of hostilities.
Security Council to hold emergency session on Lebanon: The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting today over Israel’s expanded military offensive, according to AFP. The meeting was requested by France, whose President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies the major escalation underway.”
Lebanese prime minister condemns Israeli escalation, defends talks: In a televised speech on Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the “dangerous and unprecedented” Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon, demanding a full ceasefire, complete Israeli withdrawal, and the release of all Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. Defending his government’s decision to enter direct talks with Israel, Salam acknowledged the negotiations were not guaranteed to succeed but described them as “the least costly path for our country and our people.”
Hezbollah reports military successes:
Hezbollah carried out a sustained wave of rocket and drone attacks on Sunday, triggering air raid sirens at least 11 times in seven hours across northern Israel, including Safed, with strikes reaching as far as Acre. A fixed-wing drone struck Israel’s Beit Hillel base, wounding six soldiers—three critically. Five soldiers were urgently evacuated to Rambam Medical Center following a separate FPV attack, according to Israeli military monitoring channels.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said its operations included a guided missile strike on an Israeli Merkava tank in Bayadha, rocket barrages targeting Israeli troop concentrations in Bayadha and on the eastern outskirts of Yahmar al-Shaqif, and an ambush near Dabbin in which fighters detonated an explosive device against an advancing Israeli force before forcing a withdrawal. The Israeli military later confirmed that a soldier from the Givati Brigade was killed and four others were wounded by a Hezbollah FPV drone strike.
Palestine
Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 40 were injured across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,941 killed, with 172,967 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 932 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,859, while 781 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinian killed on Monday: A Palestinian man was killed and another injured on Monday after an Israeli airstrike targeted a bicycle in Bureij Refugee Camp in central Gaza, according to WAFA.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continued over the weekend:
Israeli Apache helicopters shelled a gathering of civilians at Gaza Port Sunday, killing two and wounding at least 25 others, some critically, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces killed Dr. Jamal Yousef Abu-Oun, the head of the anesthesia department at Al-Yafa Medical Hospital, in a drone strike on Saturday in Deir al-Balah.
Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a civilian gathering near the Firas market in central Gaza City on Saturday, killing one and wounding two people, one critically. Also on Saturday, artillery strikes hit northeast of Al-Bureij camp, central and southern Khan Younis, and western Rafah, with a powerful explosion reported in the Mawasi area west of Rafah.
Israeli reservists describe shoot-to-kill orders during Gaza “ceasefire”: Three Israeli reservists gave the Associated Press firsthand accounts of permissive rules of engagement along the “yellow line” dividing Gaza, with soldiers authorized to fire on anyone crossing the invisible boundary—including civilians unaware of its location. Strikes, they said, were sometimes called in based on a “hunch” from troops too distant to identify targets. One account appeared to reference the October killing of the Abu Shaaban family in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, in which Israeli tank fire killed 11 family members in a civilian vehicle, with soldiers described as celebrating. “To call it a ceasefire is a joke,” one soldier told AP.
Israeli forces demolish Nablus market and make arrests across West Bank: Israeli forces demolished shops in the main vegetable market of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank early Monday morning, forcing shopkeepers to evacuate their goods before military bulldozers destroyed the produce stalls, according to Palestine Online and Quds News. In the nearby village of Burqa, forces backed by military vehicles and a bulldozer converted homes into military barracks, ransacked others, detained residents for field interrogations, and sealed all village entrances with earthen barriers.
Freed Palestinian prisoner describes 33 years of abuse in Israeli jails: Nasser Abu Srour, who was held in Israeli prisons from 1993 to 2026, wrote a firsthand account of the abuse he encountered for Equator Magazine, describing guards cutting electricity to punish audible prayer, prohibitions on looking at block officers, and beatings carried out with canes, truncheons, tear gas, electric shocks, rubber bullets, and live ammunition. Abu Srour recounts guards rushing into cells, chaining prisoners, and dragging them to the yard for repeat beatings—sometimes accompanied by dogs set on restrained detainees—and describes a pepper spray attack on himself after truthfully denying possession of a hidden radio. “Any appeal for explanation resulted only in an extra measure of violence,” he writes. Abu Srour’s full account is available here.
U.S. News
By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.
Primary season is in full swing: On Tuesday, voters in California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, Iowa, and South Dakota, go to the polls. The chaotic jungle primary for governor pits billionaire Tom Steyer, running a campaign centered on challenging corporate power and breaking up electric and utility monopolies, against Biden cabinet official Xavier Becerra. If Democrats can lock Republicans out of the top two slots, then GOP turnout would likely plummet in November, giving Democratic candidates for California House seats a leg up. In the L.A. mayor’s race, right-wing populist Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star, is battling to make the top two against incumbent Karen Bass and leftist Nithya Raman.
Pro-Israel groups play big in key California races:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) endorsed Jasmeet Bains in her race against auto mechanic Randy Villegas. Bains had previously said Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza, but reversed herself as the AIPAC offshoot Democratic Majority For Isreal began spending millions to support her. The winner between the two will take on Republican incumbent David Valadao. Ryan Grim’s interview with Villegas is here.
DMFI appears to be making its largest push against Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat getting right-wing media attention because of his grandfather, Palestinian militant Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, who was killed by Israeli forces for his role in the 1972 Munich attack. A Rafah hospital was named for al-Najjar and his grandson Ammar spent three years in Gaza as a boy. Campa-Najjar’s Democratic opponent, Marni von Wilpert, is facing a last-minute scandal for a settlement reached with her former chief of staff who came under employment pressure amid chemotherapy treatments.
In Sacramento, longtime AIPAC-backed incumbent Doris Matsui is facing a serious challenge from Justice Democrats-backed Mai Vang; Matsui’s allies have spent considerable money trying to boost a Republican into the top two to block Vang from the general. Interview on Breaking Points here.
In the 34th District, Justice Democrats–backed Angela Gonzalez-Torres is facing incumbent Jimmy Gomez, a longtime AIPAC ally.
Adam Hamawy, retired Army doctor who volunteered in Gaza, faces last-minute smear campaign in New Jersey: The New York Post and Jewish Insider have ratcheted up their attacks on Hamawy to startling new levels, absurdly accusing Hamawy of links to Al Qaeda, pointing to a volunteer trip he did in 1994 that was connected to a relief organization that was raided a decade later as an alleged Al Qaeda front. Streamer Hasan Piker rallied with Hamawy over the weekend. Watch his interview with Breaking Points Friday.
Drop Site reporting shakes up San Francisco congressional race:
A network of super PACs backing Connie Chan received hundreds of thousands from AIPAC: San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who has publicly refused support from AIPAC in her bid for California’s 11th congressional district, has nonetheless been the beneficiary of nearly $500,000 in spending from a network of super PACs that themselves have taken money from AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel. Chan, who received the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, faces state Sen. Scott Wiener and Justice Democrats co-founder Saikat Chakrabarti in her primary race; the latest EMC Research poll has Wiener leading at 38%, with Chan and Chakrabarti virtually tied for second place. Read Ryan Grim and Julian Andreone’s full report here.
Chan’s campaign responded to Drop Site’s reporting on Sunday, saying it “would urge any organization supporting Connie to respect the very clear values she has laid out not to accept donations from AIPAC.”
Frontrunner Wiener allegedly told major donor he was forced to characterize Israel’s behavior in Gaza as a genocide: On a May 18 donor call, Moses Libitzky—president of the board of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a major real estate developer—told pro-Israel candidate Marie Hurabiell—who had dialed him hoping for a contribution—that he was a supporter of Scott Wiener’s and was told by Wiener that his characterization of Gaza as a genocide was made only out of political necessity and that Wiener remained a strong supporter of Israel. Hurabiell, without naming the door, discussed the conversation in a video posted to Twitter on Saturday. A source on the call confirmed to Drop Site that Libitzy was the donor on the phone. Libitzky, when contacted for comment, said that “whatever was said to me by Scott or Marie is up to them to discuss with you.” Libitzky gave the maximum allowable contribution to Wiener’s campaign. A Wiener spokesperson denied Hurabiell’s claim.
Graham Platner hit with sexting scandal: Last summer, while the Platner campaign was doing what’s known as self-oppo—determining what potential lines of attack an opponent may have—Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, disclosed to campaign aide Genevieve McDonald that early in their marriage, Platner had engaged in explicit text messages with other women. McDonald subsequently left the campaign last fall and shared Gertner’s disclosure with both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Platner’s wife responded with a video on Instagram, saying, “No marriage is perfect and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.”
New Jersey State Police take over Delaney Hall perimeter after week of clashes between ICE and protesters: New Jersey State Police assumed control of the perimeter outside the GEO Group-run Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark on Saturday under an executive order by Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill after more than a week of confrontations between ICE agents and demonstrators. Sherill, who called last week for the facility to be shut down, has faced significant backlash for her mobilization of the state police. The protests were sparked by a hunger strike involving 300 to 400 detainees.
Far-right Israeli ministers appear in New York Israel Day parade: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich joined members of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party and several Likud lawmakers in marching Sunday in Manhattan’s annual Israel Day Parade, aimed at bolstering Israel’s public image in the United States. Last year, several countries placed Smotrich and Ben Gvir under sanctions for inciting extremist violence against Palestinians. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to attend, though his administration did provide “enhanced security” for the event. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and other state and city officials attended.
Hochul used the occasion to sign her “buffer zone” bill into law, making it a crime to block entry to houses of worship and permitting protest restrictions within 50 feet of such sites, in response to recent protests against real estate expos held at NYC synagogues to sell land in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Trump-connected firm with no infrastructure experience nears $1B Bosnia pipeline contract: AAFS Infrastructure and Energy—represented by Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who has defended Donald Trump and his son in political cases, and Joe Flynn, brother of former national security adviser Michael Flynn—is close to securing a concession to build and operate a $1.2 billion gas pipeline across the Balkans in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with no competitive process, a Guardian investigation found. Ultranationalist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik’s U.S. sanctions were quietly lifted by the Trump administration after he hired Michael Flynn as a lobbyist for $100,000.
Other International News
Far-right candidate leads in Colombia’s first-round election results: Far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won 43.7% of the vote to leftist Iván Cepeda’s 40.9% in Colombia’s first-round presidential election, with 99.4% of polling stations reporting—setting up a runoff between de la Espriella and Cepeda on June 21. Pre-election polls had consistently shown Cepeda leading. Support for center-right candidate Paloma Valencia appears to have collapsed and consolidated behind de la Espriella in the final stretch, aided by late interventions from Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno. Drop Site correspondent Sasi Alejandre reports that coalition observers are closely scrutinizing the count and monitoring for potential irregularities.
Sudanese army drone kills ten civilians in West Kordofan: A drone strike allegedly carried out by the Sudanese army in West Kordofan on Saturday killed ten people, including eight children, and wounded others, according to Sudan Tribune. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on May 11 that drone strikes had killed 880 civilians in Sudan—more than 80% of all conflict-related civilian deaths—in the first four months of 2026.
Tribal clashes reignite in South Darfur: Fighting between the Salamat and Beni Halba tribes reignited around the town of Kubum in South Darfur state, Sudan Tribune reports, with armed fighters from both sides deploying Rapid Support Forces vehicles in clashes that have spread to nearby villages and to parts of Central Darfur state. Both sides deliberately burned villages, triggering mass displacement toward Ad al-Fursan, while an unconfirmed number of fighters were killed. The two tribes had reached an RSF-brokered reconciliation agreement in December 2025 following a previous round of fighting; the current clashes were triggered by the killing of a herder last week.
WHO chief visits DRC Ebola epicenter as confirmed cases nearly double: The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri province on Saturday, as confirmed Ebola cases in the country reached 225—nearly double the 121 reported two days earlier, alongside 1,028 suspected cases and more than 220 suspected deaths. Médecins Sans Frontières says the Ebola outbreak is one of the fastest-spreading on record, and the WHO has warned that the death rate associated with it could reach 30 to 50%. Global funding for a response to the disease has more than halved, from $498 million to $219 million, according to the Africa CDC.
Ukraine strikes Russian energy infrastructure across multiple regions: Ukraine launched coordinated drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the weekend, setting off a major port fire in the Rostov Oblast after drones struck a tanker, fuel tank, and administrative building. Two civilians were wounded when a separate drone hit a private home.
Additional strikes hit an oil facility in Armavir, Krasnodar Krai—which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted lay some 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border—ignited giant fuel tanks near Yaroslavl, and forced the shutdown of Russia’s Volgograd oil refinery.
Ukrainian drones also reportedly struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, punching a hole in a turbine hall wall without damaging key equipment, according to state nuclear company Rosatom. Ukraine’s military denied striking the plant, calling the Russian claims propaganda.
Russia launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, hitting infrastructure in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Ammunition depot explosion kills 39 in northeast Myanmar: An explosion at an ammunition store controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in Myanmar’s Shan state killed at least 39 people and wounded 75 others Sunday, with the cause still under investigation, Al Jazeera reports. The TNLA said the stored explosives were used in mining operations in an area known for its ruby mines, and residents described bodies and debris scattered across a massive crater where more than half the village’s houses were destroyed.
Truck carrying Afghan refugees from Pakistan overturns, killing 18: A cargo truck overloaded with recently returned Afghan refugee families overturned at an intersection in Afghanistan’s Laghman province on Saturday morning, after the driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel, killing at least 18 people—including ten children—and critically injuring more than 30 others. The families had been temporarily sheltering in the country’s Kunar province and were en route to Kabul. The crash comes amid a mass return of Afghans from Pakistan, with the UN recording more than 447,000 crossings this year.
Indigenous Nicaraguan leader Brooklyn Rivera dies in state custody: Brooklyn Rivera, a 73-year-old Miskito Indigenous leader and anti-government activist who had been held in Nicaraguan detention without outside contact since September 2023, died Sunday. The government attributed his death to a bacterial infection following Covid-19, but Reed Brody of the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua said, “If he is dead, it cannot be said that the cause was illness”—“the cause would be that he was in government custody in conditions of enforced disappearance for over two years, denied independent medical oversight.”
UK bans Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker ahead of SXSW London appearances: The UK Home Office banned American political commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the country Sunday after calls by members of the country’s Labour Party and from a Jewish and pro-Israel group called the Community Security Trust to revoke their travel visas. Uygur and Piker planned to appear at SXSW London, with Uygur also barred from a planned Oxford University student event. The Home Office said their electronic travel authorizations were cancelled on grounds that their presence “may not be conducive to the public good.”
Syrian president calls Trump to press for full sanctions relief: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called Trump Sunday to ask the U.S. to lift its remaining sanctions on his country, claiming that such a move is essential to reviving the Syrian economy and attracting investment. The U.S. has dismantled most of its sanctions, but kept some measures in place to target associates of former President Bashar al-Assad, captagon traffickers, and others, and has said that a review of Syria’s state sponsor of terrorism designation is ongoing.
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"Netanyahu offered “repeated ceasefire violations” as a pretext for Israeli escalation, despite the nearly daily strikes Israel has carried out in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect in mid-April."
It's an indictment of our maistream media that it has not yet reported what is clear and in plain sight every day: Israel's aaggression in Lebanon is deliberate in order to torch any agreement that Iran and the U.S. might reach.
Israel and the American neocons, the Christian evangelists, as well as the media (NYT, WaPo, et al.) in the U.S. are in sync about Iran -- they see Iran as a mortal enemy.
Trouble is, the U.S. doesn't have the military resources nor the finances to engage in a long-term war that might eventually expand with China and Russia siding with Iran.
Thank God for that, and may that eventually force us into a peace deal with Iran.
Trump got the US in a bind with Iran and has put himself under Netanyahu's thumb. Israel's actions in Lebanon give control of the peace process to Israel not the US.