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⭕️ U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio complained that Iran was spending its resources to bolster allies in the “Axis of Resistance” rather than on the domestic needs of its citizens. Alan Eyre, a former senior U.S. diplomat and the State Department’s first Persian-language spokesperson, pointed to the irony: “…says the country seeking a USD 1.5 trillion dollar ‘war’ budget.” Eyre spent much of his 40-year government career working on Iran and Middle East policy. Rubio also said Sunday that Washington remains open to diplomacy, but that the MOU could not be considered “alive” while Iran was attacking ships and restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed Tehran had sent signals through direct and indirect channels that it wanted to negotiate, but said Washington would continue its military response unless Iran changed course.
Drop Site97,712 views • 9 hours ago
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed pushed back on the assumption that American taxpayers must guarantee the survival of Israel or any other foreign government in an interview with Pod Save America. Alex Wagner: “So no funding to ensure the survival or future of a Jewish state?” El-Sayed: “I turn it back around on you, Alex: Why is it our responsibility to ensure that?” 🎥 Clip from Pod Save America. The full interview is linked in reply.
Drop Site78,593 views • 5 hours ago
![🚨NEW: Drop Site journalist Ryan Grim has authenticated behind-the-scenes messages showing Politico omitted an important detail from its reporting on how the night began that led to the rape allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Before publication, a Politico reporter told the Platner campaign that Jenny Racicot, on the night in question, had been “texting [Platner] about needing her glute massaged.” The reporter added, “That detail didn’t make our story.” Racicot told Jake Tapper during her CNN interview that Platner had “taken something that I said as an invitation” before she subsequently texted him not to come over. Tapper did not follow up to ask what the content of the message was, and did not respond to a request for comment from Drop Site. Politico, in a statement to Drop Site, did not dispute that the outlet was aware of the “glute masssage” text, and said that it would update its reporting if further information arose. According to a spokesperson: “This story is based on extensive reporting and interviews and reflects our editorial standards. In interviews with us and in accounts she gave to other outlets, Jenny Racicot said that she told Graham Platner not to come to her home and that he nevertheless showed up there uninvited. POLITICO gave Platner and his campaign ample opportunity to respond to our reporting and to provide any information or documentation they believed contradicted it. If presented with information that materially challenges our reporting, we will report it.” Platner is expected to drop out today. 🎥 Ryan Grim | Saagar Enjeti via Breaking Points](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2074897688139555147/amplify_video_thumb/2074895129031139328/img/qEsYNIzftYynh2_K.jpg)
🚨NEW: Drop Site journalist Ryan Grim has authenticated behind-the-scenes messages showing Politico omitted an important detail from its reporting on how the night began that led to the rape allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Before publication, a Politico reporter told the Platner campaign that Jenny Racicot, on the night in question, had been “texting [Platner] about needing her glute massaged.” The reporter added, “That detail didn’t make our story.” Racicot told Jake Tapper during her CNN interview that Platner had “taken something that I said as an invitation” before she subsequently texted him not to come over. Tapper did not follow up to ask what the content of the message was, and did not respond to a request for comment from Drop Site. Politico, in a statement to Drop Site, did not dispute that the outlet was aware of the “glute masssage” text, and said that it would update its reporting if further information arose. According to a spokesperson: “This story is based on extensive reporting and interviews and reflects our editorial standards. In interviews with us and in accounts she gave to other outlets, Jenny Racicot said that she told Graham Platner not to come to her home and that he nevertheless showed up there uninvited. POLITICO gave Platner and his campaign ample opportunity to respond to our reporting and to provide any information or documentation they believed contradicted it. If presented with information that materially challenges our reporting, we will report it.” Platner is expected to drop out today. 🎥 Ryan Grim | Saagar Enjeti via Breaking Points
Drop Site1,694,882 views • 12 days ago
🎥 “Do you think Palestinians should just have to take it?” On The Majority Report, Jasper Nathaniel said liberal Zionists often condemn settler violence when carried out against defenseless Palestinians, but recoil at the idea that they might resist and defend themselves. Responding to Rep. Ro Khanna’s exchange with Jeremy Scahill, Nathaniel said even Democrats who are evolving on Palestine remain unwilling to place Palestinians “on the same level playing field as every other people in the world.” Vigeland added that Democrats’ professed support for a two-state solution rings hollow because genuine statehood would entail Palestinians having their own military and ability to defend themselves. jasper nathaniel | Emma Vigeland
Drop Site495,695 views • 5 days ago
🏛️New from Drop Site News: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced he would vote no on Rep. Thomas Massie’s amendment to strip $3.3 billion in foreign aid to Israel from the State Department’s 2027 funding bill — putting him at odds with a majority of his own party’s voters. A recent New York Times poll found that 74% of Democrats support ending all military aid to Israel. Drop Site’s Julian Andreone asked pro-Israel Democratic representatives on Capitol Hill why they are voting against their base.
Drop Site505,258 views • 5 days ago
Jessica Tarlov got mocked on Fox News for citing Drop Site, then reminded the panel that a previous Drop Site report they’d dismissed as Iranian propaganda turned out to be accurate “word for word.” “They get a lot of the stuff about the Middle East right,” she added. Thanks, Jessica Tarlov. IYKYK.
Drop Site346,071 views • 4 days ago
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🚨 NEW: Israeli strike hits makeshift shelter in hospital building Three Palestinians were killed and several others wounded, including children, after an Israeli strike hit a makeshift shelter in the Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital building in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. “The children were having fun and playing football, and suddenly they started screaming,” eyewitness Youssef Akasha told Drop Site contributor Mohamed Ahmed. Akasha, who was meters away, described two consecutive explosions. “We found many children lying on the ground, women screaming, and young men running to rescue the wounded,” he said. “At this time, children usually play and have fun.” Akasha said the area around the shelter, near Israel’s declared “yellow line,” is subjected to daily gunfire, shelling and raids. “I don’t feel like there is a ceasefire at all.” At least eight Palestinians have been killed and more than 20 wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza since this morning. 🎥 Mohammed Ahmed filmed the aftermath for Drop Site.
Drop Site51,793 views • 8 hours ago
🎥 Crisis Group’s Ali Vaez asked why Iran would “sacrifice” a supposedly generous U.S. deal over control of the Strait of Hormuz, including a southern corridor handling at best 20% of traffic. Vali Nasr rejected the premise, arguing Tehran concluded early that Washington never intended to honor the MOU and was using it to catch its breath before another war. Nasr said Iran had expected another Israeli/U.S. round by October. Instead, it came much sooner. He identified four signals that convinced Tehran the MOU was never going to be implemented: 1️⃣ No money arrived. No frozen Iranian funds were released. Nasr said one person told him that if chief negotiator Qalibaf had returned from Doha with even $1 billion, “the conversation in Iran would have been very different.” Two months of oil waivers do little to change Iran’s economic position. 2️⃣ Lebanon showed Tehran the U.S. would not honor what it signed. Nasr said Washington agreed to provisions on Lebanon in the MOU, then almost immediately helped create conditions for Israel to operate there with the Lebanese government’s approval, effectively stripping Iran of leverage. 3️⃣ The U.S. began rebuilding for war immediately after signing. Military assets poured into the region in a pattern Tehran recognized from the buildup before February. Nasr said the rhetoric around diplomacy was simply not matched by what Iran was seeing militarily. 4️⃣ Washington began “whittling down” Iran’s control of Hormuz. Nasr stressed two separate moves: the U.S. encouraged tankers not to coordinate with Iran at all, then pushed them toward the southern channel. Iran drew the line. Washington responded with a massive escalation, targeting missile and drone batteries in an effort to take control of the strait out of its hands. 🔸Vali Nasr’s key point: Iran does not see this as a choice between economic benefits and Hormuz. In Tehran’s view, there were no economic benefits to “sacrifice” because Washington was never going to deliver them. And without control of Hormuz, Iran believes it has no leverage to force the U.S. to implement any future deal. As Nasr put it, control of the strait gives Iran a “sword of Damocles over the head of the global economy” that Tehran sees as “essential” to getting anything from Washington. Vali Nasr | Crisis Group
Drop Site163,044 views • 2 days ago
🎥 “Who else is leading a cause that we will glorify in retrospect, but is being vilified in the present?” Speaking at the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Global Leadership Forum, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew a direct line from Mandela’s refusal to abandon the Palestinian cause to the fight for global solidarity and Palestinian freedom today. Recalling how Mandela was branded a terrorist and pressured to renounce his principles, Mamdani asked: “Who are we treating today the way Madiba was treated before history declared him a messiah?” Citing Omar El Akkad’s book on the genocide in Gaza, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” Mamdani said “justice is not measured by where we stand after history has issued its verdict. It is measured by where we stand when the verdict is still being rendered.” “Why must Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya wait more than 18 months for freedom in Israeli detention,” he asked, “after the world watched him be kidnapped as he left his hospital?” “Why must we wait to practice solidarity until it no longer costs us anything?” Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani | CSPAN (Full speech available at the link below)
Drop Site269,889 views • 4 days ago
💢 Seven killed as Ukrainian drones strike Wildberries, Russia’s Amazon Seven warehouse workers were killed and about two dozen wounded when Ukrainian drones struck a logistics center run by the Russian online retailer Wildberries in Kotovsk, in Russia’s Tambov region, the regional governor said. Wildberries is Russia’s largest e-commerce company. The workers were on a night shift. A second Wildberries facility was hit in Elektrostal, about 30 miles east of Moscow, sending a massive plume of black smoke over the capital region, the company said. See footage attached. The Moscow region governor said 24 people were wounded there and two more at an oil depot in nearby Noginsk. Moscow’s mayor said more than 370 drones flew toward the capital region overnight. Ukraine’s military has not commented.
Drop Site160,892 views • 2 days ago
⭕️ JD Vance’s message to Israel: “You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” Noting that significant segments of the Israeli population and political system are anxious about the deal, Vance said it is inconceivable that the United States would release sanctions on Iran if Iran continues to fund Hezbollah. He characterized the criticism from some in the Israeli government as a “freakout” stemming from mistrust, while saying that the United States has been an “incredible partner” to Israel and has earned trust, and that this deal is in the best interest of the entire region. (Interesting Times With Ross Douthat)
Drop Site2,525,557 views • 1 month ago
💢 Iran’s Foreign Ministry Strongly Rejects Attempts to Justify U.S. Breach of Commitments Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei, responding to Tasnim: 🔹 Clause 5 of the memorandum of understanding affirmed Iran’s right to manage the Strait of Hormuz. 🔹 Analyses seeking to cast doubt on the text of the memorandum effectively help justify the United States’ breach of commitments and violation of the agreement. 🔹 The document is brief, consisting of 14 clauses, and is completely explicit, with no ambiguity. 🔹 Clause 5 clearly emphasizes Iran’s responsibility for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, in consultation with Oman and through dialogue with regional countries. No other interpretation can be drawn from it. 🔹 The text leaves no grounds for excuses by the U.S. side. Even U.S. officials have not claimed that differing interpretations of the document were the reason for resuming attacks.
Drop Site40,077 views • 8 hours ago
🎥 Recalling how she was fired from her law firm after refusing to remove a letter defending pro-Palestinian student protesters, Melat Kiros said, “I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will.” She added: “I know that will not be the only moment where those in power will tell me to change my tune, to not rock the boat. That seems to happen a lot in Congress, but here in Denver we stand by our values and we stand with our community.” Democratic socialist Melat Kiros declared victory after defeating 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s Democratic primary tonight. “Denver voters of all ages, of all races, of all religions sent a clear message: We will not wait.”
Drop Site1,139,586 views • 19 days ago
Former senior Biden administration official Philip Gordon says the same forces that pushed Trump toward the Iran MOU—what Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill calls the “3 Ms”: markets, midterms, and depleted U.S. munitions—could ultimately force the US President back toward a “messy version of the MOU.” Gordon warns a renewed Strait of Hormuz closure could hit an already-weakened global economy even harder, and markets may panic if investors conclude Trump is no longer willing to back away from escalation. “We don’t know the math behind what’s left,” Gordon said of U.S. munitions, “but there’s been public information that it’s potentially very serious.” Nothing has changed since the first 40 days of war to make escalation work better now, he added. Phil Gordon | Ali Vaez | Crisis Group
Drop Site45,200 views • 22 hours ago
⚡️ BREAKING: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Drop Site she supports an arms embargo on Israel. AOC had previously said she would oppose both offensive and defensive weapons aid to Israel. She told Drop Site today that this position extends to military aid and arms sales, and that she would vote against any bill requiring her to approve the transfer of weapons to Israel, consistent with her record. Julian Andreone | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Drop Site242,150 views • 6 days ago
The House voted today on a new measure to fuse elements of the Israeli and US militaries, particularly on the cyberweapons front. Section 224, as its known, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strip it from the bill. Watch as a stream of Republicans and Democrats stand up in support of the enhanced cooperation. Only Rep. Sarah Jacobs (D-Calif.) joined Khanna, and the measure failed in a voice vote. Watch:
Drop Site2,340,670 views • 1 month ago
⭕️ Iran FM Araghchi: Wars End Either Through Total Victory or Negotiations… Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi: 🔹 A war must be ended precisely at the point when you hold the upper hand on the battlefield. Ending a war is possible either through total military victory or through negotiations. The right time to negotiate is exactly when you have achieved reliable military and strategic gains on the battlefield. A politician must always ask this fundamental question: Will continuing the war increase the gains, or only increase the losses? 🔹 Like, for example, what happened to Germany in World War II, meaning that it is occupied, or what happened to Saddam in the war, and other such cases. … Because we don’t have that capability. If you have that capability, then go and finish it. We don’t have that capability. We cannot go and overrun and occupy Israel and America. 🔹 We cannot gamble with people’s lives and the fate of the entire country. Decisions must be based on precise and comprehensive calculations. If you seek to end the war through negotiations in a way that prevents it from recurring, you must act at a time when your strength and upper hand have been firmly established. 🔹In this war, despite some losses, we emerged as a decisive international actor and demonstrated the resilience of the system. Accurately identifying the moment to stop the war and begin negotiations is the most vital and consequential part of crisis management for any official. 🔹 In theory, one must always assess whether continuing the war from the current point will produce stronger gains at the negotiating table, or merely impose heavier human and national costs.
Drop Site45,166 views • 1 day ago
💢 Six-year-old girl and a woman killed in Israeli attack on tent in Khan Younis The United States continues to facilitate Israel’s daily killing of Palestinian civilians, through full military and political support as Israel ignores the Trump-brokered ceasefire. Minattallah Nabil Abu Libdah, 6, was killed Monday in an Israeli attack on a tent in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. She had reportedly been recovering from a broken arm at the time of her death. Footage shows her father crying uncontrollably at the hospital next to her lifeless body. A second person, 31-year-old woman Hanan Mahmoud, was also killed in the Israeli attack, according to reporting by Mosab Abu Toha.
Drop Site2,820,303 views • 1 month ago