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Al Jazeera journalists killed during Israeli airstrike in Gaza

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From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

‘If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins … and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide,’ Anas al-Sharif recently warned.

A top Palestinian reporter for Al-Jazeera and five other journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday in Gaza City.

Anas al-Sharif, the most visible reporter in Gaza, was buried Monday along with four other Al Jazeera journalists — Mohammed Qreiqah, Ibrahim Zahir, Mo’men Alouwa, and Mohammed Noufal as well as Sahat journalist Mohammed Al-Khalidi. Their deaths now bring the number of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza to 238, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

About an hour before he was struck dead, al-Sharif warned, “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased — and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop. Silence is complicity.”

The Al-Jazeera reporter has been continuously helping to expose the devastation, death, and suffering in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught in the region through his reports on live television and online.

He covered Israel’s 2024 airstrike killing his colleagues, including prominent Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi. Al-Sharif’s father was killed in December 2023 during an Israeli strike on his family home.

The daring journalist, a Muslim, leaves behind a daughter, Sham, a son, Salah, and his wife, Umm Salah. He left a will and final message in which he urged listeners not to forget Gaza. “And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” he concluded.

The Israeli military admitted to targeting al-Sharif, claiming he was the “head of a terrorist cell in Hamas.” Al-Sharif himself and Al-Jazeera have emphatically denied this allegation, and al-Sharif can reportedly be heard criticizing Hamas in social media posts.

International observers and groups such as the pro-media freedom Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have rejected the allegations. RSF has called them “baseless.”

“Without strong action from the international community to stop the Israeli army … we’re likely to witness more such extrajudicial murders of media professionals,” RSF said, according to the BBC.

Fellow Palestinian journalist Kamer Labad believes this most recent slaughter of reporters in Gaza by the Israeli military is meant to intimidate other journalists in the region into silence, so that the horrors of the remainder of Israel’s onslaught are not shown to the world.

“We fear that this could be a prelude to massacres in Gaza City, especially after the occupation’s threat to completely occupy the Gaza Strip and completely destroy Gaza City in particular,” Labad, a reporter for Al-Aqsa TV, told Drop Site on Monday. “They do not want these pictures to be broadcast, and it’s also a clear threat to other journalists not to convey the voices of Gaza to the outside world.”

Two special UN rapporteurs described the killings as “an attempt to silence reporting on the ongoing genocide and starvation campaign” in Gaza.

“It is outrageous that the Israeli army dares to first launch a campaign to smear Anas Al-Sharif as Hamas in order to discredit his reporting and then kill him and his colleagues for speaking the truth to the world,” the experts said, demanding both an investigation into the journalists’ deaths and free access by international media to Gaza.

This latest hit on Palestinian journalists has triggered anger and protests around the world from Tunisia to Ireland and Sweden to Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera reported.

While Israel initially claimed the deaths of Palestinian journalists were simply collateral damage, they eventually admitted to targeting journalists, but under the pretext that they were militants. In October 2024, Israel placed six Al Jazeera journalists on a hit list, including Al-Sharif. Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabbat, who was named on the list, was assassinated in March by the Israeli military’s own admission.

Al-Sharif had been directly threatened by the Israeli military since at least November 2023, when he said he was called by Israeli army officers who told him to stop reporting on Israel’s violence and to leave northern Gaza. About three weeks afterward, as he refused to stop covering the devastation in Gaza, his family home was bombed, killing his 90-year-old father. “The threats only escalated from there, with the Israeli military spokesperson posting videos taunting him online,” Drop Site News shared.

Al-Sharif referred to Israel’s threats as a policy of “Silence or Death,” and he not only refused to be silenced — he urged others to speak out about the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

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Trump speaks with Zelenskyy, European leaders ahead of Putin meeting in Alaska

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From The Center Square

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President Donald Trump met virtually with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders before flying to Alaska for a U.S.-Russia bilateral meeting Friday.

European leaders outlined five principles during the emergency summit, including that Ukraine must be involved in future talks with Putin and that no Ukrainian territory will be ceded to Russia in exchange for a ceasefire.

Trump and Putin are set to meet in Anchorage on Friday to continue negotiations to end Russia’s three-year military involvement in Ukraine. Trump originally made Zelenskyy’s presence a condition for Friday’s meeting but later conceded when Putin refused to meet if Kyiv participated.

“The war is happening in Europe, and Ukraine is an integral part of Europe,” Zelenskyy said last week. “Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes.”

Zelenskyy maintained this stance Wednesday after Trump moved forward with a U.S.-Russia bilateral meeting without him, arguing that “what concerns Ukraine must be discussed with Ukraine.”

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy told Trump that “Putin is bluffing” by saying sanctions against Moscow will not be effective in pressuring him into a ceasefire.

The European Union has imposed heavy sanctions on Russia for its military involvement in Ukraine. The U.S. followed suit last month by shortening the 50-day window it gave Russia to broker a peace deal with Ukraine before it faces sanctions.

Putin has reportedly suggested Russian occupation of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of a ceasefire deal. Zelenskyy rejected this proposal and maintained Wednesday that he will not surrender any territory to Moscow in a peace deal.

“[My position] hasn’t changed because it’s based on the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian constitution hasn’t changed,” Zelenskyy said during a news conference after the virtual meeting.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted Zelenskyy in Berlin for the call. During the post-meeting news conference, Merz said Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine “opened the wounds of European separation again,” referencing European conflict during World War II.

Trump has expressed waning optimism for a peace deal with Russia in recent weeks, calling Putin “cold” and repeatedly stating his disappointment in Putin’s empty assurances to work out an end to the war in Ukraine.

When speaking about the upcoming meeting with Putin during a press conference Monday, Trump said that “probably in the first two minutes I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can get done.” He also said he intends to set up a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin after Friday’s talks and will make it a trilateral meeting if necessary.

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Daily Caller

Mexico Hands Over Notorious Cartel Leaders To Trump Admin

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

The Trump administration extradited dozens of fugitives from Mexico as the White House tightens a noose around criminal syndicates south of the border.

Federal law enforcement took custody of 26 individuals, many of them leaders of dangerous drug cartels and human smuggling organizations that the Trump administration has deemed to be foreign terrorist organizations, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Tuesday announcement came in the aftermath of President Donald Trump reportedly authorizing the use of military force against drug cartels.

Among those handed over to U.S. authorities were top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generation and Los Zetas cartels, according to the DOJ. Nearly every individual faces up to life in prison on various charges ranging from hostage-taking, drug-trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling and a slate of other crimes.

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“Today is the latest example of the Trump administration’s historic efforts to dismantle cartels and foreign terrorist organizations,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a public statement. “These 26 men have all played a role in bringing violence and drugs to American shores — under this Department of Justice, they will face severe consequences for their crimes against this country.”

“We are grateful to Mexico’s National Security team for their collaboration in this matter,” Bondi continued.

Those extradited to the U.S. included Martin Zazueta Perez and Kevin Gil Acosta, leaders of a powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that have led hired gunmen armed with grenade launchers and assault rifles in attacks against Mexican military officials, according to the DOJ. Both men were involved in prolific fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.

Also taken into American custody were Leobardo Garcia Corrales, a close friend of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman who has allegedly trafficked fentanyl into the U.S. in exchange for AK-47s, grenades and submachine guns, and Luis Raul Castro Valenzuela, a Sinaloa Cartel gangbanger accused of kidnapping and holding hostage an American citizen, according to the DOJ.

Collectively, the 26 individuals have imported “tonnage quantities” of cocaine, meth, fentanyl heroin and other illicit drugs through the Mexico border, according to the Trump administration.

Just days before the extradition, Trump reportedly authorized the use of military strikes against Mexican drug cartels, a move that would mark a monumental escalation in the White House’s war against criminal syndicates. Immediately upon re-entering office, the president officially designated a number of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, allowing U.S. authorization to freeze their financial assets, prohibit their entry into the country and the prosecution of members for supporting terrorism.

While the Mexican government has shown a willingness to help take on drug cartels and illegal immigration, their government appears adamantly opposed to U.S. military strikes against criminal syndicates within their territory, with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Friday “absolutely” ruling out the possibility of U.S. military operations on Mexican land.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration across the southern border has wielded unprecedented success, with Border Patrol agents releasing zero migrants into the interior of the country in July, marking the third consecutive month of zero releases.

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