CH—This video features Chris Hedges interviewing media scholar Robin Andersen about the role of Western media in shaping the narrative regarding the war in Gaza. The discussion focuses on how journalistic language and reporting practices have allegedly dehumanized Palestinians and legitimized Israeli actions. Andersen points to the “flower massacre” (February 2024), where she claims the media often framed the deaths of starving Palestinians seeking aid as “lawlessness” rather than violence by Israeli forces. She also discusses the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital, criticizing the media for repeating unverified claims about the facility’s use by Hamas to justify its attack.

RB—After years of the Western rebuilding of the Ukrainian military it was massed on the borders of the Donbass, while the Ukrainian shelling of the Donbass greatly intensified. With thousands of Donbass civilians killed by shelling and mining intentionally aimed at civilian targets over the years since Debaltseve. After the Donbass militias and small Russian forces routed the Ukrainian forces in February 2022, the West rapidly moved to negotiate to save their proxy army.

GO—Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) wants Trump to begin strikes against rapidly advancing Ansarallah (mistakenly called Houthis) forces but, for now, Trump has rejected the request. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command rushed to Saudi Arabia on Thursday after Ansarallah seized the Yemeni port city of Mokha. The Pentagon has stationed 200 advisers in the country to provide geospatial data to locate potential targets. (Some of us recall JFK sending 400 Green Beret “Special Advisers” to Vietnam in May, 1961) In any case, the US is now involved in three wars: Yemen, Iran and Ukraine.

AZ—Military and strategic upheavals are taking place on the western coast fronts in Yemen, where Sanaa’s forces have succeeded in liberating the districts of Hays and Al-Khokha, in addition to establishing full control over the coastal city of Al-Mokha, according to concordant field and media sources. An achievement on the ground that allowed Sanaa to recover more than 2,550 square kilometers, following the rout and flight of the forces loyal to Saudi Arabia, which suffered massive collapses within their brigades, despite Riyadh launching some 100 airstrikes on all fronts in an effort to support them.

NB—I’m well aware of the dangers of what some refer to as “doomscrolling” and I usually manage to find the balance between ingesting the doom, processing it, and then trying to make sense of it in my writing. But over the last two weeks, for whatever reason, that ability has broken down. I’m working on a couple of longer-form research pieces, and they will be published soon, but I thought I’d get back on the horse and over the mental block by, well, doing this. By writing what I’ve been thinking without worrying too much about form or cohesiveness.

JM—To understand Putin, you must understand Russia. To understand Russia you must also look at a thousand years of history and how cultural behaviors evolved in literally hundreds of ethnic communities spread across the largest country in the world, responding to all kinds of challenges.

Despite ethnic discontinuities, including religious and linguistic differences, most Russians have in common social collectivism born of necessity that a harsh environment imposed on a largely agricultural society where people had to cooperate to survive, not only within their own villages but in concert with others.