cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5457337

Snip:

US security contractors for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) say they are firing live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against Palestinian civilians attempting to collect food in Gaza, according to testimonies and video evidence reviewed by AP.

“There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” one contractor said, describing unqualified, unvetted, and heavily armed guards hired to manage crowd control at US-funded aid distribution sites.

Speaking anonymously due to fears of retaliation, two contractors said lethal force is used routinely, even when no threat is present. “Bullets were fired in all directions – in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians,” one said, recalling at least one instance where a person was likely hit.

*US authorities pledged $30 million to support the aid scheme's operations in May, bypassing UN mechanisms. Journalists have been

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5424714

Red Feather is dedicated to improving housing conditions on the Hopi and Navajo nations in the Four Corners region. It has helped thousands of families with stove replacement, heat pump installation and weatherization assistance. The group has been doing this work for decades, but in recent years, it has seen a surge in work, in part due to increased funding from the federal government.

A big part of that funding, a $500,000 environmental justice grant Red Feather received from the Environmental Protection Agency, has now been terminated.

Red Feather is just one of hundreds of groups that have had grants meant to help disadvantaged communities canceled by the Trump administration. An Inside Climate News analysis, which relied on federal government spending data and federal court filings from the Trump administration, found the EPA’s grant terminations focused almost entirely on cutting spending on poor and minority co

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5395820

Ras Ain al-Ouja is one of the largest Palestinian Bedouin villages in the occupied West Bank. Nestled amid a ridge of high silt hills just north of Jericho city, the village is facing intensified Israeli government-funded settler efforts to expel its residents.

The community’s 1,200 residents are surrounded from all sides by the illegal Yitav settlement and four illegal settler outposts, the most recent of which was built one year ago.

Settlers descend onto the village and raid residents’ homes on a daily basis, physically attacking people, stealing sheep, and terrorizing families. They also took over the nearby spring of Ain al-Ouja, one of the main springs in Palestine and a major water source for the entire area that drew local tourism. Today, all Palestinians are barred from accessing it.

[Full Article](https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/major-palestinian-bedouin-village-faces-expulsion-by-israeli-army-and-sett

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5397996

June 5th marked the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, but that very same day (or the day before on other consoles), the highly anticipated continuation of Deltarune, in Chapters 3 and 4, also hit digital shelves.

To help me try and silence those voices and get a few extra hours of sleep, I was graciously given the chance to pepper Deltarune's creator, Toby Fox, with a few of the questions that have been knockin' about in my noggin. Did Toby answer my questions? Yes. Did he also take every opportunity to run in a different direction and troll me? Yes, and yes, but that's truly for you to decide. Did I love every part of his reply? Absolutely. Mild spoilers ahead by the way.

How has it felt releasing your story in chunks/chapters like this, as opposed to a fully complete package and when are you personally hoping to have the final chapter of Deltarune release? Are we cursing you by even asking such a question?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5417645

Snip:

The pre-print of a new study led by Prof. Michael Spagat of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Palestinian political scientist Dr. Khalil Shikaki has revealed that Gaza's death toll from the ongoing conflict could be nearly 100,000, a figure significantly higher than official reports, Haaretz reported on 26 June.

The Gaza Mortality Survey (GMS), the most comprehensive to date, estimates around 75,200 violent deaths between October 2023 and January 2025—nearly 40 percent higher than the Gaza Health Ministry's reported death toll of 45,660 at the time.

Researchers carried out a detailed household survey, interviewing 2,000 families—around 9,700 individuals—to independently evaluate fatalities.

*The study estimated 8,540 additional non-violent deaths through January, bringing the combined fatality count for that period to 83,740. Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded over 10,000 more deaths since

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5418835

A peer-reviewed article—on Indigenous dance in Palestine and Native North America as resistance to genocide—was formally accepted then rejected by the editors of The Journal of Somaesthetics, citing fear of criticizing Israel’s genocide.

It is unclear why—after a year of nonstop affirmation and written acceptance from both editors—the decision was suddenly reversed. Finally, it is also unclear why making a political statement (or being perceived as making one), or putting a journal, its editors, and/or its board members “in a difficult position” are legitimate grounds for reversing a formal acceptance for publication in an academic journal. My subsequent attempts to clarify and resolve the situation have all gone nowhere.

From these exchanges, I logically inferred, as did several colleagues in Philosophy and Dance Studies (via email correspondence), that the real reason for the journal’s sudden reversal was my essay

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5407534

Disabled people’s lives will be increasingly in danger because of MPs’ failure to understand the risks posed by the assisted dying bill, devastated activists warned on Friday after the legislation was approved by the House of Commons.

Disabled activists had started gathering outside parliament at 6.30am last Friday in preparation for a crucial debate on the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill before a vote that determined whether it passed to the Lords.

Before the vote, supporters of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK) held up traffic in front of the House of Commons with a last-minute direct action (pictured), accompanied by chants of “we are not… dead yet”.

Among those disabled people outside the Commons was musician and activist John Kelly, who said after the vote was announced: “The truth is, our voices haven’t been listened to.

“What this does is open the door for inj

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5395820

Ras Ain al-Ouja is one of the largest Palestinian Bedouin villages in the occupied West Bank. Nestled amid a ridge of high silt hills just north of Jericho city, the village is facing intensified Israeli government-funded settler efforts to expel its residents.

The community’s 1,200 residents are surrounded from all sides by the illegal Yitav settlement and four illegal settler outposts, the most recent of which was built one year ago.

Settlers descend onto the village and raid residents’ homes on a daily basis, physically attacking people, stealing sheep, and terrorizing families. They also took over the nearby spring of Ain al-Ouja, one of the main springs in Palestine and a major water source for the entire area that drew local tourism. Today, all Palestinians are barred from accessing it.

[Full Article](https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/major-palestinian-bedouin-village-faces-expulsion-by-israeli-army-and-sett

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5388471

Construction is moving rapidly on a controversial migrant detention center deep in the Florida Everglades nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," despite growing concerns from Native American tribes who call the area home.

The facility is being built on an old airstrip at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, roughly an hour and 45 minutes west of Miami. The state is using emergency powers to take over the county-owned land and construct a center that can detain up to 5,000 migrants.

The site is surrounded by wildlife, swampland, and alligators, but it’s also adjacent to Native American land. Members of the Miccosukee Tribe say the project threatens their way of life and the fragile Everglades ecosystem they rely on for food, water, and traditional medicine.

“I started to get upset at the way he described the landscape as if it’s a wasteland,” said Betty Osceola, a Miccosukee tribal member, after comments ma

Post-9/11 islamophobia never left

Found this article that talks about what she said if you prefer to read it

Democratic Senator Gillibrand Goes on Islamophobic Rant Against Mamdani

some excepts

During the segment, kicked off by a call-in question by a listener, Gillibrand said that Mamdani, who is Muslim, is dangerous and supports violence, citing his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” and equating the words “intifada” and “jihad” to fear monger about them.

Her statements were completely removed from reality, and clearly informed by some of the worst hatred spread against Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians in particular over the past decades. For instance, Gillibrand said that just the phrase “global intifada” — with “intifada” meaning “uprising” or “rebellion” in Arabic — is “violent and destructive.”

“It doesn’t matter what meaning you have in your bra

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5388313

Many Democratic leaders and donors are panicking about Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who won the party's nomination to be the next mayor of New York City.

Why it matters: Establishment Democrats looking to recover from 2024's losses fear Mamdani could hurt the party's brand nationally — while young progressives believe his formula could spread beyond New York.

Democratic leaders largely rallied behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York's mayoral primary, and Mamdani's shocking victory Tuesday was the latest example of the party's establishment being disconnected from many of its own voters.

The top two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both New Yorkers, declined to endorse Mamdani even as they applauded his victory.

New York Rep. Laura Gillen, from Nassau County, called Mamdani the "absolute wrong choice for New York."

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5366823

Article

Voters in the largest city in America are choosing a Democratic nominee for mayor via ranked-choice voting. The crowded field is led by former governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from the state’s top office four years ago following sexual harassment allegations; state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who snagged key endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York); Comptroller Brad Lander, who made headlines when he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an immigration hearing last week; and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

This is a ranked-choice primary – only first-choice votes will be tabulated on election night. Final vote calculations will be released July 1 and updated weekly until all ballots are counted. Republican Curtis Sliwa is uncontested in

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5365291

A study published via the Harvard Dataverse reveals that Israel has “disappeared” at least 377,000 Palestinians since the start of its genocidal campaign against the Gaza Strip in 2023.

Half of this number is believed to be Palestinian children.

The report was written by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, who used data-driven analysis and spatial mapping to show how the Israeli army’s siege of Gaza and indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the enclave have led to a serious drop in its population.

The 377,000 Palestinians who are unaccounted for due to Israel’s genocide are approximately 17 percent of the Gaza Strip’s entire population, which now stands at about 1.85 million. Prior to the war in Gaza, the strip’s population was estimated at 2.227 million.

While some are displaced or missing, a significant number are believed to have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the report.

[Full Article](

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5344173

In Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie, longtime Minnesota journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty trace this staggering transformation.“ The Europeans who colonized North America in the 19th century transformed the continent’s hydrology as thoroughly as the glaciers,” they write. “But, remarkably, they did it in less than 100 years instead of tens of thousands.”

In putting hundreds of millions of acres of prairie to the plow, settlers not only forcibly displaced Indigenous nations, but completely altered the region’s ancient carbon and nitrogen cycles. They also turned the region into an agricultural powerhouse. The deep black soil once prevalent in the Midwest — the result of thousands of years of animal and plant decomposition depositing untold carbon stores into the ground — became the foundation of the modern food system. But the undoing of the American prairie also d

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5292486

There are more than 500 miles between the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s tribal reservation in northeastern Kansas and 1,500 acres of mostly prairie in northern Illinois.

So, Raphael Wahwassuck has come far to visit the site of a long-gone cabin there. Except it’s not an unfamiliar place to him and his kin. Wahwassuck is a member of the Prairie Band’s tribal council and a direct descendant of Chief Shab-eh-nay, for whom the state park is named after.

Most members of the tribe were forced from their homelands of the Great Lakes region into Kansas. They ceded approximately 28 million acres to the United States government, while an 1829 treaty promised Chief Shab-eh-nay 1,280 acres of reservation in Illinois.

Yet when he left in 1849 to visit his relatives in Kansas, the U.S. illegally sold the chief’s land to white settlers.

Over the last 15 years, the tribe has spent $10 million to purchase parts of the o

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5334510

There’s been a flash point of change in the U.S. that has brought new recognition and reckoning with the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

After decades of sporadic police and public interest and investigation, public awareness, support and funding sources have aligned in a way that may finally bring closure and justice for families.

Recent developments in the decades-old murder case of Susan “Suzy” Poupart highlight the shifts.

And, ICT has learned, that after years of struggling to pay for expensive DNA testing of evidence found with Poupart’s remains, the Vilas County sheriff’s department will be receiving help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, which will fund the testing as part of the agency’s initiative Operation Spirit Return. The initiative focuses on solving cold cases in Indian Country.

The recent momentum, however, could be endangered by the Trump a

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5330515

At least 140 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours as the confrontation between Israel and Iran teetered on the precipice of an even more dangerous conflagration.

Among those killed were people attempting to access aid being brought in by UN trucks in central Gaza.

Around 400 people have been killed while attempting to reach aid since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing food on 27 May, and more than 3,000 injured, according to authorities in Gaza.

More than 55,600 people have been killed in Gaza and nearly 130,000 injured since Israel’s military assault began in October 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the territory. More than 5,330 people have been killed and nearly 18,000 injured since Israel broke a two-month-old ceasefire on 18 March.

The UN human rights office called on the Israeli military “to immediately cease its use of l

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5312880

Since mid-May, wildfires across Canada have burned 9.6 million acres, prompting the evacuation of approximately 40,000 people. According to Indigenous Services Canada, a government ministry, more than half of those evacuees are from First Nations communities, and nearly 34 tribes in almost every province are affected. The sudden rush of refugees has challenged the country’s crisis response infrastructure as people seek shelter and services in cities far from their homes, with little information of when they may return to their communities.

Officials estimate that 76 percent of wildfires currently burning are concentrated in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta — Canada’s western provinces — while additional provinces like British Colombia, Ontario, and Quebec are also affected. Provincial and First Nation governments, tribal organizations, and the Canadian Red Cross have coordinated emergency efforts in the affected regions.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5299373

When Iranian missiles began raining down on Israel, many residents scrambled for cover. Sirens wailed across the country as people rushed into bomb shelters.

But for some Palestinian citizens of Israel – two million people, or roughly 21 percent of the population – doors were slammed shut, not by the force of the blasts and not by enemies, but by neighbours and fellow citizens.

Mostly living in cities, towns, and villages within Israel’s internationally recognised borders, many Palestinian citizens of Israel found themselves excluded from life-saving infrastructure during the worst nights of the Iran-Israel conflict to date.

Palestinian citizens of Israel have long faced systemic discrimination – in housing, education, employment, and state services. Despite holding Israeli citizenship, they are often treated as second-class citizens, and their loyalty is routinely questioned in public discourse.

[Full Arti

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5292486

There are more than 500 miles between the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s tribal reservation in northeastern Kansas and 1,500 acres of mostly prairie in northern Illinois.

So, Raphael Wahwassuck has come far to visit the site of a long-gone cabin there. Except it’s not an unfamiliar place to him and his kin. Wahwassuck is a member of the Prairie Band’s tribal council and a direct descendant of Chief Shab-eh-nay, for whom the state park is named after.

Most members of the tribe were forced from their homelands of the Great Lakes region into Kansas. They ceded approximately 28 million acres to the United States government, while an 1829 treaty promised Chief Shab-eh-nay 1,280 acres of reservation in Illinois.

Yet when he left in 1849 to visit his relatives in Kansas, the U.S. illegally sold the chief’s land to white settlers.

Over the last 15 years, the tribe has spent $10 million to purchase parts of the o