Former CIA Officer Drops Bombshell at MKULTRA Hearing: “I Don’t Believe the Research Stopped” — Luna Says Congress Was Lied to for 50 Years

Chairwoman Mrs. Luna addresses the committee during a formal meeting, with fellow members seated in the background.

By Jim Hoft

Explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets reveals decades of CIA crimes against unwitting Americans, evidence destruction, secret torture sites in Germany, and a continuing deep state effort to hide the truth from Congress and the American people.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) chaired a powerful hearing Tuesday titled “Mind Control and Accountability: Uncovering the Truth of the CIA’s MKULTRA Experiments,” dropping bombshell after bombshell on one of the darkest chapters in American intelligence history.

The CIA’s infamous MKULTRA program, which ran from 1953 to 1973, subjected countless unwitting victims, including American citizens, hospital patients, prisoners, and veterans, to LSD, psychological torture, electroshock, hypnosis, and sensory deprivation in a quest for mind control techniques.

In her opening remarks, Luna called the program “crimes committed by the Central Intelligence Agency against American citizens” and “crimes against humanity.”

“This was a deliberate, systematic governmental operation… authorized by the very top of U.S. intelligence apparatus,” Luna said.

She detailed how CIA Director Richard Helms personally ordered the destruction of MKULTRA records in 1973 as he left office. Sidney Gottlieb and his team spent an entire day burning 152 files.

Gottlieb then had his personal papers destroyed. The head of the CIA’s own records center protested in writing and was overruled.

[…]

Via https://hellboundanddown.com/2026/07/03/former-cia-officer-drops-bombshell-at-mkultra-hearing-i-dont-believe-the-research-stopped-luna-says-congress-was-lied-to-for-50-years/

US Strikes Iran Amid Fake “Ceasefire” and even Faker “MOU”

‘Unprecedented corruption,’ crypto ventures help Trump net $2.2bn in profits since return to office

(Photo credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Cradle

JUL 3, 2026

Trump’s supporters have lost huge sums by investing in his World Liberty Financial and $TRUMP memecoin crypto ventures

US President Donald Trump’s income last year soared to more than $2.2 billion, largely due to cryptocurrency holdings and related ventures he himself was able to regulate, according to financial disclosure forms released on 3 July.

In contrast, during his first term in office, the president’s income was primarily derived from his real estate businesses, including hotels, golf courses, and other properties, such as Mar-a-Lago. In 2024, before returning to the White House, he reported making over $600 million.

Last week, Trump claimed his skyrocketing wealth was due to the stock market’s rise. “You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up,” he told reporters last week.

However, the president’s financial disclosures indicate most of his new wealth has resulted from cryptocurrency and related ventures, which he has helped enable by relaxing rules on crypto markets.

In 2024, Trump launched crypto company World Liberty Financial. A UAE state-linked firm acquired a 49 percent stake in the company for $500 million, shortly before his inauguration as president.

The acquisition provided a substantial early windfall for the Trump family, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to flow into Trump-controlled entities. Just months later, the US president approved the export of tightly guarded AI chips to the UAE, suggesting a connection between the two deals and a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency coin issued by World Liberty Financial and promoted by Trump to his supporters has crashed in value by around 85 percent since its launch.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Trump made $1 billion on various crypto deals while his supporters lost vast amounts.

Days before returning to the White House, he launched his memecoin, $TRUMP, which reached a market value of nearly $15 billion before plunging 97 percent to about $400 million.

Roughly two-thirds of investors in the president’s memecoin have lost money, WSJ added.

“Since he retook office, he’s making over a billion dollars a year off of crypto, while at the same time his administration is writing the rules of the road for how crypto will be regulated,” Lee Reiners, a Duke University lecturer, told the Washington Post.

“Not only is this an unprecedented level of self-dealing and self-enrichment, the scale is really hard to wrap your head around.”

“It’s corruption on a scale that, to be honest, has few rivals in world history,” said Norm Eisen, who served as ethics advisor to former US president Barack Obama. “That’s because you never had the combination of a president willing to fully monetize the Oval Office combined with a world full of countries and other special interests who are willing to fork over vast sums.”

Trump or people close to him have also reportedly profited from massive, highly suspicious trading spikes in oil futures and stock indexes that occurred just minutes before the president issued major, market-moving announcements on social media regarding the US war on Iran.

Economists, lawmakers, and market analysts have raised concerns about potential insider trading, data leaks, and market manipulation coming from the White House.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/unprecedented-corruption-crypto-ventures-help-trump-net-22bn-in-profits-since-return-to-office

Yemen repels Saudi warplanes ‘threatening’ Iranian civilian airliner

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah)

The Cradle

JUL 3, 2026

The announcement from Sanaa comes amid mass mobilizations of tribes and armed groups seeking to ‘expel occupiers’ from the country.

Yemen announced on 3 July that its armed forces had “repelled” an attempt by Saudi warplanes to prevent an Iranian civilian aircraft from landing at Sanaa airport.

Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said that Saudi warplanes violating Yemeni airspace were targeted with several air-defense missiles, forcing them to withdraw.

Saree stressed that the Iranian civilian aircraft was carrying more than 200 Yemeni citizens who had been stranded in Iran, including many who were sick or wounded.

“We warn the criminal Saudi enemy against repeating any attempt to violate our airspace or any aggression targeting our country. Such actions will be met with a comprehensive response targeting its airports and vital interests on land and sea,” Saree said in a video statement.

The YAF spokesman further stressed that “our hand is on the trigger” to implement any directives issued by Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi “within the framework of breaking the Saudi-American siege on our people and expelling the occupiers.”

Saree also praised Iran’s role in “breaking the siege” on Yemen by operating flights to transport patients and stranded people and to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Yemen.

After landing in Sanaa, the Iranian plane safely returned to Tehran carrying an official delegation of the Republic of Yemen to participate in the funeral of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has imposed a blockade on Yemen’s land, sea, and air ports, severely restricting vital commercial and humanitarian imports, including fuel and food.

The blockade triggered what the UN called one of the most severe humanitarian crises globally, leading millions towards famine and drastically damaging healthcare and water systems.

The Saudi siege on Yemen was partially lifted following April 2023 negotiations with the Ansarallah resistance movement, which leads the YAF and is closely allied with Iran.

The US and Israel also fought a war with Yemen following the start of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in 2023.

In response to the genocide, the YAF imposed a blockade on Israeli-linked ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait along the Yemeni coast of the Red Sea, eventually prompting the US and European navies to flee the Red Sea.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/yemen-repels-saudi-warplanes-threatening-iranian-civilian-airliner

Trump’s DOJ Defies Judge on Epstein Files Release of Unredacted Files

Image source.

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News

Earlier this week I reported that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over unredacted versions from some of the Epstein files that have been heavily redacted by today, Thursday, July 2, 2026. See: Woman Allegedly Raped by Trump and Epstein Fears for her Life – Judge Orders DOJ to Unredact her Files

As expected, the DOJ, headed by Trump’s former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, failed to comply with the order today.

DOJ Defies Judge on Epstein Files as Compliance Deadline Passes

Judge Emmet Sullivan gave the department until today to release unredacted files or explain why — and the DOJ’s answer was to file an appeal instead.

by The Eastern Herald

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON — The Epstein Files Transparency Act sailed through Congress 427 to 1. On Thursday, the Justice Department chose a different path.

With the compliance deadline set by a federal judge expiring today, the Trump administration announced it would appeal rather than release a set of Epstein-related documents that a court found had been improperly redacted.

The decision sets up a direct confrontation between U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who found the department likely in violation of its own law, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has declined to defend the department’s redaction decisions in court.

The government ignored a law passed by Congress and then refused to defend its own conduct in court, all for the sake of protecting the rich and powerful,”

Brendan Ballou of the Public Integrity Project, who represents journalist Katie Phang, said after Sullivan’s ruling last week.

Sullivan, appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan and a presence on the federal judiciary for nearly four decades, found that Blanche had effectively conceded the merits of Phang’s lawsuit by failing to respond substantively to the court.

By not responding substantively, the Attorney General has conceded Ms. Phang’s merits arguments,”

the 44-page ruling stated.

What Sullivan did not do was give the department a way out.

When the DOJ asked him to pause his order so it could consider an appeal, he refused. The July 2 deadline stood.

The department’s appeal, if it clears the D.C. Circuit, could produce a stay that delays any disclosure indefinitely.

If it does not, and the department still refuses to comply, Sullivan has a tool available: a show-cause order requiring Blanche to appear before him and explain the defiance.

That would mark one of the more unusual judicial proceedings in recent memory — a sitting acting attorney general summoned to defend a decision to defy a transparency mandate his own president signed into law.

The same pressure has built inside Congress.

On Wednesday, former Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the House Oversight Committee, where members pressed her on which names remained hidden and why.

Bondi did not answer those questions directly.

The House Oversight Committee has separately released documents from Epstein’s estate, adding to a body of material that is simultaneously enormous — 3.5 million pages, 2,000 videos, 180,000 images — and conspicuously incomplete at its edges.

Full article.

Congressman Ro Khanna, who was a co-author of the Epstein Transparency Act, along with Congressman Thomas Massey, was interviewed yesterday about the Trump Administration’s failure to obey the law and produce these documents.

He stated that the Senate should require Todd Blanche, currently the interim head of the DOJ, to comply with the law that Trump signed, before being confirmed by the Senate to lead the Department of Justice.

 

Chris Brennan, writing for USA Today, did not mince words on this issue in an opinion piece published yesterday:

Acting AG Blanche has a decision to make on Epstein Files

President Trump picked Todd Blanche because both men have made it plain that they see the job of attorney general as representing and defending only one American ‒ Trump.

Excerpts:

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will find himself in a triangle of trouble on Thursday.

Blanche, nominated as attorney general on June 8 by President Donald Trump, faces a deadline July 2 in federal court to publicly release a batch of secret files about Trump’s old pal, the now-dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Blanche must know that Trump, whom he previously represented in criminal and civil cases, doesn’t want any more Epstein files released and has called for the huge, sweeping controversy to just go away.

And Blanche must also know that Congress, which passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November with just one Republican voting against it, will be watching what he does next, as his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing is just two weeks away.

[…]

Via https://healthimpactnews.com/2026/trumps-doj-defies-judge-on-epstein-files-release-of-unredacted-files/

Britain Detains Human Rights Lawyer Daniel Kovalik

Britain continues to circle the drain on its road to fascism.

On Saturday morning at around 11 am, U.S. human rights lawyer, professor and journalist Daniel Kovalik was detained by three counter-terror police officers at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport under paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, which allows border police to detain and question people they believe to be involved in “hostile state activity.”

Kovalik — who was visiting England for a wedding — was detained for approximately two and a half hours and interrogated extensively on his political views about Israel’s genocide in Palestine, Lebanese resistance organisation Hezbollah and on the war against Iran.

.

Kovalik’s phone and laptop were seized along with his DNA, fingerprints, photos from multiple angles and copies of his bank and credit cards.

After officers rifled through his luggage, they questioned Kovalik on the book he was carrying — a gift from a student by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories — before he was released and free to continue on his journey.

Despite informing officers that he is a practising lawyer and that his phone and laptop contain documents protected by legal professional privilege — including attorney-client privilege — Kovalik objected to their seizure, which a supervising police sergeant confirmed to Kovalik that he had properly raised privilege objections. Regardless of his objections, his electronic devices were retained “with intention to copy,” raising serious questions about the protection of legally privileged material, client confidentiality and compliance with the safeguards governing legal privilege under Schedule 3 and its accompanying Code of Practice.

Another notable case of a legal professional persecuted by the British state is that of British solicitor Fahad Ansari who was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in August 2025 following a family trip in Ireland. During Ansari’s detention, his work phone — containing legally privileged client material — was seized, copied and retained. Ansari subsequently brought judicial review proceedings against the British Home Secretary and Chief Constable of North West Police, arguing that his stop, seizure of phone and handling of legally privileged material was unlawful.

London has long targeted pro-Palestine journalists, activists, academics, doctors, musicians, former MPs — George Galloway and his wife Gayatri — and more recently moved onto lawyers, forcing some into exile — including Galloway and journalist Steve Sweeney — while persecuting those at home with years-long and expensive court-cases which are often, eventually dropped, making the legal process itself the punishment. This was seen years earlier during the British state’s persecution of WikiLeaks founder, journalist and publisher, Julian Assange, where a common refrain amongst activists and journalists covering the case was that “the process is the punishment.”

In the last month alone, the British Home Office has outright banned journalists and commentators from entry, including Jeremy Loffredo — who was previously detained by Israel while reporting in occupied Palestine — Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, with claims their “presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”

Meanwhile, thousands of British citizens who have taken part in “the crime of all crimes” of genocide by serving in the Israeli army following October 7 have returned to Britain with open arms, despite the Genocide Convention requiring states to prevent and punish genocide and prosecute individuals responsible for genocide or complicity in genocide.

But this would include the British government itself.

As we expect further persecution of those vocally opposed to genocide, it is worth stating for those seeking to visit Britain and/or for those travelling in and out of the United Kingdom, that it might be worth considering leaving electronic devices one would prefer not to part with, at home, considering the primary purpose of these relentless attacks against those speaking out against genocide — aside from to intimidation and disruption — is intelligence gathering.

Finally, as is typical when these state attacks occur against those opposed to genocide in Palestine, the British mainstream media remains ever mute, ignoring these detainments and arrests entirely. However, netizens — on the increasingly restricted social media websites — continue to share their outrage on what is another dark chapter of British history:

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-detains-human-rights-lawyer-daniel-kovalik/5931955

Ten Days To Choose Between Extinction and Survival

Empty Fuel Gauge in Car Dashboard Close Up Stock Photo - Image of ...

Video Rebel’s Blog

In 10 days it will become obvious to the markets that the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve  (SPR) will be nearing empty. Gasoline will be available at a sharply higher price. But the heavier crude, which is needed for diesel and aviation fuel,  will be nearly gone.

Trains and trucks use diesel to carry 100% of US container freight. 100% of US food production depends on diesel. Aviation fuel is needed for 45,000 daily flights for passenegrs and transport. The US military consumes over 12 million gallons of diesel and aviation fuel every day.

Most analysts are unaware that China’s SPR was stolen by local Communist party officials. As I have said before, the intitals CCP actually stands for the Chinese Corruption Party.

The US and Western  economies will grind to a halt if American politicians do not sober up and face the music.

The markets will suffer from “irrational exuberance” until it wakens from its collective dream.  Of the nearly $70 trillion invested in US stock markets, 70% or almost $50 trillion follows trends. Any hint of hard breaks in the supply chain will tank the markets everywhere in the West.

Hint: Hormuz Traffic is still only 10% of what it was in February. And all of that remaining oil is headed to Asia, none to either the US or Europe.

From July 4th to the 9th, Iran and Iraq will hold funerals for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed on February 28th by the US and Israel while he was negotiating a peace proposal. Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grandchild were also killed in the strikes. 40 nations will send delegations. 20 million will be expected to attend the ceremonies in either Iraq or one of 4 cities in Iran. 14,000 reporters will cover the events.

Larry Johnson and Pepe Escobar between them have reliable sources all over the world. They have been talking lately about what happens after the funerals end on July 9th. Pakistan has been working with the blessings of China to organize a sort of West Asia Treaty Organization (WATO) though it does not yet have a formal name. The goal is to replace the US hegemony in the Mideast. The organization initially is to include Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and even Iran.

Iran’s agenda after the 9th will be to demand the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) be enforced. Iran and Hezbollah have been restraining themselves in response to the ongoing Israeli Genocide in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. But no more.

The events after July 9th could lead to war. Politicians are subject to inertia. The body Politic remains at rest until an overwhelming force makes it change its position.  US politics is run in large part by the Jewish Lobby and corporate interests. That includes Congressional Democrats who receive twice as much funding from AIPAC ( American Israel Public Affairs Committee) as do their Republican colleagues. Notice their joint decision in the Houae to pass an NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) that will allow the Israelis to sell our F-22 to China. The Pentagon had until now refused to give our best fighter jet to Israel precisely because they knew Israel would sell it to China as soon as they got the plans.

Israel is suffering from a delusion. They are right to conclude that American politicians are traitors willing to let China have weapons they could use to destroy America. But they are deluded if they think America can protect them from Iran’s Mach 16 missiles (3.38 miles or 5.31 kilometers per second.)

Iran’s strategy is to hold out until they win and America loses because Wall Street greed and Zionist insanity will send it into bankruptcy. I have predicted that when this coming crash is over, wages and pensions denominated in dollars will be permanently cut 60% by a hyperinflationary collapse.

That means Americans making $20 an hour after taxes will be taking home $8 an hour if they still have a job. A $1,500 Social Security check would be cut to $600.

An intermediate step to avoid another war would be for WATO to convince Turkiye to cut off Israel’s petroleum. This would crash the Zionist entity’s economy and grind their military to a halt.

If Israel does not pull out of Gaza and Lebanon, Iran and Hezbollah will wipe out Israel’s refineries and oil storage tanks in a matter of days. The US will not be in a position to even match what they have previously done to stop Iran and Yemen which the entire world knows ended in ignominious failure.

I had previously said three American political parties all died before the Civil War ended. The Free Soil party which opposed slavery merged into a newly formed Republican party in 1856. Their issue was slavery. Now all parties oppose slavery.

I have decided that the issue at hand should be Genocide, not just treason. America needs a new party that firmly rejects Genocide. This would allow the anti- Genocide party  to run candidates against the pro- Genocide Democrats and Republicans.

A second position with broad popular support would be to proclaim we are the Anti-Corruption party. I previously reported the story Dr Mark Skidmore told about the Army generals who lost a check for $800 billion. The Treasury called up the Department of the Army one day and said, “You have so much missing money from your accounts that we are sending you a check for $800 billion to cover up the holes in your accounting.” Guess what happened? The Generals lost the $800 billion!

Dr Skidmore works closely with Catherine Austin Fitts who said that $50 trillion was stolen from US taxpayers by the Powers That Ought Not to Be since the 1990s.

A third position would be opposition to the human trafficking of underage children.

The incumbent members of the pro-Genocide, pro-Corruption, pro-Pedophile party will be asked:

Prior to today, what did you do the stop US sanctions which according to the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, killed an average of 538,000 people every year since 1970? Did you do anything meaningful to stop Israeli snipers from killing 2 and 3 year-old toddlers?

Prior to today, what did you do to stop the tens of trillion of dollars being stolen  from taxpayers by the Powers That Ought Not To Be? Prior to today, did you demand the auditing of the New York Federal Reserve Bank which Catherine Austin Fitts said would help us recover tens trillions of dollars stolen from the taxpayers?

Prior to today, did you ever demand the arrest of arrest of Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Lex Wexner?

These events will coincidentally occur at the same time we are facing famine inducing fetilizer shortages and weather related crop losses. We have been experiencing extreme droughts and floods.

I believe hundreds of millions could die from fertilizer shortages, weather related crop failures and a hyperinflationary economic collapse over the next 12 months. I have called this scenario SSIV (Starvation and Starvation Induced Violence. )

The US will have to elimiate 700 or more overseas military bases if they expect America to survive until the 2028 elections. We can no longer afford to spend tens of trillions of dollars subsidizing Genocide and Militarism.

This means Israel will have to choose between fighting Turkiye, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt alone without the US or learning how to treat Palestinians like human beings.

[…]

Via https://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/ten-days-to-choose-between-extinction-and-survival/

EU court backs criminal prosecution for sharing RT videos

EU court backs criminal prosecution for sharing RT videos

RT
2 July 2026
Private individuals can face criminal prosecution and even prison for sharing the broadcaster’s content online, according to a new ruling

The EU’s top court has ruled that private individuals can face criminal prosecution for posting RT videos on public websites, widening the bloc’s crackdown on Russian media.

The Court of Justice of the European Union issued the ruling on Thursday in a case from Germany, where three people are being prosecuted for publishing RT DE videos on a freely accessible website.

The site did not charge readers and was financed only through voluntary donations. The CJEU, however, said that made no difference and ruled that all persons who are “directly or indirectly” responsible for making banned content available to the public can be treated as “operators” under EU sanctions rules.

The judges argued it was irrelevant if the individuals were running a business, how long the content was available, or how widely it was spread.

Under the German law cited in the ruling, violations of EU sanctions-based media bans can carry up to five years in prison.

The ruling effectively pushes the EU ban on RT beyond broadcasters, platforms or media companies, allowing for the criminal prosecution of any individuals accused of making RT content publicly available online.

The EU banned RT and Sputnik, among other Russian media outlets, after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Brussels said the sanctions would remain in place until the end of the Ukraine conflict and after Moscow ceases to conduct “disinformation and information manipulation actions against the EU.”

The measures were followed by platform blocks, app-store removals, banking restrictions, and personal sanctions against media figures and journalists accused of working with Russian outlets.

Germany had targeted RT even before the bloc-wide ban, with RT DE facing licensing pressure, platform bans, banking problems and regulatory action.

RT has vehemently condemned the restrictions and rejected the EU’s accusations, stressing that the bloc has consistently failed to point to a “a single example, a single grain of evidence” of false reporting.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the restrictions as censorship and an information war against Russia, accusing EU governments of using the Ukraine conflict as a pretext to silence dissent, suppress Russian-language media, and intimidate journalists who challenge the mainstream Western narrative.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/russia/642490-eu-court-rt-germany/

Syria’s self-appointed president handpicks final 70 parliament members

(Photo credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Gett)

The Cradle

JUL 2, 2026

The Syrian public has not been allowed to participate in the selection of any parliament members, allowing Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda leader, to consolidate his power through the new legislative body

Following months of delays, Syrian authorities on 2 July released the names of 70 legislators handpicked by Syria’s self-appointed President Ahmad al-Sharaa for a transitional parliament, clearing the way for the assembly to convene next week.

The new legislators will join 140 parliament members chosen last September in a process that was also tightly controlled by Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda and Islamic State commander, who came to power in Damascus in December 2024 with US, Israeli, and Turkish backing.

The head of Syria’s electoral committee, Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, said on Thursday that the new 210-member legislature will hold its first meeting on Monday. The parliament’s new members will be sworn in, while a presidential council for the legislative body will be elected.

The new parliament will have a 30-month term and work on a new elections law while preparing the ground for a popular vote in the next elections, according to Ahmad.

The parliament is also tasked with amending laws and writing a new constitution for Syria.

Turkiye – one of Sharaa’s main foreign backers – stands to exert significant influence over the parliament. Turkiye Today observes that former Syrian refugees in Turkiye make up a quarter of the the initial 140 members of parliament selected last year.

“Turkish institutions engaged on all levels with Syrian oppositional figures who are now the vast majority of parliamentarians,” the paper added.

Among the 70 new appointees is Hassan Soufan, who was the head of Ahrar al-Sham, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group that fought as part of the 14-year CIA-backed insurgency against former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.

According to a tally by the New Arab, the newly appointed members include five from Idlib; six from Homs, seven from Hasakah, four from Deraa, three from Raqqa, five from Damascus, two from Quneitra, six from Deir Ezzor, four from Latakia, five from Rural Damascus, 14 from Aleppo, two from Tartous, five from Hama, and two from Suwayda.

Among those from Suwayda is Druze warlord Leith Balous, widely considered a traitor among Syria’s Druze community. Balous sided with Sharaa’s forces as they massacred hundreds of members of the minority religious community in July 2025.

Two Alawites were also appointed, raising their total to five. Syrian forces massacred some 1,600 Alawite civilians in March 2025.

While maintaining secular institutions such as a parliament, Syria is unofficially governed by extremist Sunni Muslim religious figures known as “sheikhs” who are embedded within government institutions and public service departments, including police stations, municipalities, and the judiciary.

As a result, Syria’s Alawite, Druze, and Shia communities have few rights and are often kidnapped, murdered, and imprisoned with impunity.

Of the 70 appointments, 15 were female, bringing the total to 21 women in parliament after six were chosen last year.

Bassam al-Kuwaiti, leader of the Syrian Liberal Party, told the New Arab that the lack of women and appointment of “unknown names” suggested the selection process was not democratic.

“The whole process went without proper consultations with the Syrian public and without a national dialogue; therefore, it was designed to serve one party only,” he said.

Rahaf Aldoughli, an assistant professor of Middle East and North African Studies at Lancaster University, told the New Arab that the parliament is likely to “rubberstamp” Sharaa’s decisions in many cases. “I doubt the independence of this council” on some issues, he stated.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/syrias-self-appointed-president-handpicks-final-70-parliament-members

AIPAC-backed incumbent loses congressional seat to pro-Palestine candidate in Colorado

(Photo credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Slezak)

The Cradle

JUL 2, 2026

Democratic members of Congress are seeing their support for Israel become a liability amid the 2026 midterm election race

Melat Kiros, a Democratic socialist known for her staunch support for the Palestinian cause, defeated longtime incumbent Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st congressional district on 30 June.

Kiros won the primary against DeGette, who served in Congress for 30 years and enjoyed strong backing from the Israel lobby and Democratic establishment.

Representative DeGette suffered a defeat of almost 10 percentage points to first-time candidate Kiros, despite a major funding advantage following a “deluge” of donations from groups outside Colorado, including pro-Israel lobby groups.

During her three decades on Capitol Hill, DeGette received well over $1.6 million from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.

Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, is expected to easily defeat her Republican challenger in the November midterm election, as the residents of the 1st congressional district, which includes Denver, are staunchly Democratic.

Her victory follows the success of several pro-Palestine, progressive candidates in Democratic primaries in New York last week.

Kiros was born in Ethiopia and came to the US with her parents as a baby. A lawyer and doctoral student in public affairs, she made her opposition to US support for Israel a cornerstone of her campaign.

Kiros said that she was fired from a New York City law firm in 2023 for her pro-Palestine activism amid Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, including her defense of pro-Palestine protesters on university campuses.

A senior House Democrat called the result a “wake-up call” for members of Congress, as support for Israel is increasingly becoming a liability rather than an advantage.

Many democratic voters were angered by former president Joe Biden and former secretary of state Antony Blinken’s fanatical support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including through emergency weapons shipments that helped Tel Aviv kill tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children.

“It’s time for the Party to catch up to its own base who are no longer interested in politicians who call themselves progressive but are bankrolled by corporate lobbies and AIPAC while voting to fund genocide & ICE,” said Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi.

Pro-Palestine candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unseated Democratic Congressmen Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat last week.

Goldman lost his Democratic primary to former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, while Espaillat was defeated by democratic socialist challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier.

Progressives are seeking to defeat as many as half a dozen more Democratic incumbents this cycle.

Following the results in New York and Colorado, the Jerusalem Post observed that “Democrats will inevitably ask themselves whether long-held, pro-Israel positions could make them vulnerable to a primary challenge.”

“Those who care about preserving the bipartisan foundation of the US–Israel relationship cannot simply assume this trend will burn itself out,” the Israeli newspaper added.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/aipac-backed-incumbent-loses-congressional-seat-to-pro-palestine-candidate-in-colorado