The UK-US pharmaceuticals trade deal could divert up to £45bn from other NHS care to fund higher spending on new medicines, according to a new analysis published in The BMJ.
The paper, by researchers from the University of York, the University of Liverpool and New Zealand’s Christchurch Hospital, estimates preventable deaths in England could reach 229,000 by 2036 without additional NHS funding.
Including the indirect effect on adult social care, that figure rises to 291,000, a toll the authors say would exceed the 137,000 excess deaths recorded in England during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here is an extract detailing concerns from the BMJ:
Samuel Cross, Karl Claxton, and Andrew Hill argue that diversion of billions of NHS funding to pay more for new drugs under the UK-US trade deal will harm public health and result in thousands of excess deaths
Health systems worldwide are facing growing pressure from rising pharmaceutical expenditure, ageing populations, and constrained public finances. In publicly funded systems with finite budgets, higher spending in one area inevitably takes away the opportunity to spend elsewhere. This makes decisions about medicine pricing fundamentally decisions about how healthcare resources are allocated, and who the shortfall in funding affects most. This, in health economics is what is known as opportunity cost.
On 1 December 2025, the government announced the UK-US pharmaceuticals deal as a “landmark” to “safeguard medicines access and drive vital investment for UK patients and businesses.”1 The agreement, which secures a 0% tariff on UK pharmaceutical and medical device exports to the US for the next three years, formed part of broader UK-US trade and economic negotiations focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in strategically important sectors, including life sciences and pharmaceuticals.2
However, it also committed the NHS to substantially higher expenditure on branded medicines over the coming decade through changes to drug pricing arrangements and health technology assessment. Without a corresponding increase in available NHS resources, this will create substantial opportunity costs elsewhere, having a direct effect on population health.
Effect on UK drug pricing
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates whether new medicines provide sufficient health benefit relative to their cost. NICE generally assesses this using quality adjusted life years (QALYs), which combine gains in survival and quality of life into a single measure. Historically, NICE has operated with cost effectiveness thresholds of around £20 000-£30 000 per QALY gained. This means that the NHS has generally been willing to pay within this range for one additional year of life in full health, although this threshold can be – and often is – breached in exceptional circumstances, such as drugs to treat cancer.3 These thresholds exist because of opportunity cost and represent an attempt to balance the health gains garnered by new medicines against the health likely to be lost elsewhere in the system when resources are displaced.
In March 2026 ministers took powers to instruct NICE to increase the thresholds they use to judge cost effectiveness.4 From April 2026, instead of paying £20 000-£30 000 for every additional QALY gained by using a new medicine, the NHS will now pay £25 000-£35 000 for the same health benefits. The agreement also changes the way health benefits are measured, meaning NICE’s assessment of the QALY benefits offered by new medicines will be higher for the same actual benefit.5
Another mechanism by which NHS drug expenditure is controlled is the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth (VPAG). This agreement between the pharmaceutical industry and the UK government is designed to limit growth in NHS expenditure on branded medicines through industry rebate payments when spending exceeds agreed targets. The rate of increase in the prices of new medicines is linked to the amount repaid to the NHS by drug companies, discouraging price inflation. In 2025 the rebate rate was 23%; under the new agreement this has been cut to 14.5%.6
These changes, alongside the government’s commitment to increase expenditure on new medicines from 0.3% to at least 0.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2036 without corresponding increases in available NHS expenditure, raise serious concerns over the population health costs.7 The impact assessment undertaken by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to assess these costs has not been made public, despite requests.8 Nonetheless, it is now possible to make an accurate but conservative assessment of the additional costs of this deal to the NHS and the population cost NHS patients will face.
Estimating the financial costs of the deal
This deal commits government to increasing expenditure on new medicines from 0.3% to at least 0.6% of GDP in 2036, with interim targets for expenditure of 0.35% of GDP in 2028 and 0.4% of GDP in 2030.7 Assuming these targets are met and using the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s (OBRs) long term forecast of real GDP growth (1.5%), the additional annual costs to the English NHS will be at least £1.3bn in 2028 (£25m per week), and £8.8bn in 2036 (£170m per week).9Figure 1 shows the estimated additional annual costs over the 11 years of the deal. The cumulative additional cost will be £2.6bn by the end of 2028 and £44.7bn by the end of 2036. Costs are even higher if the impact on publicly funded adult social care is also considered – modelling of English local authority data indicates that every £1bn the NHS must find to fund this deal will increase the costs of adult social care by £118m because of increases in morbidity and mortality.10
Dominari Holdings shares surge 30% after Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump join advisory board Published Tue, Feb 11 2025
Dominari Holdings shares shot up Tuesday after the holding company announced that President Donald Trump’s sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — have joined its advisory board.
The stock surged as much as 83.9% to a record high before trading about 30% higher. Dominari is involved in wealth management, investment banking, sales and trading through its subsidiaries. It is a so-called microcap company with a market cap of roughly $51.5
NYT: Trump sons linked to Kazakhstan tungsten investment project
29 June 2026 09:58
The sons of US President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are involved in investment arrangements tied to the development of a major tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan, according to documents cited by The New York Times.
Investors from Dominari Securities, a company co-owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have acquired a 20% stake in a legal entity associated with the Kazakh tungsten project alongside other partners.
Meanwhile, Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm controlled by the Lutnick family and managed by Howard Lutnick’s sons, Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the key investors working with Dominari on the Kazakhstan deal raise $210 million in new capital.
Earlier this spring, the Financial Times reported that Trump’s sons had joined the Kazakhstan tungsten mining project.
According toThe New York Times, Kazakhstan’s leadership has been actively strengthening ties with the United States during Trump’s second term, seeking to maintain a balance between its two largest neighbours, Russia and China.
“We are driven by a pragmatic approach,” said Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of the Management Board of Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna National Wealth Fund.
“If we see merit in working with the U.S., the E.U., a Chinese, Russian, Korean, German, Emirati or whatever company, we assess it on a relative performance basis and we choose what is the best for us,” he added.
“For the business relationship, it has never been better,” Jeff Ehrlich, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kazakhstan, stated.
The newspaper notes that Trump views countries such as Kazakhstan through the lens of the deals they can offer. One of Washington’s top priorities is securing access to critical mineral reserves and exporting them via the Middle Corridor, a trade route that passes through the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, bypassing Russia.
By Bakhtiyar Abbasov
Using US taxpayers money:
Trump Administration Investment in Mining Raises Questions About The Responsible Use of Taxpayer Money
One potential risk is over-supply from the taxpayer subsidies fueling this current “boom.” In November 2025, while signing a minerals deal with Australia, President Trump said, “In about a year from now we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them. They’ll be worth about $2.” Historic and recent volatility in metals commodities markets—like lithium’s recent crash—suggests the President could be right.
W concentration was significantly higher in the W mining and refining solid wastes than in the downstream sediment and in the downstream sediment than in the downstream soil. on the other hand, W concentration was significantly higher in the W mining and refining wastewater than in the downstream river water and in the downstream river water than in the downstream groundwater. These results revealed W transport from W mining and refining source sites to their downstream rivers and then to their
Environmental Implication
Tungsten mining and refining activities lead to surrounding and downstream multimedia tungsten contamination, where leaf vegetables enriched higher tungsten than fruit vegetables and rice. Therefore, residents in the surrounding and downstream areas of tungsten mining and refining activities are faced with health risk by tungsten contamination. Anthropogenic tungsten concentration was 7.9 mg/kg in the surrounding and downstream soil estimated by the tungsten geochemical baseline developed in…..
And a summary:
Overview of Tungsten Mining Companies’ Responsibility
Tungsten mining companies are increasingly focusing on responsible sourcing practices. This includes implementing sustainable mining techniques and ensuring ethical supply chain management. However, challenges remain in fully achieving these goals.
Key Aspects of Responsible Mining
Sustainable Practices: Companies are adopting responsible mining techniques to minimize environmental impact. This includes reducing soil erosion and water pollution associated with traditional mining methods.
Ethical Supply Chain Management: There is a growing emphasis on ensuring fair labor practices throughout the supply chain. Companies are working to avoid conflict minerals and ensure compliance with ethical sourcing standards.
Challenges Faced
ChallengeDescriptionSupply Chain VulnerabilitiesThe concentration of tungsten production in China creates risks for global supply chains.Environmental ConcernsTraditional mining methods can lead to significant environmental degradation.Regulatory ComplianceCompanies must navigate complex regulations to ensure sustainable practices.
Industry Trends
Focus on Sustainability: The tungsten industry is moving towards more sustainable practices, driven by both regulatory pressures and market demand for ethically sourced materials.
Technological Innovations: Companies are exploring new technologies to enhance traceability and improve the sustainability of tungsten sourcing.
While progress is being made, the tungsten mining industry still faces significant challenges in achieving full responsibility in its operations.
Jeffrey Epstein’s British ‘Mentor’ and the Historic Manor He Visited
Published on 20 September 2025
It is suggested that Epstein’s ties with the Leese family and his entry into the Bullingdon Club’s social circles were pivotal in his association with socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
A recently published birthday book by a US congressional committee highlights the historic connections between the Leese family and Epstein, a now infamous figure, throughout his ascent to influence.
The book includes messages from influential Labour figure Lord Mandelson, who faced dismissal the previous week as a US ambassador following the release of his emails to Epstein………..
This is the 15th-century manor house where Jeffrey Epstein began his journey toward the heart of the British establishment, thanks to a wealthy arms dealer.
Located near the land of Shakespeare, South Wraxall Manor House is said to be where Sir Walter Raleigh first smoked tobacco in England.
Recently, it has come to light that this estate in Bradford-On-Avon played an essential part in Epstein’s introduction to the British upper class.
The country house belonged to international arms dealer Douglas Leese, who invited Jeffrey to stay for long weekends.
London-born defense broker linked to Epstein and Khashoggi
Douglas Leese (1923–2011) was a London-born defense contractor widely reported to have operated as an independent arms broker. Parliamentary records place Leese in the money-flow of the £40 billion Al-Yamamah fighter-jet package negotiated for BAE Systems with Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s.1
Multiple investigative accounts add that he worked alongside Saudi fixer Adnan Khashoggi on that and earlier deals and later introduced Jeffrey Epstein to financier-fraudster Steven Hoffenberg in 1987, branding Epstein “a genius” while arranging a $25,000-a-month consulting retainer.23
These intersecting threads — big-ticket weapons sales, offshore finance, and covert networking — explain how Leese sits at the nexus of Epstein’s early money-making and Khashoggi’s oil-for-arms milieu.
A newer tranche of reporting and first-person recollection via Julian Leese adds a more granular mechanism for the Leese–Epstein connection: Epstein did not merely “meet” the Leese family through arms-trade circles, but, at least by the late 1980s, actively leveraged them as a bridge into Towers Financial’s international bond-sales machine — pulling Julian Leese into sales efforts that later collapsed into scandal and personal fallout.45
In recent days, images circulating on social media have highlighted passages from a book alleging Epstein’s involvement in arms sales to the Islamic Republic during the Iran-Iraq war.
The excerpts come from pages 20 and 21 of the second volume of the book A Nation Under Blackmail, published in 2022.
According to the book, Epstein’s connections with Iran date back not to the final years of his life, but primarily to the 1980s and 1990s, involving covert activities in arms trafficking, money laundering, and intelligence networks.
This period coincided with the Iran-Iraq war and secret operations such as the Iran-Contra affair.
According to statements by Steven Hoffenberg, a former close associate of Epstein, Epstein received training in the early 1980s under Sir Douglas Leese, whom Hoffenberg described as instructing Epstein in arms smuggling, the creation of shell companies, and money laundering.
Hoffenberg has said that by 1983, Epstein was directly involved in the sale of Chinese weapons to Iran through the state-owned company Norinco, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war.
Parallel operations and the role of BCCI
Hoffenberg claims these activities were carried out as part of an operation running “in parallel” with the Iran-Contra affair. According to this account, Epstein, Douglas Leese, and Adnan Khashoggi, the well-known Saudi arms dealer, worked together in these dealings.
Under this narrative, financing and money transfers relied heavily on the services of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which was later shut down amid revelations of widespread money laundering, covert financing operations, and links to intelligence services in several countries.
Links to Israeli intelligence networks
In another account, Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, has claimed that Robert Maxwell, the British-Czech media tycoon and owner of the Mirror Group, sought to involve Epstein in the transfer and sale of military equipment and weapons from Israel to Iran as part of intelligence operations.
According to Ben-Menashe, Epstein was frequently present at Maxwell’s London office during that period and maintained close ties with this network, connections that have surfaced repeatedly in later accounts and documents.
In early November 1985, at the suggestion of the head of the National Security Council (NSC), Robert (“Bud”) McFarlane, Reagan authorized a secret initiative to sell antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for that country’s help in securing the release of Americans held hostage by terrorist groups in Lebanon. The initiative directly contradicted the administration’s publicly stated policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists or to aid countries—such as Iran—that supported international terrorism. News of the arms-for-hostages deal, first made public in November 1986 (only one month after Reagan ordered raids on Libya in retaliation for its alleged involvement in the Berlin bombing), proved intensely embarrassing to the president. Even more damaging, however, was the announcement later that month by Attorney General Edwin Meese that a portion of the $48 million earned from the sales had been diverted to a secret fund to purchase weapons and supplies for the Contras in Nicaragua. The diversion was undertaken by an obscure NSC aide, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, with the approval of McFarlane’s successor at the NSC, Rear Admiral John Poindexter. (North, as it was later revealed, had also engaged in private fund-raising for the Contras.) These activities constituted a violation of a law passed by Congress in 1984 (the second Boland Amendment) that forbade direct or indirect American military aid to the Contra insurgency.
I am reproducing this plea from a critcal thinker, Robert L Arnold, whose intelligence sparkles and illuminates the wrongs which must be righted. It stems from his observation that AI is used to harm young people and yet no law to protect their rights has been built with ‘belt and braces’ moral strength.
There are moments as a parent when the future doesn’t arrive gradually. It arrives all at once.
Sometimes it’s the first day of school. Sometimes it’s watching them wobble down the driveway on a bicycle before realizing they no longer need you to steady the seat. Sometimes it’s carrying them to bed one last time before they become too big for your arms and you don’t even realize it was the last time until years later.
And then there are the moments that remind you the world has changed while you were busy raising your children.
I have a daughter.
Like every parent, I’ve spent years worrying about the things I cannot control… the people she’ll meet, the mistakes she’ll make, the heartbreak that eventually finds every life worth living. Those are the fears every generation inherits.
This one is different.
This danger wasn’t inevitable.
We built it.
Today, young women are discovering fabricated nude images of themselves circulating through schools. Families are learning that a yearbook photograph, a soccer portrait, or a picture from social media has become the raw material for pornography they never created and never consented to. Teenagers are being asked to defend themselves against something that never happened while enduring the humiliation as though it had.
Children are becoming victims of technology before they’re old enough to understand the technology being used against them.
That isn’t tomorrow.
That is the world our children already inhabit.
What troubles me most is that we continue to frame this primarily as a conversation about artificial intelligence.
It isn’t.
Artificial intelligence is simply the instrument.
The real question is much older than silicon chips and neural networks. It is the same question civilization has wrestled with for centuries.
What responsibility accompanies power?
Every meaningful advancement in human history has eventually arrived at that crossroads. The automobile transformed transportation, but we required seatbelts, driver’s licenses, and safety standards. Pharmaceuticals revolutionized medicine, but we demanded clinical trials before they reached the public. Banks became indispensable to modern economies, but we required safeguards against fraud because we understood the damage that could be done when trust was abused.
None of those industries were asked to eliminate every conceivable risk.
They were asked to exercise reasonable care.
Law has long recognized a simple principle. When harm is foreseeable, and reasonable steps exist to reduce that harm, failing to take those steps creates responsibility. Lawyers call it a duty of care.
I prefer something plainer.
A duty to reduce harm.
Not eliminate it.
Reduce it.
That distinction matters because perfection has never been the standard. Responsibility has.
Somewhere along the way we’ve accepted the strange idea that technology should move faster than accountability. That because innovation is difficult, responsibility should somehow become optional.
History has never worked that way.
Power has always carried obligations alongside its privileges.
If we believe artificial intelligence is capable of diagnosing disease, accelerating scientific discovery, writing software, reshaping education, and transforming entire economies, then surely we should also believe the companies building these systems are capable of making it substantially harder to generate non-consensual sexual images of real people.
To argue otherwise isn’t a technological limitation.
It’s a choice.
Markets are extraordinarily effective at solving problems… until someone else is forced to absorb the cost. Economists call those costs externalities. Pollution is one. Financial fraud is another. The destruction of a young person’s reputation through AI-generated pornography belongs in the same category.
If companies bear none of that cost, then the market rewards greater capability while underpricing safety. That’s not an indictment of capitalism. It’s evidence that markets, left entirely to themselves, cannot price harms they never have to pay for.
That is precisely why government exists.
Not to stop innovation.
To ensure innovation serves the common good.
John Locke argued that governments are instituted to secure and protect our rights.
Liberty without responsibility eventually ceases to be liberty for everyone else.
The responsibility of individuals is obvious.
Anyone who knowingly creates non-consensual intimate images of another person should be held accountable.
Anyone who distributes those images should be held accountable.
Anyone who profits from them should be held accountable.
But accountability cannot stop with the individual who presses “generate.”
That approach asks the law to arrive after the damage is already done.
It asks a fourteen-year-old girl to prove an image is fake after it’s spread through her school.
It asks parents to rebuild a reputation that never should have been attacked.
It asks victims to shoulder burdens that belong, at least in part, to the people who designed systems knowing exactly how they could be abused.
That isn’t justice.
It’s surrender.
Today this conversation has become impossible to ignore because of Grok. Public reporting has documented repeated instances in which it has been used to generate sexualized images of identifiable women, demonstrating how quickly these systems can be weaponized when safeguards fail or prove insufficient.
Grok isn’t unique.
Nor will it be the last.
It is simply the clearest evidence that this debate is no longer theoretical.
The harm exists.
The victims exist.
The technology already exists.
Now the law has to catch up.
Across the country lawmakers are beginning to wrestle with that reality. Alabama has considered legislation requiring stronger safeguards for AI systems. Vermont continues debating liability standards for AI developers. Florida proposed an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights before it stalled.
These conversations are happening.
They’re simply happening too slowly.
Technology companies have lobbyists.
They have attorneys.
They have billions of dollars invested in shaping the laws that will govern their industry.
The fourteen-year-old girl whose face was stolen by a machine has none of those things.
She has her parents.
She has whatever teacher chooses to believe her.
And she has us.
That’s why citizenship matters.
Call your state representative.
Call your state senator.
Ask one question.
Do you believe companies that build artificial intelligence have a legal duty to reduce foreseeable harm?
If the answer is yes, ask what legislation they’re supporting.
If the answer is no, ask why the most powerful technology companies in human history should be exempt from responsibilities we’ve required of nearly every other industry.
Demand an answer.
Then demand action.
Because every month we spend debating whether responsibility exists is another month these systems become faster, cheaper, more convincing, and more accessible.
Technology will not wait for another committee hearing.
It will not pause while another bill quietly dies.
It will simply continue doing what technology has always done…
Moving forward.
The question is whether our wisdom moves with it.
One day my children will inherit whatever kind of country we decide to leave behind.
They won’t remember quarterly earnings reports.
They won’t remember which company briefly dominated the AI market.
They won’t remember the lobbyists who insisted responsibility would slow progress.
They will simply live inside the consequences of the choices we made while we still had the opportunity to make them.
Every generation inherits tools it did not invent.
Fire.
Electricity.
The automobile.
The internet.
Artificial intelligence is simply the newest inheritance.
Our measure will never be whether we invented it.
Our measure will be whether we possessed enough wisdom to govern it before asking our children to live with the consequences.
The purpose of law has never been to protect power from accountability.
Its highest purpose has always been to stand between power and the people who have the least of it.
Every Country That Banned or Investigated Grok Over Deepfakes: The Full Regulatory Map
At least 14 countries and regulators have banned, blocked, investigated, or sued xAI over Grok deepfakes in 2026. Malaysia and Indonesia blocked access entirely. The EU, UK, France, Netherlands, and 35 US attorneys general launched formal proceedings.
I found this story today. It magnifies how the tragedy was made a million times worse, when no diesel was available for the vital heavy lifting machinery required in the first 72 hours of the earthquakes.
The family that returned from Spain to Venezuela and was buried by the earthquakes
From Galicia, a friend is trying to move mountains. Across the Atlantic in Venezuela, a woman has spent six days beside the building where her parents, brother and two young nephews lie trapped beneath the debris
Adela Taberneiro and Yhosvany Hernandez Fernandez with their children Lía Fernanda and Ulises on the plane bound for Venezuela.
“It has been utter despair.” Eduardo Campos was driving to work with the radio on when the first morning bulletin reported on the Venezuela earthquake disaster. He pulled over onto the shoulder and sent a WhatsApp message that never went through. Since then, this resident of Marín, in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, has done the only thing he could from 4,000 miles away: tell his neighbors’ story to anyone who would listen. To acquaintances in the military, to a cousin in Panama, to his son, a doctor living in Florida, and to the local press. He searched survivor lists for names, requested heavy machinery, asked about a satellite antenna to help locate them amid the rubble. And on Sunday he called EL PAÍS: “Help me get them out of there.”
In a forgotten corner of La Guaira, the ground zero of last Wednesday’s double earthquake, a family from Marín remains trapped: Yhosvany Hernández, the coach of the hockey club where Campos’s son plays; his wife, Adela Taberneiro, the club president; and the couple’s two children, Lía, nine, and Ulises, eight. Buried alongside them are the grandparents, Carmen Rosa Fernández and Roger Hernández, who were hosting the family during their visit to the Venezuelan city wedged between the Caribbean and the mountains.
The Hernández Taberneiro family had emigrated to Galicia seven years ago, and this was their first visit back to Venezuela since leaving.
Civilians and authorities working to clear debris in La Guaira on June 28.Chelo Camacho
“He had to take the children away so they could have a better education; those were his words,” recalls his sister. They had return tickets for July 16, but they are now four of the 138 Spanish citizens — the family held dual nationality — listed as missing after Venezuela was struck by two earthquakes.
So far, 17 Spaniards have been confirmed dead. Spanish sources in Caracas warn that those figures are little more than a preliminary accounting and are likely to rise significantly. The overall death toll reached 1,450 on Sunday, while tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for.
The six of them were celebrating their reunion that Wednesday afternoon. It was also the birthday of both the grandfather and the children’s father. They were all gathered around the dining table in the second-floor apartment — a floor that nobody now knows how to locate beneath the rubble. The tower collapsed forward.
Until Sunday, not a single excavator had reached the modest, devastated neighborhood where the grandparents lived. Standing outside the ruined building since Wednesday is Mabel Hernández, Yhosvany’s sister. She sleeps out in the open on a vacant lot where an old stranded boat is rotting. Some residents have laid out mattresses and blankets there so they can keep watch over the mountain of concrete they are trying to dismantle with their bare hands.
It was Mabel who had arranged the family reunion. Eight months earlier, she had brought her parents from Cuba, and the family tried to get together every year on June 23 and 24, the birthdays of her father and her brother.
“In the end it was like a farewell,” she says. Faced with the tragedy, the woman has one consolation. By sheer chance, her son and his wife, who had been at the celebration, survived. They had stepped outside for a cigarette. “The children are here and I don’t want to smoke in front of them,” the wife had said. The building collapsed while they were on the street. They escaped unharmed.
Her desperation over the rescue effort mirrors that of thousands of Venezuelans these days. “I’ve been here since Wednesday and they have done nothing,” says Mabel, who is demanding heavy machinery to break through the cement and reach her loved ones.
Everyone around her feels the same way: powerless and near collapse. Rescue workers, she says, “come looking for life, but when they don’t hear anything they leave.” Beyond the 72-hour mark, which passed on Saturday, the chances of finding survivors diminish dramatically.Mabel Hernández, in the ruins of the OPP 33 building in La Guaira, June 28.Chelo Camacho
A second excavator arrived after the first, but it cannot operate because there is no fuel. “They lent us a machine, but there is no diesel to put in it. How can they tell me there is no diesel in this country for the machine?” she asks. “Venezuela has no resources, despite being a very [oil] rich country.”
The tower where her parents lived was part of a public housing complex that collapsed entirely. Unlike the wealthier residential developments, with their swimming pools and better construction, these buildings were reduced to rubble. It is also the area where the fewest rescue workers and machines are visible, where residents dig through the debris until their hands bleed, working day and night by the light of their cell phones.
Utter helplessness
The sense of helplessness is overwhelming because many already fear it is too late. That only a miracle could save those still trapped. “If they died, it was because of negligence. I’m sure of it,” Mabel says through her tears. “There’s nothing here. Everything is for them, everything is about making money, everything is about being seen on camera and nothing more,” she says of authorities she feels have abandoned them.
Until Saturday, Mabel still allowed herself to believe her family might emerge alive from beneath the rubble. At night, lying in the vacant lot, she would tell herself they were still breathing: “You know when you just feel something? Up until yesterday, I kept saying they were alive. My father is 84, but the children could hold on a little longer.” Today, she weeps and asks only for a hug.
Meanwhile, in Marín, Eduardo struggles with the anguish of distance and the lack of information. He came to know the family through the children. His son and Ulises became friends in their first year of primary school. Both were shy, similar in temperament — “as thick as thieves, inseparable” for the past two years. When Eduardo started a hockey team at the school, Ulises was already playing, and the friendship carried over from the classroom to the rink.Civilians work among the rubble of the OPP 33 building searching for relatives and friends.Chelo Camacho
The family had left Venezuela when Lía was two years old and Ulises had not yet turned one. This was the children’s first trip back to the country where they were born. They were “very, very excited,” Eduardo says.
On Friday, amid the confusion and uncertainty, reports emerged suggesting that the family had appeared on a list of survivors and were safe. The relief was short-lived. It turned out to be a mix-up involving a message from another Yhosvany — the coach’s son from a previous marriage, a doctor living in Florida.
He cannot bring himself to talk about it. “Remembering all that, I feel it would not do me any good right now, I’m sorry,” he says from the United States.
Edu, Eduardo’s six-year-old son, still does not know what has happened in Venezuela. On Friday in class, the children had to write the name of their best friend. Edu drew two figures: he wrote the name of another classmate under one, and Ulises under the other. “Honestly, I would almost prefer not to have any hope,” Eduardo laments. “On Saturday I couldn’t find a corner to cry in. I had to leave the house so I wouldn’t do it in front of the boy.”
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The BBC recently reported on Artificial Intelligence living up to its name: Artificial. ‘Come back’ implored the foolish companies who had prematurely fired employees with true intelligence and decades of experience.
Ford Hired AI to Replace Engineers. It Backfired Badly.
Ford just confirmed it leaned too hard on AI for quality control, and the cleanup ran into the billions.
Over three years it quietly rehired around 350 veteran engineers, the so-called “gray beards,” to fix what its automated systems couldn’t. The sting, from Ford’s own VP of hardware engineering, Charles Poon: they mistakenly thought feeding AI the design requirements would just produce a high-quality product.
The trap: Ford’s best engineers left before transferring their knowledge into the systems meant to replace them. The AI had no foundation to learn from.
The fix: Returning specialists rebuilt the tools to catch defects before parts hit the line.
The lesson is unglamorous: AI didn’t fail because the math broke. It failed because Ford deleted decades of human judgment and realized too late that the people who know when the AI is wrong are the whole game.
🔮 Prediction: Expect a quiet wave of “AI reversal” hires over the next 18 months, rebranded as “human-in-the-loop” so nobody admits round one was a mistake. Tacit knowledge doesn’t live in the training data.
Would you trust a car built entirely by AI with zero veteran engineers signing off?
‘Peaceful protestors are being jailed in ever increasing numbers, under pressure from the oil and arms industries’ – report.
Image: Banksy / Media Handout
Courts in Britain have increasingly used remand detention, contempt proceedings and lengthy custodial sentences to lock up those taking direct action against climate breakdown and the destruction of Gaza. Report by BRENDAN MONTAGUE
A new report, Britain’s Political Prisoners, was co-published by researchers at the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London and Defend Our Juries.
Researchers documented 286 cases involving climate and Palestine solidarity protestors imprisoned since 2019. In the 256 cases where sentencing and remand data could be verified, the total amount of jail time imposed amounted to 136 years.
Imprisoned
Professor David Whyte of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary said: “This report documents a remarkable shift in how protest is being policed and punished in Britain. Our findings show the routine use of remand exceeding statutory time limits.
“Exceptionally high levels of contempt proceedings and custodial sentencing in response to acts of civil disobedience and direct action show that the courts are progressively degrading the right to protest.”
The report argues that recent years have seen significant changes in the legal and political landscape surrounding protest in Britain, with expanded anti-protest legislation and the increased use of civil legal mechanisms contributing to harsher penalties for protest-related activity.
The report finds evidence that such measures have been supported by key industry and political interests tied to the British-Israeli arms industry and the fossil fuel industry and that the British government has been pressured directly by Elbit Systems and the Israeli government to deal more harshly with protestors.
Solidarity
The researchers also found that in 60 per cent of cases, final sentences were more lenient than the time already spent in custody on remand; the most common category of offence leading to imprisonment was contempt of court, accounting for 40 per cent of cases recorded; conspiracy offences accounted for 17 per cent of cases analysed.
Tim Crosland, from Defend Our Juries, said: “This report strips away the illusion that Britain remains committed to democratic principles. It reveals that peaceful protestors are being jailed in ever increasing numbers, under pressure from the oil and arms industries, the Israeli government and their lobbyists.
“Most shocking of all is the finding concerning the use of remand. In the majority of cases, final sentences are more lenient than time already spent in custody before people have been convicted of anything. It would be dishonest to present this as anything other than punishment without trial.”
The report argues that the growing use of contempt of court proceedings and conspiracy charges has enabled courts to impose custodial sentences in ways that can limit access to jury trials and expand pre-emptive forms of punishment.
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From a Substack by West Point historian Terrence Goggin:
TRUMP’S FLOOR LEADER SENATOR RICK SCOTT
Rick Scott, the Senior Senator from Florida is right out of Hollywood’s proverbial central casting to be Donald Trump’s henchman in the Senate. After attending business school and law school he took to venture capitalism like a fish to water. He co founded the Columbia Hospital Corporation, which became Columbia/HCA, the largest for-profit healthcare company in the country. In 1997, as CEO, he was implicated in a massive federal investigation into Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and was forced to resign. Columbia/HCA then admitted to 14 felonies and paid $1.7 billion in fines.
He then switch to politics and became Governor of Florida in 2011 serving two terms. In 2019 he was elected to the Senate, defeating the incumbent Bill Nelson in an election so close it triggered a mandatory recount, in the most expensive Senate race in the nation. A hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin personally donated $10 million dollars to a PAC that supported Scott’s campaign. As Bernie Sanders would say, he’s an instrument of the oligarchs, to his bones. In 2020 he was one of 7 Senators to object to seating the electors from Pennsylvania, which would have deprived President Elect Joseph Biden of the Presidency. He has twice run for the Republican Leader of the Senate, losing both times, getting 10 votes in losing to McConnell and 13 votes in losing to Thune. Since January 2025 he has been Trump’s go to man in the Senate
Additional facts:
The Facts Newsletter
stated on February 25, 2014 in a press release:
Says Rick Scott “oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history.”
Rick Scott ‘oversaw the largest Medicare fraud’ in U.S. history, Florida Democratic Party says
First, Gov. Rick Scott scared the bejesus out of seniors with an online ad claiming that Medicare rate cuts would lead them to lose access to their doctors, hospitals and preventive care.
Then, the Florida Democratic Party fired back at Scott, issuing a press release that called Scott “the ultimate Medicare thief.”
The Democrats were referring to Scott’s prior tenure as CEO of Columbia/HCA about a decade ago, when the hospital company was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud.
Thursday morning, after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for Haitians, the people who helped revive Springfield, Ohio, were trying to figure out how long they could keep their jobs and their driver’s licenses, and whether they should start preparing for deportation. Pastor Carl Ruby captured the mood: “We had hoped this would become a time of celebration . . . but it has become a time of lament.”
Fleeing gang violence and what has become a de facto civil war, thousands of Haitians have helped reverse decades of decline in Springfield since 2010. They filled factory jobs, opened businesses, started churches, and helped stabilize the city’s population after years of shrinkage. But that growth stopped after JD Vance amplified a pernicious lie about Haitians in Springfield eating dogs and cats.
Now the Trump administration is set on removing many of the very people who helped bring Springfield back.
Yesterday’s 6–3 ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end TPS, meaning that although litigation may continue, many Haitians here in Ohio and all across America under TPS are subject to deportation immediately.
Jim Swift, Substack, June 2026
SCOTUS lets Trump end protected status for endangered Syrian and Haitian refugees
The Supreme Court’s right-wing majority ruled Thursday that courts cannot review non-constitutional challenges to the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for refugees fleeing particularly dangerous countries.
“No one leaves home unless home chases you. Fire under feet. Hot blood in your belly. It’s not something you ever thought of doing. Until the blade burnt threats into your neck.”
Painful memories from the 1940s reveal how trauma can damage the fortunes of future generations:
‘Israel of the Balkans’: Srpska fights like Israel for survival, Milorad Dodik tells ‘Post’
The invocation of ‘shared historical trauma’ echoed through Dodik’s remarks; trauma rooted in the genocidal horrors of the ’40s , when Jews and Serbs were murdered together in places like Jasenovac.
On July 11, 1995, Serb fighters rounded up and killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in a United Nations-declared “safe zone” in the town of Srebrenica.
That was the only legally recognised genocide of the Bosnian War.
The Srebrenica Massacre began on July 11, 1995, and concluded on July 22, 1995. Over 8,000 Bosniak Muslim males between the ages of 12 and 77 were captured and brutally executed. It was considered the bloodiest massacre and crime against humanity Europe had seen since the end of WW2.
The reason:
…… leaders, backed by Serbian president Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People’s Army, launched an armed revolt against the new state . Their aim was to carve out an ethnically homogenous Serb territory, Republika Srpska, by forcibly removing or killing non-Serb populations – a strategy that came to be known as ethnic cleansing . Eastern Bosnia, where Srebrenica is located, saw particularly brutal campaigns: in just the first months of the war, Serb forces destroyed villages and massacred thousands of Bosniak civilians in the region . Bosniak survivors from surrounding towns fled to the predominantly Muslim town of Srebrenica, which by mid-1992 became a besieged enclave crowded with refugees and defended by a small local force.
The resolution (document A/78/L.67/Rev.1), adopted by a recorded vote of 84 in favour to 19 against, with 68 abstentions, condemned any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event and actions that glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by international courts. It also requested the Secretary-General to establish an outreach programme titled “The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations”, starting its activities with preparations for the thirtieth anniversary in 2025.
In explanation of vote ahead of the vote, Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, noted that before the session started, he had “already bowed my head and laid a flower” at a memorial for all Bosniaks killed. Calling on “everyone in this room to vote against this resolution” as it is “highly politicized”, he asked its main author, Germany, why it was proposed — as individual legal liability had already been delivered through indictments, verdicts and convictions. Citing the resolution on genocide passed in 2015, he stated that the current text would not bring reconciliation to Bosnia and Herzegovina or the region. Asking the representative of Germany “why they were hiding all the preparations for this resolution”, he called for recognition of the genocide against the Serbian people in the First World War, losing 28 per cent of its overall population ranking first ahead of France, and acknowledgement of the country’s rare anti-Nazi position in South-East Europe during the Second World War.
Many non-Serbs in the western Balkans distrust Russia, particularly because of its long-term support for Serbia – and those fears were exacerbated by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, before the invasion Russia showed whose side it was on in the Balkans when Moscow wielded its UN Security Council veto in 2015 to prevent a resolution that would have recognised the Srebrenica massacres as genocide on the 20th anniversary of those atrocities during the Balkan war. Around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered in Srebrenica.
The narrative of genocide denial in the Russian media was even used to counter accusations of atrocities by Russian forces in Ukraine, notably Bucha. A report on Russian state-controlled First TV said:
Recall that [Srebrenica] has become synonymous with the genocide of the Muslim population, which, according to the west, was committed by the Bosnian Serbs in July 1995. But over time, many facts appeared confirming that a well-planned operation was carried out in Srebrenica, behind which stood western intelligence services.
Russia has long had a role in the western Balkans and sees its partnership with Serbia as a means of countering western influence in the region. This means Russia pulling Serbia away from forging closer ties with the EU and as former US ambassador to Nato, Kurt Volker, said at the time: “Moscow wants to make it clear that the Balkans won’t be part of mainstream Europe.”
While the Israeli war on Gaza rages on, Serbia continues to defy the European stance—offering steady political and military backing to “Israel” since October 7, 2025.
Ignoring Europe’s growing condemnation of Tel Aviv’s war crimes in Gaza and the deliberate starvation of its people, Belgrade instead proudly showcases its close and long-standing alliance with the Israeli Occupation.
Netanyahu’s Nightmare Is Playing Out on the Streets of Belgrade. Can It Happen in Israel?
Serbia’s huge rallies against the government of right-wing populist Aleksandar Vučić greatly concern Israeli PM Netanyahu. His decision on Sunday to fire the head of the Shin Bet increases the possibility of a ‘Serbian Moment’ in Israel
Serbia is currently the only country in Europe that is trading ammunition with Israel, stated Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, adding that he is often criticized for this by his colleagues. Last year, military equipment worth €42.3 million was exported from Serbia to Israel, according to the newspaper.
PM Netanyahu expressed his gratitude to President Vučić for his unwavering support of Israel’s efforts to free all of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić in New York
During the meeting, the Prime Minister discussed with President Vučić the ways to extend the cooperation between Israel and Serbia, particularly in the fields of security and trade.
Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his gratitude to President Vučić for his unwavering support of Israel’s efforts to free all of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including Alon Ohel, who holds Serbian citizenship.
The Prime Minister shared with the President of Serbia the details of his conversation with Alon’s parents, following the dissemination by Hamas of a video that shows their son in the terror organization’s brutal captivity.
The election of Siniša Karan as the new President of the Republic of Srpska (Serb Republic) will deepen ties between the two countries. Prime Minister Netanyahu sent a message of congratulations. In January, the PM hosted two Bosnian Serb leaders in Jerusalem.
A Trio of Genocidal States: The Hidden Motives Behind Serbian and Indian Military Support for ‘Israel’
The military equipment from Orthodox Serbia and Hindu India has played a critical role in the killing and destruction in Gaza.
Despite international condemnations, Western countries, led by the U.S. and Germany, continue to provide extensive military support to “Israel” for its ongoing assault on Gaza. This support has enabled the Israelis to drop munitions equivalent to the power of three Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs on the besieged Palestinian territory.
However, military equipment from Orthodox Serbia and Hindu India has also played a crucial role in the killing and destruction in Gaza, as revealed by investigative reports from Balkan and Israeli sites.
The political-religious ideology of Zionists, Hindus, and Serbs shares a deep-seated hostility toward Muslims and employs similar genocidal tactics, with the goal of killing and displacing Muslims in Palestine, India, and the Balkans.
Serbian Complicity
It is not surprising that Serbia has been found exporting munitions and weapons to “Israel” for the destruction of Gaza, given the longstanding relationship between the two nations. Serbia has even agreed to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of the future Palestinian State.
In October 2023, Serbia exported weapons worth 540.120 million euros to “Israel,” according to the Balkan Insight on April 13, 2024.
The site reported that Serbia has sent large quantities of weapons to “Israel” since the beginning of the assault on Gaza in October 2023.
A joint investigation by Haaretz and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) on June 10, 2024, revealed a massive increase in the volume of Serbian weapons sold to “Israel” since Operation al-Aqsa Flood.
The investigation tracked nearly eight Israeli military flights from Serbia transporting Serbian weapons to Tel Aviv, estimating Serbian arms exports to “Israel” at 15.7 million euros since the assault on Gaza.
Serbia defied the UN experts’ recommendation on February 23, 2024, to halt the export of tanks, artillery, infantry weapons, and mortar shells to “Israel.” These munitions and weapons are available in Serbia, and produced by the state-owned company Krusik.
The UN Human Rights Council also called on April 5, 2024, to stop selling, transferring, and shipping arms, munitions, and other military equipment to “Israel” to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses.
“Israel” already receives a significant number of weapons from the United States, which has conducted an unprecedented airlift of arms to Tel Aviv, involving hundreds of military cargo planes and ships.
This is in addition to Boeing 747 planes that primarily landed at Nevatim Airbase near Be’er Sheva, and other weapons arrived by ship.
However, as stockpiles dwindled, the Israeli military began using artillery shells marked for training only and munitions produced in 1953, despite a maximum shelf life of 40 years, according to Haaretz, prompting increased imports.
“Israel” needed both guided and unguided munitions for aircraft, particularly bunker-buster bombs, air defense system missiles, medium-caliber ammunition, tank and artillery shells, infantry weapons, and mortar shells, according to Serbian military expert Vlada Radulovic in Haaretz.
On November 6, 2021, Belgrade opened a trade office in Jerusalem, strengthening ties after relations had soured following Israeli recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. Serbia subsequently withdrew its previous promise to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
A source close to the Serbian government told The Times of Israel on November 16, 2021, that the political disagreement over Kosovo’s recognition will not affect the deep relationship between Serbs and Jews.
Serbia was the first to ratify the Balfour Declaration and the first to refer to the Jewish state as “Israel,” with the ancestors of political Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl buried in Serbia, he said.
Kosovo established diplomatic relations with “Israel” in early February 2021 and in March became the first European and majority-Muslim country to open an embassy in western Jerusalem.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and 97 UN member states, including “Israel,” have recognized it as an independent state.
The trade between Serbia and “Israel” amounts to approximately 73 million euros annually.
Serbia has also assisted “Israel” in developing relations with the UAE, its closest Arab ally, and the only country with a strategic partnership agreement with Serbia, according to The Times of Israel.
Indian Complicity
Under the leadership of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has drawn closer to “Israel” than ever before.
Currently, New Delhi is the Israeli Occupation’s largest arms buyer, with annual purchases exceeding $1 billion, and India’s arms purchases from “Israel” increased by 175% between 2015 and 2019.
Since then, Indian and Israeli companies have begun producing weapons in factories in India, according to Middle East Eye on February 12, 2024.
India has imported $2.9 billion worth of military equipment from “Israel” over the past decade, including radars, surveillance aircraft, combat drones, and missiles, according to Reuters on February 23, 2024.
On May 11, 2024, the Hebrew website Caliber3 reported that India had intensified its arms shipments to “Israel” during the Gaza assault, part of a broad military manufacturing cooperation between the two countries since 2017.
It confirmed that a company affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of India, Munitions India, received approval to export its products to “Israel” in January 2024.
Another Indian company, Premier Explosives, was also granted permission to export explosives and related items to the Israeli military, along with equipment and technologies, since the onset of the conflict.
Further, Indian-made Hermes 900 drones, produced by the privately-owned Adani Group, were exported to “Israel” between 2019 and 2023.
The Adani-Elbit joint venture, combining India’s Adani and Israeli Occupation’s Elbit Systems, sold over 20 Hermes 900 drones to “Israel.”
Tablet magazine on May 7, 2024, stated that the joint Indian-Israeli arms companies complement U.S. munitions supplies and other larger defense equipment to “Israel.”
In the future, India could also replace U.S. supplies for a wide range of warfare systems in addition to regular munitions, the report noted.
American activist Jackson Hinkle highlighted on X the role of state-owned Indian arms factories in shipping weapons to “Israel” for participation in the genocide of Palestinians.
For an understanding of genocidal tendencies in India see:
Part 1 of this series will provide the historical context for genocidal violence against Muslims in India. It analyzes how the first stage of Genocide, Classification, is unfolding in India.
should be to minimise harm to residents who live in the mining region. 
borderslynn 
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