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As Israeli Forces Seize Final Sumud Boat, Another Flotilla Sails Toward Gaza | Common Dreams

Jessica Corbett
Oct 03, 2025

The 11 vessels, most of which started sailing last week, are “carrying over 150 healthcare workers, journalists, and activists,” according to organizers, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and Thousand Madleens to Gaza.
“As journalists and medical professionals, we carry the responsibility to speak truth and preserve life,” said Dr. Ricardo Corradini, a general surgeon from Italy, in a statement. “This mission is an appeal to our colleagues—and to the institutions that represent us globally—to break their silence, uphold their ethics, and stand on the right side of history.”
FFC highlighted earlier this week that the ship ”Conscience, bombed by Israel off the coast of Malta in May 2025, has returned to serve as a vehicle for medics and media determined to reach their colleagues in besieged Gaza.”

As Israeli Forces Seize Final Sumud Boat, Another Flotilla Sails Toward Gaza

"As journalists and medical professionals, we carry the responsibility to speak truth and preserve life," said an Italian surgeon.

^{jessica-corbett (Common Dreams)}

#Palestine

FBI cuts ties with civil rights watchdog SPLC after conservative pressure

Conservatives like billionaire Elon Musk had criticised the group for its criticism of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA.

^{Farah Najjar (Al Jazeera)}

Chicagoans mobilize to oppose Trump’s threats of military occupation

Chicago march against Trump's threats to send in troops.

Chicago, IL – On September 30, 1500 Chicagoans marched down Magnificent Mile to protest Trump’s threats of using the city as a military training ground. This past week has seen the effects of Operation Blitz in full force, with heavy presence of ICE and other federal agents conducting deportations. Trump’s speech to top U.S. generals the same day showed he intends to escalate the federal occupation with the military.

Ramped up repression means ramped up fight back!

“They are dehumanizing our communities. They are inflicting terror on our families. Separating families. Let’s not forget that when ICE murdered Silverio [Villegas-Gonzalez], the only thing they said was that he was an illegal. They did not say that he was a father, a worker, and a member of our community,” said Gabriela Hernandezm of Casa DuPage, speaking to the crowd in Spanish.

Hernandez also stated, “We are here today, protesting again, to tell this administration that the Mexicano/Latino community are not criminals. It is the time for us to speak firmly and clearly about these things, because if not, they will come to silence all of us.”

Reverend Jonathan Brooks of Live Free Illinois stated, “ICE has been accused of violating a consent decree meant to protect families from warrantless arrests. This disregard for legal protections tears at the very fabric of trust in our democracy.”

Brooks continued, “A federal judge has already ruled that targeting deportations based on political speech is unconstitutional – yet ICE continues to act as if it is above the law. Let’s be clear: this is not about safety. This is about authoritarianism, fear and control. Our communities do not need to be occupied – they need to be respected.”

“We saw over the weekend how ICE agents shamelessly occupied the streets of downtown and detained fellow residents. Over in Broadview, protesters and journalists are being shot at, teargassed, and brutalized. In a raid in South Shore just last night, ICE, FBI and other federal agents ransacked 70 apartments, knocked down doors, threw stuff all over the place, and detained 50 people – including Black U.S. citizens,” said Angel Naranjo of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Naranjo continued, “Trump hates Chicago because he is a racist reactionary who represents the class enemy – the monopoly capitalist class – and this enemy can’t stand us. Trump and his lackeys are mad and ramping up their attacks – and so we’re ramping up our fight back! The masses of our city – and in particular the Black, Chicano/Latino, immigrant and working-class masses – are putting up a just fight against this rotten imperialist system that is tearing apart our families and occupying our neighborhoods! We are building a movement to stop the raids, and our demand is legalization for all undocumented people.”

“What we need right now is solidarity. The solidarity that Fred Hampton talked about. The solidarity that Assata Shakur deserved. We need solidarity with federal workers, with day laborers, teachers, nurses, warehouse workers. We need solidarity across unions. All public unions, trade unions, across communities. We need the solidarity of all working people,” said Jill Manrique of Chicago Jobs for Justice.

A member of Students for Justice in Palestine – Chicago (SJP Chicago) ended the program by reminding the crowd, ”The kidnapping of families and workers, and the occupations of our city’s streets is just an escalation of policy that has been standard in this nation since its inception.”

After the program, Chicagoans loudly marched down Magnificent Mile, one of the biggest commercial corridors in the city. Protests ended at the Water Tower, finishing with Assata’s “It is our duty to fight for our freedom” chant.

Enemies from within

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military. Cuz we’re going into Chicago very soon,” said Trump in front of the U.S. top military leaders, stating that there were enemies from within that the military must apprehend.

Trump's deployment of federal forces is an escalation of the ongoing occupation of Black, Chicano/Latino, and working-class communities by the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Trump aims to ramp up this oppression and squash the working and oppressed people who are getting organized to fight back against this. From the 2020 George Floyd rebellion, to the 2025 LA uprising against ICE, working and oppressed are wanting and mobilizing for an end to this terror. The ruling class of this country knows this, and is ramping to continue its grip of oppressed people in this country.

Join the resistance!

This mobilization was called by the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA), a coalition of over 80 organizations building a united front against the reactionary Trump administration. Sign up to get notified when the next mobilization happens at coalitionagainsttrumpagenda.org

Join the resistance! Trump has a long oppressive agenda, and we’re here to defeat all of it.

Coalition Against the Trump Agenda

^{Coalition Against the Trump Agenda}

PhilipTheBucket via Politics

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PhilipTheBucket
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Polarization rocks U.S. military

New Orleans, LA – On September 30, “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth blew his bugle for the military’s next crusade. The world’s biggest and baddest armed forces folded in Afghanistan and burned in Vietnam. Hegseth and Trump looked at these defeats, and many more, then scratched their chins. At last, they ferreted out Benedict Arnold: DEI.

Top brass from across the globe scrambled to Quantico to hear about it. Hegseth attacked “fat generals,” women, “men in dresses,” “weak men,” and supposed diversity hires. He announced he’d whip troops into shape by prohibiting beards, narrowing hazing protections, and replacing gender-neutral expectations with “male-standard” physical training. Trump followed by parading a $1 trillion 2026 military budget.

Military meeting or MAGA sales pitch?

“All-hands” high-level gatherings are routine, but this one stood out. It was a full court press to build consensus against “wokeness.”

“What made this meeting so notable is that today’s military is buffeted by an atmosphere of extreme partisan polarization,” wrote former National Security Council staffer Peter Feaver.

Commentators saluted the officers for listening with their poker faces on. It’s supposed to be a win for keeping politics out of the military. But many haven’t kept their cards close to their chests.

“Could have been an email,” one officer told Politico. Another described the conference as an “inexcusable strategic risk.”

“I suspect it’s not being taken well,” retired Lt. General Mark Hertling told MSNBC.

These comments expose that polarization hasn’t been staved off; it’s already running deep. It’s come up before, everywhere from shaving rules to the trans ban. The latter was opposed by 56 retired generals and admirals.

Take it to the streets, see who comes out on top

The sharpest flashpoint has been the National Guard’s occupation of major cities. Trump called them “training grounds” for troops. He states plainly that these takeovers, in Black and Chicano urban areas, go fist-in-glove with imperialism abroad.

Trump’s takeovers have escalated deportations and racist arrests. Although the National Guardsmen do not have powers of arrest themselves, they give backup to federal agents to go after people on petty or trumped-up charges. On Fight Back! Radio, a DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression activist described how agents have detained people for legally smoking weed.

But these occupations have prompted a wave of mass resistance. Protests have sprung up in every city that Trump has targeted, and even local politicians are speaking up. “Training grounds” indeed – for the united front against Trump.

The court system is taking notice. The Guardian reported that DC has seen unprecedented lows in indictments by grand juries on charges related to the Trump takeover, even if a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich.

Pushed on by the fightback from civilians, soldiers up and down the chain aren’t buying that there’s an “enemy within.” One officer told Politico that these deployments “distract warfighters.” At least eleven former generals criticized the Los Angeles takeover. The Guardian reported that dozens of troops deployed to LA voiced anger about being political pawns. One said the assignment was “shitty.”

“Disoriented, demoralized, and ineffective”

This isn’t to say there’s a revolt within the armed forces. But they face a different kind of problem – disorganization.

In Foreign Affairs, Peter Fever writes: “Over the course of their professional lives, these military officers are likely to serve a large chunk of their time under both parties. If they become identified as partisans of one, they may be viewed as enemies of the other—starting a cycle of partisan purges that leaves the military disoriented, demoralized, and ineffective, as has happened in other purge-prone militaries.”

To complicate things further, this divided force is running up against a fragmented legal system. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the federal military from participating in general law enforcement without a state’s consent. It’s the basis for the California ruling against the occupation of Los Angeles. Effectively, cities in blue states have this legal avenue against the deployments. States like Louisiana, where Trump crony Governor Jeff Landry requested federal assistance, are a different terrain.

Polarization in the military, like in the rest of the U.S., is a sign of imperialism’s decline. Hegseth admitted to this decline when he compared the aftermath of Vietnam to the U.S.’s position today. In Vietnam, like in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. tried to rally other imperialists under the banner of “spreading democracy.” But out with these ambitious, ideological wars. In with the wars of naked and narrow self-interest. It’s the desperate gambit of an empire losing its grip. Mounting abuses of military power come with the territory. But, after all, Americans have resisted the likes of this since 1776.

https://fightbacknews.org/commentary-polarization-rocks-u-s-military?pk_campaign=rss-feed

NightOwl via World News

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NightOwl
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Netanyahu ordered drone attacks on Gaza-bound humanitarian aid boats off Tunisia, sources say

No one was hurt when two vessels that were part of a flotilla bound for Gaza mysteriously caught fire last month.

^{James LaPorta (CBS News)}

#Worldnews