Soup kitchen distributes meals to desperate Palestinians in Gaza City tent camp amid Israeli blockade
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
31 minutes ago
- New York Post
Iran regime cracks down on its own people with a ‘North Korea-style model' of ‘terrifying' repression
In the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the regime appears to be turning inward — escalating repression with chilling speed. According to Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, the Islamic Republic is accelerating toward what he said is a 'North Korea-style model of isolation and control.' 'We're witnessing a kind of domestic isolation that will have major consequences for the Iranian people,' Aarabi told Fox News Digital. 'The regime has always been totalitarian, but the level of suppression now is unprecedented. It's unlike anything we've seen before.' A source inside Iran confirmed to Fox News Digital that 'the repression has become terrifying.' Aarabi, who maintains direct lines of contact in Iran, described a country under siege by its own rulers. In Tehran, he described how citizens are stopped at random, their phones confiscated and searched. 'If you have content deemed pro-Israel or mocking the regime, you disappear,' he said. 'People are now leaving their phones at home or deleting everything before they step outside.' 3 The Iranian regime is heading down a pathway similar to the leadership style of North Korea in the wake of the Israel-Iran conflict. AP This new wave of paranoia and fear, he explained, mirrors tactics seen in North Korea — where citizens vanish without explanation and information is tightly controlled. During the recent conflict, Iran's leadership imposed a total internet blackout to isolate the population, blocking Israeli evacuation alerts, and pushed propaganda that framed Israel as targeting civilians indiscriminately. 'It was a perverse objective,' Aarabi said, adding, 'They deliberately cut communications to instill fear and manipulate public perception. For four days, not a single message went through. Even Israeli evacuation alerts didn't reach their targets.' The regime's aim, he said, was twofold: to keep people off the streets and erode the surprising bond that had formed between Iranians and Israelis. 'At the start of the war, many Iranians welcomed the strikes,' Aarabi noted. 3 In North Korea, citizens can vanish without explanation. KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images 'They knew Israel was targeting the IRGC — the very forces responsible for suppressing and killing their own people. But once the internet was cut and fear set in, some began to question what was happening.' Dr. Afshon Ostovar, a leading Iran scholar and author of 'Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards,' said domestic repression remains the regime's most reliable strategy for survival. 'Repressing the people at home is easy. That's something they can do. So it's not unlikely that Iran could become more insular, more autocratic, more repressive — and more similar to, let's say, a North Korea — than what it is today. That might be the only way they see to preserve the regime: by really tightening the screws on the Iranian people, to ensure that the Iranian population doesn't try to rise up and topple the regime,' he told Fox News Digital. Inside the regime's power structure, the fallout from the war is just as severe. Aarabi said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is facing an internal crisis of trust and an imminent purge. 'These operations couldn't have taken place without infiltration at the highest levels,' he said. 'There's immense pressure now to clean house.' 3 Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said the country is heading towards a 'North Korea-style model of isolation and control.' KCNA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock The next generation of IRGC officers — those who joined after 2000 — are younger, more radical and deeply indoctrinated. Over half of their training is now ideological. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Aarabi said that these newer factions have begun turning on senior commanders, accusing them of being too soft on Israel or even collaborating with Mossad. 'In a twist of irony, Khamenei created these extreme ideological ranks to consolidate power — and now they're more radical than he is,' Aarabi said. 'He's struggling to control them.' A purge is likely, along with the rise of younger, less experienced commanders with far higher risk tolerance — a shift that could make the IRGC more volatile both domestically and internationally. With Iran's conventional military doctrine in ruins, terrorism may become its primary lever of influence. 'The regime's three pillars — militias, ballistic missiles, and its nuclear program — have all been decapitated or severely degraded,' Aarabi said. 'That leaves only asymmetric warfare: soft-target terrorism with plausible deniability.' Despite the regime's brutal turn inward, Aarabi insists this is a sign of weakness, not strength. 'If the Islamic Republic were confident, it wouldn't need to crush its people this way,' he said. 'It's acting out of fear. But until the regime's suppressive apparatus is dismantled, the streets will remain silent — and regime change remains unlikely.'
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
MAGA civil war gets uglier as Trump first pal Laura Loomer hurls Qatar money ‘lie' at Tucker Carlson
The MAGA civil war over the specter of America joining Israel's conflict with Iran has grown increasingly ugly in recent days as Donald Trump superfan and 'proud Islamophobe' Laura Loomer is now accusing Tucker Carlson of being bankrolled by Qatar, prompting Carlson's team to call out Loomer's 'lie.' Loomer, who generally sides with the hardcore 'America First' wing of Trump's coalition, has split from the MAGA isolationists and found common cause with the hawkish Republicans and right-wing commentators who are incessantly nudging the president to take military action against Tehran. In doing so, Loomer — who has the president's ear — has also pledged to snitch on any of her fellow conservative pundits and influencers who 'is sh*t talking Trump right now,' anointing herself the 'loyalty enforcer' of MAGA. 'I am screenshotting everyone's posts and I'm going to deliver them in a package to President Trump so he sees who is truly with him and who isn't,' Loomer tweeted this week. 'And I think by now everyone knows I mean it when I say I'm going to deliver something to Trump.' The rabid Trump supporter and self-described 'investigative journalist,' who has already taken credit for Trump axing his national security adviser and other 'disloyal' aides, is now looking to use her influence with the president to kneecap another longtime Trump ally who has been critical of the administration's Iran saber-rattling. During a recent discussion with Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who has also warned the president about attacking Iran, Carlson denied the implication lobbed by Fox News host Mark Levin that he was being paid by the Qatari government. Levin, who has been engaged in a months-long back-and-forth with his former Fox colleague over the brewing tensions with Iran, also accused Carlson of leaking stories to the press about him. 'Chatsworth Qatarlson is very angry,' Levin tweeted last week. 'Busy leaking to and planting stories with his media pals. Burning up his cellphone with calls to his embeds in government and his Koch-heads at the Quincy institute. A desperate man does desperate things.' The 'Qatarlson' jab appeared to refer to a Washington Examiner story last month about Qatar's foreign influence operation targeting conservative media figures, specifically noting that the Muslim kingdom's 'biggest victory in its post-election right-wing media campaign' was Carlson's friendly interview with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in March. The story noted that Foreign Agents Registration Act records showed that consulting firm Lumen8 Advisors LLC helped facilitate the interview, adding that the Qatari government was paying Lumen8 Advisors $180,000 per month 'to provide media and communication coaching and consulting services.' Meanwhile, the story that Levin suggested Carlson 'planted' was a Politico article about the 'MAGA vs. hawk battle' over Iran and Trump. Politico reported that Levin had a private lunch with Trump earlier this month in which he told the president that 'Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon' despite American intelligence saying the opposite. The previously unreported meeting, where Levin urged Trump to allow Israel to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, was sourced to 'an intelligence official as well as another Trump ally familiar with the matter.' During his sitdown with Bannon earlier this week, Carlson outright refuted that the Qatari government had paid him. 'They know I'm not working for Qatar,' he declared. 'I've never taken a dime from any foreign country or anybody. They're the ones who have these weird, complex motives, and so they project onto everyone else the same.' Sharing a screenshot of the FARA documents that the Examiner had reported on last month, Loomer — who backtracked on her criticism of Trump accepting a free Qatari jet last month — claimed that she had caught Carlson lying and that he was peddling 'propaganda' on behalf of 'genocidal Muslims.' 'Tucker is controlled by Muslims. People need to wake up and stop pretending like this is a conspiracy theory,' she tweeted. 'Qatar and Iran are buying off conservative podcasters to push pro-Islamist, anti-American and anti-Israel talking points to undermine President Trump.' She also urged Bannon to 'correct the record for his viewers' and tell them Carlson was 'lying' about Qatar funding him, claiming that the Qataris had dished out $200,000 for Carlson's interview. 'Tucker is in fact being influenced by foreign money to spew propaganda for Islamists,' she added. 'This is un-American and dishonest.' The actual FARA document, however, shows that Lumen8 Advisors had not disbursed any money in connection with activity on behalf of Qatar over the past six months, something Neil patel – the CEO of Carlson's media company and longtime friend of the former Fox News star – pointed out this week while denying Loomer's accusations. 'Allegations that Tucker Carlson or Tucker Carlson Network took money from any foreign country for an interview or for any other reason are categorically and definitively false and defamatory,' Patel posted on X on Wednesday, which Carlson retweeted. 'Neither Tucker nor TCN has ever taken a penny from Qatar or any foreign country. To the contrary, TCN bought out all its investors last March to achieve total and absolute independence. Almost no other major media company can make that claim.' Patel followed that up by sharing a statement from Lumen8 Advisors that also denied that Carlson had received any compensation for his interview with the Qatari prime minister. 'Tucker Carlson, TCN, and its affiliates have never received payment from Lumen8Advisors, entities affiliated with it, or its client,' the statement noted. 'This is a lie. This contract and filing has nothing to do with us. Tucker and TCN have never accepted any foreign money, Qatari or otherwise,' Patel responded to Loomer's 'screenshot' tweet. 'None of this is even about the interview anyway, of course. It's about you not liking Tucker's views on a war that you want,' he added. 'That's your right, but it would be more honest if you addressed Tucker directly on the real topic.' Loomer, meanwhile, has continued to double and triple down on her claims, moving the goalposts by demanding that Carlson 'post all the receipts from the trip' for the interview. 'What type of consultant would ask Tucker Carlson to do an interview with the Prime Minister of Qatar and not pay for expenses or pay a fee?' Loomer wondered at one point. She has also turned her attention to Patel directly, noting that he once served as an adviser for former Vice President Dick Cheney while bringing up his ethnic background. 'How can they have any credibility to call Trump 'pro-war'?' Loomer raged. While Carlson and Patel appear to have moved on – Carlson did not respond to a request for comment – Loomer continues to try to make hay out of the Qatari interview, which has even resulted in her approvingly retweeting Levin congratulating her for a job 'well done.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Facing settler threats, Palestinian Bedouins forced out of rural West Bank community
By Ali Sawafta JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank (Reuters) -Thirty Palestinian families left their home in a remote area of the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, saying they were forced out after years of persistent harassment and violence by Israeli settlers. The families, members of the Bedouin Mleihat tribe from a shepherding community in the Jordan Valley, began dismantling homes built with iron sheets and wooden boards on Friday, overwhelmed by fears of further attacks. "The settlers are armed and attack us, and the (Israeli) military protects them. We can't do anything to stop them. We can't take it anymore, so we decided to leave," said Mahmoud Mleihat, a 50-year-old father of seven from the community. As the Palestinians took down their encampment, an Israeli settler armed with a rifle and several Israeli soldiers looked on. Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley, a sparsely populated region near the Jordan River, have faced escalating harassment from settlers in recent years, including violence. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has documented repeated acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Mu'arrajat, near Jericho, where the Mleihat tribe lives. In 2024, settlers armed with clubs stormed a Palestinian school, while in 2023, armed settlers blocked the path of vehicles carrying Palestinians, with some firing into the air and others hurling stones at the vehicles. "We want to protect our children, and we've decided to leave," Mahmoud said, describing it as a great injustice. He had lived in the community since he was 10, Mahmoud said. Israel's military did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the settler harassment faced by the Bedouin families or about the families leaving their community. Asked about settler violence in the West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday that any acts of violence by civilians were unacceptable and that individuals should not take the law into their own hands. Activists say Israeli settlement expansion has accelerated in recent years, displacing Palestinians, who have remained on their land under military occupation since Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war. B'Tselem representative Sarit Michaeli said the Mleihat tribe had faced "intense settler violence" that included, theft, vandalism, and assault. This week, she said, the settlers had established an informal outpost near the Palestinians' home. The military was failing to protect Palestinians from attacks by settlers, who she said acted with impunity. Aaliyah Mleihat, 28, said the Bedouin community, which had lived there for 40 years, would now be scattered across different parts of the Jordan Valley, including nearby Jericho. "People are demolishing their own homes with their own hands, leaving this village they've lived in for decades, the place where their dreams were built," she said, describing the forced displacement of 30 families as a "new Nakba". The Nakba, meaning 'catastrophe' in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during 1948 at the birth of the state of Israel. Most countries consider Israeli settlements a violation of the Geneva Conventions which ban settling civilians on occupied land; Israel says the settlements are lawful and justified by historic and biblical Jewish ties to the land. (Writing by Alexander Cornwell, Editing by William Maclean)
