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Its war in Lebanon, and its continued bombing in Gaza – despite so-called “ceasefires” in place – did not stop Israel from conducting violent raids in the occupied West Bank and conducting “piracy” at sea.

Settler violence continued unabated, and the condition of a prominent journalist who had been held by Israel without trial or charge for a year was more proof of the torture and abuse Palestinians go through in Israeli prisons.

It was yet another troubling week in Palestine:

Saturday, April 25 – First Elections Held in Gaza Since 2006

Palestinians in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah voted in the first elections in two decades. It was mostly a symbolic vote meant to show that Gaza and the West Bank, where elections were also being held, cannot be separated politically, the Palestinian Authority said. Hamas did not formally field candidates, and turnout was low in Deir Al-Balah because, as Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary noted, people were “busy with surviving.”

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Sunday, April 26 – Israel Kills 4 Across Gaza

Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians across Gaza, including a 40-year-old woman who was shot and killed by Israeli troops, according to medical officials who spoke with Reuters.

The death toll in Gaza since the so-called ceasefire began more than six months ago has topped 820. Israel has killed more than 72,600 Palestinians since the genocide began.

Monday, April 27 – Israeli Forces Evict Palestinians and Take Over Their Homes

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Zack Polanski’s Green Party continues to rise in the polls and is expected to make huge gains in the impending local elections across England and Wales.

So, could this gay, Jewish, leftist leader of a once-fringe political party soon end up in Number 10 Downing Street as prime minister? That’s the question Mehdi asks Owen in London in this latest episode of ‘Two Outspoken’ - and you really need to hear Owen’s answer.

Polanski has been under attack from a hostile media and rival political parties in recent weeks - with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, slamming the Green Party leader for his supposedly “disgraceful” downplaying of antisemitism.

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Owen tells Mehdi that when Polanski was elected party leader last year, “I thought to myself, ‘Will they try the same, ‘You’re an antisemite’ smear campaign against the Jewish leader.’ And they are doing that.”

The duo also discuss Keir Starmer’s ongoing unpopularity, the controversy over his appointment of Jeffrey Epstein ally Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to the United States, and the odds of Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, or Angela Rayner replacing Starmer in Downing Street later this month.

Oh, and they also talk about Owen’s new… beard.

Paid subscribers can watch the full interview. Free subscribers can watch a five-minute preview. Consider becoming a paid subscriber today to skip the paywall every time!

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The Iran war is over! At least, it is according to President Donald Trump, who just declared Iran “hostilities” have been “terminated.” Before you run to Times Square to grab the nearest sailor or nurse, I’ve got bad news – Trump is lying. The Iran war is not over by any legal or military standard. With the Strait of Hormuz still shut, the US Navy still trying to enforce a blockade, thousands of extra troops still deployed to the region, and Trump still threatening to bomb Iran again, why is he suddenly trying to declare “mission accomplished?”

The answer is that Friday marked a special anniversary for congressional Republicans hoping to disassociate themselves from a disastrous war they have so far largely endorsed: 60 days from March 2, when Trump formally notified Congress of his war on Iran.

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The so-called “60-day clock” comes from the 1973 War Powers Resolution (WPR), a bill passed to prevent a repeat of Vietnam, which saw successive US presidents drag the country into a foreign quagmire without seeking approval from Congress, the only branch of government with the constitutional authority to declare war. The WPR stipulates that if the president enters “hostilities” following an attack on the United States, he can continue operations for up to 60 days before securing congressional authorization required under the Constitution. The term “hostilities” used in the law refers both to active combat and situations where troops are at risk of coming under fire.

The WPR has been used and abused by both parties, with Republicans now treating it like a 60-day hall pass for Trump. On the contrary, says Eric Eikenberry, government relations director at Win Without War: “The ‘60-day clock’ in the WPR is not congressional permission for the president to wage any war they like for two months.”

Why Republicans Are Talking About a 60-Day Deadline – And Why It’s Irrelevant Under the Law

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This week, we saw the Trump playbook rear its head once again after an alleged gunman breached a security checkpoint at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner: Attack the left in the most shameless of ways.

Not only did Donald Trump and his cronies immediately blame Democrats, comedians, and anyone else on the left, seemingly forgetting their King Donald is the most verbally abusive, name-calling, and violence-inciting politician in modern history, but they also used the alleged assassination attempt to market … Trump’s White House ballroom!

It was not a good week for American democracy – for free speech, for voting rights, for press freedom.

From moving to deny pro-Palestine immigrants green cards, to demanding the firing of Jimmy Kimmel, indicting James Comey, to gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, here’s just a taste of what Trump and his allies did this week that hurt democracy, undermined the Constitution, and harmed societies worldwide:

Saturday, April 25 – You Might Not Get a Green Card If You’re Pro-Palestine

In new guidance issued by the Trump administration, criticizing Israel or participating in pro-Palestine campus protests could disqualify green card applicants, the New York Times reported.

The guidance also discourages approving green cards for applicants who have a history of “endorsing, promoting, or supporting anti-American views,” including “holding a sign advocating overthrow of the US government.”

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Sunday, April 26 – Trump Attacks CBS Journalist in Highly Edited Interview

During an interview on ‘60 Minutes,’ Trump lashed out at journalist Norah O’Donnell, calling her “a disgrace” and saying she “should be ashamed” of herself after she read an excerpt from a so-called manifesto written by the alleged gunman who tried to breach security at the White House correspondents’ dinner the previous evening.

The interview was also the subject of several significant edits, which is noteworthy considering CBS settled a lawsuit with Trump for editing a 2024 interview with Kamala Harris.

Monday, April 27 – Donald and Melania Call for Jimmy Kimmel to Be Fired

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump called for Disney and ABC to fire late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over a video where he jokingly called Melania an “expectant widow.” Trump ridiculously called the joke a “despicable call to violence.”

In response, FCC Chair Brendan Carr seemingly threatened ABC affiliates, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” when it comes to “tak[ing action on Kimmel.” Later, the FCC launched a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses years ahead of schedule.

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Tuesday, April 28 – Trump’s DOJ Indicts Comey…Again

Trump’s Justice Department once again indicted former FBI Director James Comey, this time over a 2025 Instagram post of seashells depicting the numbers “86” and “47.” In the restaurant industry, “86” means an item isn’t available, and Trump is the 47th US president. But the DOJ ridiculously alleges the post was meant as a “threat to kill the president.”

In a video response, Comey said he is innocent of the charges, which some legal experts believe he could try to have dismissed on the grounds of “vindictive prosecution.”

Later, Bloomberg reported that the DOJ is pursuing more charges against Comey for allegedly leaking classified information.

Wednesday, April 29 – Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights Act

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court effectively weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that has prohibited racial discrimination in voting for six decades. The move will allow Republicans to redraw their congressional maps in the South, potentially netting the GOP 19 additional seats in the House compared to 2024 maps, and could lead to the largest drop in Black representation in Congress ever.

The three Democratic justices dissented, with Justice Elena Kagan writing that the decision renders the provision “all but a dead letter,” and warned that the consequences of the ruling will likely be “far-reaching and grave.”

Thursday, April 30 – Louisiana’s Congressional Primaries Suspended After Supreme Court Ruling

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order to suspend the state’s congressional primaries just two days before early voting was scheduled to begin, citing Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling, which struck down a majority Black congressional district.

The order postponed the congressional primaries until either July 15 or a new date set by the legislature. State Republican leaders have said they are planning to pass new congressional maps.

Friday, May 1 – Trump Admin Diverted One-Quarter of FBI Personnel to Immigration

The Intercept reported that thousands of FBI employees were diverted from criminal investigations and public safety to civil immigration enforcement during the first nine months of the second Trump administration.

Nearly 9,200 FBI personnel – almost 25% of the agency’s entire workforce – worked on “immigration-related matters” during that time period, marking a staggering increase from the 279 employees assigned to immigration before Trump took office.

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Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s reporting from this week below:

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The creators say making a game was a natural way to reach a wide audience. “The gaming industry is actually larger than film and music combined,” says UPF Assistant Producer Ariella Gayotto Hohl.

Executive Producer Alex Kronemer adds, “There’s an audience who will never watch a film or never watch a documentary. So how do you also reach that audience? And that was the idea of doing a game.”

The pair also talks about Islamophobia in the US today, the geopolitical moment in which the game is being released, and whether even Mehdi himself, who was never good at video games, could master “Vanished.”

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Happy Friday, all. It’s Swin and Andrew again. If you’re living in America right now and you still doubt you’re living in an empire in decline, remind yourself that our disastrously unpopular, mentally decayed leader is still very badly losing a horrifying foreign war that he started, and yet all he seems to want to talk about is his “ballroom” and punishing a former host of ‘The Man Show.’ Now, let’s talk more about that war, and the lies that President Donald Trump continues to peddle to the American people about his negotiating position, even as his own intelligence officials quietly warn of a much grimmer truth.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Iran prepares a familiar fate for Trump, Louisiana leads the way for the GOP after the death of the Voting Rights Act, and the public doesn’t believe Donald should get his White House ballroom in order to feel safe.

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‘They Know They Can Carter Him’

Donald Trump likes to claim he holds all the “cards” and is in “no rush” to make a deal to end the illegal war in Iran he started earlier this year. He claims the Iranian government is “begging” him to end the war and that the US has “all” the leverage in negotiations.

That would be news to various US officials, some of whom have told the president and other senior administration personnel that the Iranians, in fact, have a ton of leverage – to a degree that could be disastrous for Trump and Republicans in the looming midterm elections.

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In recent weeks, US officials have privately discussed classified intelligence assessments suggesting that the government in Tehran isn’t close to breaking, even after two months of war and a sustained economic assault, two administration officials and two other sources briefed on the matter tell us. Administration officials, citing US intel, have also warned that senior Iranian officials are keenly aware that if the war drags on much longer, it could further damage Trump and the Republican Party’s chances at the polls in November.

“They know they can Carter him,” a senior administration official familiar with the intelligence and internal deliberations says, referring to how the Iranian hostage crisis helped tank Jimmy Carter’s presidency by the time of the 1980 US election.

And if Tehran doesn’t get a deal to end the conflict that it sees as sufficiently favorable – a scenario that would invariably include concessions that the White House has said cross Trump’s “red lines” – US intelligence officials believe the Iranians would likely be able to keep fighting into the end of the year at least, the sources add.

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On the morning of April 14, Sudhir Kiyani was at home in Islamabad’s Noori Bagh neighborhood when officials from the Capital Development Authority (CDA), accompanied by police, knocked on his door. “CDA officials and police officers asked us to move out within the next hour, or they would knock down our house with everything in it,” Kiyani told Zeteo. His family had lived in that house for seven generations.

His wife and 10-year-old son left that morning with nowhere to go. The boy had attended the first day of sixth grade the day before – and has not returned to school since.

Just days earlier, Pakistan had hosted high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran. Delegations arrived alongside international media, many of whom couldn’t resist praising Islamabad’s calm, manicured beauty. Landmarks like the Islamabad Serena Hotel and the Jinnah Convention Center briefly became symbols of the city’s global moment. Since then, Islamabad has remained in the headlines, with expectations of a second round of talks.

But even as the Pakistani capital basked in the diplomatic spotlight, another story was quietly unfolding.

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Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza aid flotilla over 600 miles from the coast of Gaza on Wednesday night, abducting the crews of nearly two dozen boats in international waters near Greece.

According to the flotilla’s live tracker, 22 boats carrying 179 crew members were intercepted, and over 40 others are still sailing.

The latest flotilla effort, the Global Sumud Flotilla, includes more than 400 people from over 70 nations. It is now the fifth humanitarian flotilla that Israel has intercepted in the past two years. People from around the world have joined the efforts as an attempt to breach Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians suffering from Israel’s occupation and genocide.

Among those kidnapped are 15 people from the US, including Zeteo contributor Alex Colston.

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This is the furthest away from Gaza that Israel has seized an aid flotilla. There is no legal authority that enables the Israeli government to commit what some are calling “piracy” in international waters.

“How on earth is [it] possible that Israel is allowed to assault and seize vessels in international waters just off Greece/Europe?” UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a social media post. “Besides what you can think of Apartheid Israel and its genocidal leaders, this should send shock waves across Europe. Apartheid without borders.”

On Wednesday night, the Israeli navy contacted the flotilla by radio through the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise vessel.

“This is the Israeli Navy. Attempts to break the lawful maritime security blockade on the Gaza Strip constitutes a violation of international law,” a voice says. “...Any further attempts to sail towards Gaza places your safety at risk and leaves the IDF no choice but to take necessary measures at its disposal to enforce the lawful maritime security blockade.”

via Greenpeace

One passenger aboard a flotilla vessel that wasn’t intercepted told Zeteo that a drone flashed lights at the vessel last night and military vessels were visible in the distance, but Israeli forces have otherwise not made contact. The boat is planning to anchor in Crete to shelter from a storm.

The crew member, who asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns, said Israeli forces sabotaged the engine of at least one flotilla vessel, stranding people aboard ahead of the expected storm, but other vessels in the fleet were able to pick them up.

On Wednesday, hours before Israeli forces illegally intercepted the ships, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he “imposed sanctions” on the flotilla’s crowdfunding campaign, ridiculously claiming it is “organized by the Hamas terror organization, in cooperation with additional international organizations and under the guise of a humanitarian aid flotilla.”

On Thursday, Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace,” which is supposedly overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza, smeared the flotilla as “performative love-boat activism of people who know nothing of and care even less for the condition of Gazans.”

After the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it would take the kidnapped crew members to Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar then claimed on Thursday that the abducted passengers will be handed over to Greece, and thanked the Greek government for its “willingness to receive the flotilla participants.”

Sa’ar falsely claimed that people who want to deliver aid to Gaza can do so through the so-called Board of Peace, and called Israel’s naval blockade “lawful.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Israeli Navy on social media.

‘Act of Piracy’

Israel’s attack has prompted worldwide condemnation. In a statement, the Italian government said it “condemns the seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels,” and called on Israel to “immediately release all the unlawfully detained Italians” and for the “full respect of international law and guarantees on the physical safety of the people on board.”

Italy added that it is “committed to continue supplying humanitarian aid to Gaza in the framework of our cooperation and in respect of international law.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez slammed Israel, saying it “is once again violating international law by assaulting a civilian flotilla in waters that do not belong to it.”

“The EU must suspend the association agreement NOW and demand that Netanyahu comply with the law of our seas,” he added, referring to the 2000 trade and relations agreement between the European Union and Israel.

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The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed Israel’s attack as “an act of piracy.”

“By targeting the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose mission is to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe faced by the innocent people of Gaza, Israel has also violated humanitarian principles and international law,” the Turkish government said, calling on the international community to take a unified stance against Israel’s “unlawful” action.

“This act of aggression further represents a breach of the principle of freedom of navigation on the high seas.”

Opposition parties and pro-Palestine advocates in Greece accused the conservative government of complicity in Israel’s attack in international waters near Crete.

“The Greek government is either complicit or utterly incapable of defending our waters and the Law of the Sea against Israeli incursions,” Yanis Varoufakis, secretary of left-wing party MeRA25, said on Wednesday as Israel was targeting the fleet.

The March to Gaza Greece initiative accused the government of cooperating with Israel.

“It is obvious they are lying,” the group said in a statement. “The ships are within the Greek SAR zone, the same area where they were targeted by drones last summer. We demand the Greek government, the Coast Guard, and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs ensure the safe passage of our fleet and prevent further aggression.”

If Greece did cooperate with the Israeli government in any way, the implications would be far-reaching. It would pin one NATO member state, Greece, against several others in the region – including Italy, Spain, and Turkey – who have slammed the attack.

A NATO official referred Zeteo to Greek authorities, which did not respond. The White House referred to the US State Department, which did not respond.

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‘Our Leaders Have Failed Us’

Last October, Israel intercepted a 44-vessel flotilla, which was crewed by individuals including European Union Members of Parliament Rima Hassan and Emma Forreau, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ star Adèle Haenel, and Zeteo contributor Greta Thunberg.

Israeli soldiers allegedly strip-searched, zip-tied, and blindfolded members, even forcing some, including Thunberg, to take photo-ops with the Israeli flag. In Israeli detention, crew members were allegedly subjected to abusive treatment, including sleep and medical deprivation, beatings, and having guns pointed at them.

Even still, months later, hundreds of people from around the world set off on the latest flotilla mission.

Flotilla organizers told Alex Colston at the onset of this year’s mission that ongoing genocide, coupled with the Iran war, made the risks worth it this time around.

“This is not a risk-free mission,” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, one of the GSF’s lead organizers, told Alex at the time. “Nonetheless, a nonviolent solidarity mission is a fraction of the risk that Palestinians have gone through every single day for eight decades.”

The passenger Zeteo spoke to on Thursday added that the reason for the flotilla mission is “because our leaders have failed us.”

“If we allow Israel to continue kidnapping civilians illegally when they’re not even near Gaza, it shows a reckless and careless attitude towards civilian life by all world leaders,” the passenger said. “If leaders wanted to show us they cared about humanity and actually wanted peace, they would sanction Israel and its allies.”

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Read Zeteo’s statement on Israel’s illegal actions:

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With over a month left in the Democratic primary, Graham Platner is now the party’s presumptive nominee for US Senate in Maine, in the pivotal fight against fake moderate Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent.

Janet Mills suspended her campaign on Thursday, reluctantly ceding the primary to Platner without endorsing him. An anti-war, anti-Israel oysterman and Marine combat veteran, Platner was a complete unknown when he launched his bid. He faced his share of scandals and negative news coverage while building a massive lead in the polls – and ultimately cruising to the nomination.

That Platner came out of nowhere to take control of the race is an embarrassment for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who recruited Mills, the two-term incumbent governor, into the race.

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Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, put out a humbling statement on Thursday indicating they will support Platner moving forward. “After years of allowing Trump’s abuses of power, Senator Collins has never been more vulnerable and we will work with the presumptive democratic nominee Graham Platner to defeat her,” they wrote.

Zeteo broke the news of Platner’s launch in August, and we’ve followed his campaign on the ground in Maine. Platner, who was backed early on by Bernie Sanders, appears to be building a grassroots machine, with the candidate declaring in recent weeks that his campaign has 15,000 volunteers. He has packed town hall after town hall around the state, sharing his views with voters and his anger at the political system, presenting a left-wing message focused on building worker power and beating back the forces robbing Americans of their worth, freedom, and time.

Much of the mainstream media and many liberals on social media wrote Platner off after it was revealed that he for many years had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo he got as a Marine that resembled a Nazi symbol. News outlets also dug up Platner’s old Reddit posts, which included misogynistic and bigoted comments, among other things.

The scandals did surprisingly little to affect his primary campaign. He covered his tattoo up, denied he knew its meaning, and apologized. He also apologized for many of his Reddit posts. (It should be noted that throughout his campaign Platner has consistently spoken out against xenophobia, fascism, and right-wing culture-war campaigns against LGBTQ+ communities.)

In Maine, it has been clear that voters were not scared off by the news coverage – and polls supported this. Recent surveys found him with a 30-point lead over Mills, and that he’s leading Collins, too.

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Mills’s ads about Platner’s internet posts, featuring video of him shirtless with the tattoo, didn’t move the needle for her – and may have even helped seal the race for Platner. Mills stopped running the ads earlier this month, as her campaign apparently began running low on cash. (A pro-Collins super PAC began running ads targeting Platner on both topics this week.)

While Mills didn’t campaign that hard, Platner has been hustling, and picking up speed. He’s held over 60 town halls, and recently rallied in Portland with progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, before a crowd of 1,000 people.

“We’ve got a political system that, in many ways, is entirely inaccessible to the average American,” Platner said at a town hall earlier this month in Windham. “[Politics] tends to be conducted by people who we don’t recognize, who don’t often come from our communities and are espousing policies and ideas that do not in any way, shape, or form reflect the things that we think or that we often talk to our neighbors about. I think that you couldn’t come up with a better example of this right now than the war in Iran.”

He continued: “People see it for what it is. They see it as a war that’s been started by Donald Trump, so he can take attention away from the fact that he’s clearly in the Epstein files. It’s a war that everybody can see has been started because [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to get this war to happen for 30 years, and he finally found a president who was sucker enough to go for it.”

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Platner spent the evening listing off dark truths and red meat for an increasingly pissed-off Democratic voter base. The crowd, in a small meetinghouse filled to the brim, almost certainly past capacity, gave him a standing ovation.

Here’s what one attendee, Jennifer McGowan, had to say about Platner after the event, speaking with Zeteo: “He seems to have a really firm grasp on the history of this country, and I like that… But also I’m really tired of the Democratic Party being a bunch of pussies, to be honest with you. I think that we’re all too nice, we’re all too worried about how it’s going to appear, how it’s going to look. And I think that there’s a way to be tough and assertive without being immoral. I wish we had more people that would do that. I feel like he’s that kind of guy.”

At one point during the Windham town hall, Platner noted his campaign couldn’t have gotten going without an early endorsement from Bernie Sanders. “I’ll tell you as someone that had no money doing this, I got really, really lucky,” Platner said. “If it wasn’t for the fact Bernie Sanders endorsed me in the first couple of weeks. That allowed us to do small-dollar fundraising on a mass scale. [If] we hadn’t been able to do that, this doesn’t happen.”

I spoke with Sanders in September, when he and Platner rallied together at an arena in Portland.

“I think the Democratic leadership is way out of touch. They’re out of touch on what’s happening in Gaza. They’re out of touch economically,” Sanders told me. “I think we need a grassroots movement in this country which transforms the Democratic Party into a party of the working class that is prepared to fight for the issues relevant to the working class. That’s what Graham Platner is about.”

He said he was backing Platner to send a message to the political establishment: “The idea of having a working class guy, who has never run for office before, take on Senator Collins – and I think there’s a good chance he will beat her – that sends a message.”

“Graham’s background is very, very different,” Sanders said. “He’s not a conventional politician.”

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“That sends a message,” he explained, “that ordinary people can step up. You can take on the powers that be, the political establishment. You can win.”

The Democratic political establishment might not appreciate that message – but it’s hearing it loud and clear.

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Good morning, all; it’s Swin and Prem again. This week, President Donald Trump, an elderly wannabe king who serves as the head of state of a shockingly nativist Western government, and whose administration has been rocked by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, met at the White House with King Charles III, an elderly king who serves as the head of state of a shockingly nativist Western government, and whose family has been rocked by the Epstein scandal.

The two were chummy, smirking, and poking fun. But gurgling just beneath the surface of his attempts to charm the monarch of a close ally, Trump was hiding one of the worst-kept secrets in all geopolitics: That he thinks a lot of these transatlantic alliances are a whole bunch of feckless bullshit and he wants US intelligence to spy on allies like they’re China or North Korea.

More on that in a moment… But here’s some good news! Today’s edition of ‘First Draft’ has NO paywall, thanks to our sponsor, Ground News. 🗞️ 😎 🙏

Now let’s get to it…

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With Friends Like These

In late January, the so-called “Department of War” publicly released its new National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Pentagon’s companion document to Donald Trump’s latest National Security Strategy, which outlines a breathlessly far-right vision for the world and America’s place in it.

There is, however, a classified version of the Trump-Vance administration’s NDS, one that was not released online. Two sources familiar with the matter tell us the classified NDS includes a section left out of the public document – paragraphs that call for an aggressive reprioritization of US “intelligence assets,” in the context of international burden-sharing, and having our allies do what the Americans tell them to do.

In recent months, including during the drafting process for the NDS, some US officials were alarmed by some of the more hyper-pugnacious lines in this section, interpreting them as Team Trump’s call for the US to ramp up spying operations on longtime allies.

You might’ve been able to argue that these internal fears were overblown, if they were happening in a vacuum. But they aren’t.

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For weeks, we’ve been following up on leads on this very topic, and here’s one thing we found: Since last year, according to two US officials and another source close to the White House, President Trump has repeatedly told multiple senior administration officials that the American intelligence community should spy more on our allies, including on governments that are part of NATO and Western Europe.

The US has, of course, spied and gathered top-secret intel on allies in the past, in one form or another. But Trump, the sources add, has privately insisted that supposed guardrails the American government does have – that limit the extent of our spying on allied nations – are, in the president’s succinct phrasing, “stupid.”

Over the past year-plus, Trump has blurted out that those restrictions and norms make no sense when it comes to how US intelligence operations abroad should work, particularly towards allies and international partners that Trump often feels act too much like “enemies” instead of pliant friends. As is the case with his approach to virtually all domestic and foreign affairs, he wants any semblance of guardrails obliterated.

It is unclear how much of Trump’s rantings on this matter have been put into actual, covert practice by the US intelligence community. However, as Trump’s war on Iran threatens to tear down his administration and the GOP with it, he has routinely insulted or tried to bully or punish allies he deems insufficiently enthused about his disastrous and illegal bloodbath in the Middle East. Over the years, he’s again and again accused US allies of being “worse” than foreign adversaries. And last year, according to the Wall Street Journal, senior officials working for Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, ordered American intel agencies to escalate their spying on Greenland, as Trump (in full-on Mad King mode) sought to annex the semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO country. (He hasn’t given up on this dream project, by the way.)

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Reached for comment on this story, the press shop for the Pete Hegseth-era Pentagon told Prem: “We have nothing to offer on this,” adding that they were saying this, “Very Respectfully.” Hours later, Trump White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told us: “This is totally false – but that is typical for Zeteo, whose nutjob founder is such a terrible ‘journalist’ that he was fired by MSNBC.”

That is a less respectful but honestly much, much more entertaining statement than what the “War Department” was willing to cough up. Team Trump can respond however they wish. We stand by our reporting. Cheers.

We used Ground News to analyze the big story this week on Trump’s fresh calls for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel.

Ground News is a news app and website that scans 50,000+ articles while offering built-in bias comparisons, fact checks, and funding transparency for every source.

For this story, we see that there is a split in the coverage with 27% left, 22% right, and 51% center. The headlines are the same, but the coverage couldn’t be more different. Ground News makes it easy to see the difference in how both sides are covering the same story.

The built-in factuality and ownership features also highlight the hidden angles behind every article. With Ground News’ Vantage Plan, information becomes your superpower. Learn more at ground.news/zeteox and get 40% off the unlimited Vantage Plan.

(This portion of the post was sponsored content)

🇮🇷 Iran War Updates

Death tolls:

• Iran: Iranian state media on Sunday reported, citing officials, that US-Israeli attacks have killed 3,468 people.

• Lebanon: Israel has killed more than 2,576 people, including at least 177 children, in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

• US troops: At least 13 US troops have died in incidents related to the war.

• Israel: At least 35 people, including 12 Israeli soldiers, have been killed, according to officials.

And in more war news…

• Iran’s vow: Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried by state media today that Tehran will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a “national asset.”

• Strait talk: At the White House, Donald Trump talked to US oil companies about how to mitigate the effects of a lengthy blockade of Iranian shipping.

• Price jump: Climate Power said US oil companies were raking in $30 million an hour while ordinary Americans pay over $4 a gallon at the pump. Oil prices spiked to wartime highs, as investors worried about the absence of meaningful talks.

• Actual diplomacy: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the Associated Press said, conducted “calls with the foreign ministers of India, Kenya and Poland… the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross” and the Lebanese speaker.

• Panel beating: In nearly five hours of questioning by the House Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth clashed angrily with Democrats, criticized some Republicans, and revealed the war has cost $25 billion.

• Hunger crisis: An analysis by a global poverty monitor estimates that around 1.2 million people in Lebanon will soon face food insecurity arising from Israeli strikes.

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Much Ado About Tweeting

According to CNN, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow deleted thousands of old tweets, including claims she still voted in California while living in Michigan, disparaging remarks about Michigan, and messages comparing Donald Trump and his supporters to Nazis.

McMorrow also tweeted about a dream of the US “amicably” breaking up, Middle America going one way and the coasts, Canada, Mexico, and parts of Michigan and Texas another, the latter entity nominating Barack Obama “as Prime Minister” while “everyone was given $1,000 and six months to pick a side.” After initially refusing to say if McMorrow had been expressing “a literal dream or a hypothetical situation she hoped for,” CNN said, her campaign said it was literally a dream.

McMorrow’s communications director said the deleted tweets were “normal tweets by a normal person.” But lest McMorrow’s rivals in the tight Democratic Senate primary take too much pleasure in her embarrassment, CNN pointed out that last year one of them, progressive Abdul El-Sayed, also scrubbed lots of potentially damaging tweets.

🗞️ What You Need to Know

• Court blow: In a 6-3 decision, Supreme Court conservatives gutted the Voting Rights Act provision guarding against racial discrimination. Dissenting, the liberal justices warned of “far-reaching and grave” consequences for US democracy.

• Florida follows: In Tallahassee, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a new map that could net four more US House seats for the GOP.

• Tin ear: In the Oval Office, Donald Trump “humorously” told NASA administrator Jared Isaacman: “You heard that question with those beautiful ears of yours ... He’s got super hearing.” Isaacman managed to laugh it off.

• Dystopia watch: Amazon is reportedly considering bringing back ‘The Apprentice,’ the 2000s reality show that rescued Donald Trump from business oblivion before his move into politics… but with Donald Trump Jr. now as the host. Amazon previously spent $75 million on Melania Trump’s propaganda film.

• Epstein time: Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will give an interview to the House Oversight Committee about the Jeffrey Epstein affair on May 29. Democrats said their threat to hold Bondi in contempt prompted the GOP move.

• Centrist fads: Democrat Josh Gottheimer and Republican Mike Lawler introduced a resolution condemning “antisemitic, hate-filled rhetoric,” naming progressive streamer Hasan Piker and far-right conspiracist Candace Owens and suggesting they are somehow comparable.

• Pure cruelty: A Colombian woman who fled torture was deported by the Trump administration to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Bulwark reported. Adriana Quiroz Zapata’s lawyer lamented a “complete lack of due process of law.”

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🧠 Pop Quiz!

As evidenced by Trump’s Oval Office encounter with Jared Isaacman of NASA, the president seems to have a thing about big ears. In 2016, a rival now turned close aide was on the receiving end of such mockery. Who?

Keep your eyes out for the answer below!

🌏 Anywhere But America

• 🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: Major media companies from around the world are demanding Israel allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. “Being on the ground is essential. It allows journalists to question official accounts on all sides, to speak directly with civilians and report back what they witness firsthand,” the executives of several news orgs, including AP, Reuters, and CNN, said in a statement.

• 🌎 Press freedom plummets: The freedom of the press is at a 25-year low, Reporters Without Borders said in its annual press freedom index. The US, considered “problematic,” is now ranked 64th, falling seven places since Trump retook the White House. Over half of the world’s countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories.

• 🇲🇬 Destabilization investigation: Madagascar Deputy Prosecutor Nomenarinera Mihamintsoa Ramanantsoa announced the detention of former French serviceman Guy Baretl, on charges alluding to a plot to destabilize the country.

• 🇮🇩 Acid charges: Four Indonesian soldiers went to trial for allegedly carrying out an acid attack on a protester opposing the militarization of the government.

• 🇲🇽 Drug charges: Several Mexican officials were charged with drug trafficking and weapons offenses by US officials. Mexico did not immediately respond.

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WTF?!

At his congressional hearing, Pete Hegseth basically admitted that Trump’s illegal war on Iran has achieved nothing. Time and time again, this administration reveals it has no clue what it’s doing in Iran, as they burn through billions of taxpayer dollars.

🧠 Trivia answer: Marco Rubio.

ICYMI From Zeteo

Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly and Akshay Gokul contributed to this newsletter.

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Still want to get Zeteo content, but not this newsletter? You can unsubscribe directly from ‘First Draft’ by going to ‘manage subscription’ in Substack, scrolling down, and toggling the button for ‘First Draft’ off.

Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we take a behind-the-scenes look at how Bari Weiss blew up CBS News’ international news coverage. Plus, another prominent news outlet is telling its staffers to love Israel or leave. Also, is Disney showing some backbone during Kimmelgate 2.0, and where does Trump’s America rank in terms of press freedom?

On top of that, if you haven’t already, please check out my deep-dive profile on the face of Bari’s CBS – Tony Dokoupil. I spoke to a lot of people for it!

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Blindsided by Bari

Earlier this week, CBS News staffers were shocked to learn that well-respected London bureau chief Claire Day – who has spent nearly 25 years with the network – was leaving the company at the end of the month amid a broad editorial restructuring of CBS’s international coverage.

While network president Tom Cibrowski claimed in a memo to staff that Day’s departure had been a mutual decision, both the New York Post and Status quickly reported that she had effectively been “ousted” from her role following simmering tensions with editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over the bureau’s Middle East coverage.

The Post, specifically, noted that an unnamed freelance cameraman and editor had accused Day of running the bureau like a “Hamas cell,” while Status reported that Weiss – a self-avowed “Zionist fanatic” – at one point griped that London was so biased against Israel that “they might as well be Hamas.”

Speaking to several CBS sources, I’ve since learned that Weiss may have gained some of her perception about Day’s supposed anti-Israel bias from her conversations with Cameron Stewart, a freelance cameraman who has been working out of CBS News’ London bureau since late 2019.

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Mehdi spoke to the FCC’s only Democratic Commissioner, Anna Gomez, after the agency ordered eight Disney-owned TV stations to file early broadcast license renewals.

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“This is unprecedented. It’s unlawful,” Gomez says. “It’s a political stunt and it’s bound to fail.”

Mehdi also pushed Gomez on whether the FCC is indeed acting independently, as it is meant to do. “We are clearly not behaving independently,” says Gomez. “We seem to be doing the bidding of this White House.”

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Paid subscribers can watch the whole interview, where Gomez expands on the FCC’s “egregious assault” on the First Amendment and Chair Brendan Carr’s hypocritical about-face during Trump’s presidency.

Free subscribers can watch a 2-minute preview. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo to unlock this interview and the rest of our award-winning content.

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The US Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in a landmark ruling Wednesday, paving the way for Republicans to redraw maps in their favor and weaken the political power of Black and brown communities across the US.

In the 6-3 decision, the court effectively weakened Section 2 in the Voting Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in voting. The 1965 law, a fixture of civil rights doctrine, has helped enforce the 15th Amendment, which prohibits the government from denying citizens their right to vote on the basis of race.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rolled back the clock.

“Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, warning that the consequences of the ruling will likely be “far-reaching and grave.”

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The ruling stems from a yearslong tug-of-war over Louisiana’s congressional map. In 2022, civil rights groups sued the state over the lack of representation. Only one of six congressional districts at the time was Black-majority, even though Black residents made up about one-third of Louisiana. The state then adopted new maps that included two Black-majority districts – while still protecting the seats of powerful Republican incumbents, including Speaker Mike Johnson. White voters then challenged the new map in a lawsuit, arguing that it was unconstitutional to draw districts based on race. A three-judge panel sided with the white voters.

Justice Samuel Alito called the new map with two Black-majority districts an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander” in Wednesday’s opinion.

The ruling’s impact will stretch beyond Louisiana, after the Supreme Court effectively expanded the case to include a broader challenge to parts of the Voting Rights Act itself when it heard arguments last year.

Kagan said the opinion will “effectively insulate any practice, including any districting scheme, said by a State to have any race-neutral justification. That justification can sound in traditional districting criteria, or else can sound in politics and partisanship. As to the latter, the State need do nothing more than announce a partisan gerrymander.”

She warned that if other states follow Louisiana’s lead, Black and brown Americans there “will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” and minority representation in government “will sharply decline.”

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund assistant counsel Sara Rohani, who has been involved in the Louisiana case since 2022, told Zeteo ahead of the ruling that if the Supreme Court weakened Section 2 protections, the results “will potentially be catastrophic.”

Rohani noted that virtually all of the representation that Black voters and Black candidates have had in recent years has come from districts created under the Voting Rights Act. And Rohani warned that representation at every level of government will be impacted, from the US Senate to local school boards and city hall.

On the congressional level, an analysis by the Black Voters Matter Fund last year found that gutting Section 2 could help Republicans secure an additional 19 House seats.

“The risk to our multiracial democracy would be very, very stark if the court were to significantly erode Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” Rohani said before Wednesday’s ruling.

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It’s unclear how the ruling will impact this year’s midterms, given the short timetable. But some Republicans are already preparing to cash in – Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature is pushing forward a new map to give them four more seats.

Wednesday’s case is part of a broader anti-democratic effort to stifle voting rights, especially as control of Congress hangs in the balance.

The Supreme Court has also taken up a challenge to mail-in ballot grace periods, and the decision is expected this summer. The anticipated ruling could ban states from accepting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. Democracy Docket reported that 14 states and Washington DC currently accept ballots that are postmarked on Election Day and arrive within a few days. Election officials have warned that the effect of such a ruling could be “akin to a natural disaster.”

Have a tip for Minnah? Reach out on Signal at minnahfarshad.94.

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In the first part of this wide-ranging, in-depth, world-exclusive Zeteo interview in London, Mehdi presses Khan about the allegations made against him. The ICC chief prosecutor says he has been “exonerated” and should be allowed to return to work, after a panel of judges unanimously concluded that the UN investigation results “do not establish misconduct or a breach of duty under the relevant legal framework.”

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Mehdi and Khan then discuss the ICC’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, with Mehdi asking him whether he believes Netanyahu will ever end up in court and why the ICC chief prosecutor chose not to charge Netanyahu with the crime of genocide. Mehdi also asks Khan about the ICC’s other cases, including against top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Some key moments from this news-making interview include:

• Khan’s denial of the sexual misconduct allegations and his criticism of some of the ICC member countries’ handling of the investigation process (“This isn’t how due process works, it’s the opposite of due process,” Khan says)

• Mehdi’s pushback on Khan’s denial, asking him about any relationship he may have had with the accuser (“According to the UN investigators, you would not confirm whether you had a sexual relationship with the accuser. Why not?” Mehdi asks)

• The shocking statements that US Senator Lindsey Graham and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron made to Khan before he requested the arrest warrants against Israel

• Whether the ICC could still charge Israel with genocide (“No crime is off limits,” Khan says)

• Khan’s response to criticism that he did not give Palestinians the attention they deserved after October 7th

• What it is like for him and his family to be targeted by Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu at the same time (“One takes these jobs in public service, not for aggrandizement or for comfort,” Khan says)

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Paid subscribers can watch this exclusive hour-long interview, in full, for free, with no paywall. Free subscribers can watch a 10-minute preview. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo to watch the full interview and the rest of Zeteo’s content.

Check out Zeteo’s other recent stories:

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Good morning! Andrew here, covering another typical day in Donald Trump’s America, one in which we learned the president’s face will be printed on US passports, and the Justice Department disclosed it’s prosecuting the former FBI director over a trivial tweet, and the Federal Communications Commission is threatening to revoke a major corporate network’s broadcast licenses over a comedian’s joke. What will today have in store?

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Trump continues his drive to turn the US into a tinpot dictatorship, Democrats still need to calibrate their message on corruption, Kash Patel beclowns himself yet again, and a killer ICE agent is back at work.

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Narcissist-in-Chief

Late last year, our team at Zeteo began discussing in editorial meetings the many ways in which President Donald Trump has been turning the United States into an Americanized North Korea.

It took a few months to find the right moment to send my colleague Prem around Washington, DC, to produce this stellar video on how Trump was turning the US capital into cultish Pyongyang, given the time we needed to devote to the president’s wars, both foreign and domestic. That turned out to be a good thing for our reporting, because Trump kept generating relevant material.

And wow, does he continue to do so.

According to a report Tuesday from the Bulwark, which the administration tried to devalue by giving it to Fox as an “exclusive,” Trump’s face will soon appear on some US passports – supposedly to “commemorate” America’s 250th anniversary, and not just our president’s immense love for himself.

It’s an absurd development, but somehow not even a surprise: Trump cultists are slapping his name and likeness on everything they can.

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There’s the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace” in Washington, as well as the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Republicans in Florida passed a bill to rebrand the airport in Palm Beach, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” They made a “President Donald J. Trump Blvd.” in Palm Beach, too.

The National Park Service is putting Trump’s face on park passes, alongside George Washington. Please be aware: your pass will be voided if you cover Trump’s mug with a sticker.

The administration is planning to print Trump’s signature on paper currency. The treasury helpfully noted that this would be “the first time in history … a sitting president” had been so featured, while claiming it was in “honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.”

Trump also wants to put his face on $1 coins. That would make him the first living president to have his likeness on US currency, which makes sense, given it has been against the law since 1866. The administration is also prepared to put Trump’s face on extra-large commemorative gold coins – again, supposedly to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

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For years, Tony Dokoupil was a run-of-the-mill morning talk show host who had yet to make an indelible impression on television audiences.

And then came his explosive and combative September 2024 interview with celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates, which paved the way for Dokoupil to become the face of CBS News’s flagship nightly news program and the spiritual successor to Walter Cronkite just a year later.

“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards and the acclaim, took the cover off, the publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil accusingly declared during the ‘CBS Mornings’ conversation.

It was that moment that everything appeared to change for Dokoupil.

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Prior to that seven-minute segment in the fall of 2024, Dokoupil had been almost a non-entity, despite having spent five years as a co-anchor of a broadcast morning talk show. Suggesting that one of America’s preeminent thought leaders is an antisemitic terrorist, however, seemed to set off a series of events that possibly led to self-avowed “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss running the network and Dokoupil leading ‘CBS Evening News.’

Still, while the Coates interview proved to be a seismic shift, Dokoupil’s current and former colleagues tell me they were caught off guard at the time by the level of vitriol he showed in that moment.

“I was absolutely gobsmacked, and it did not comport with anything I recall about Tony being ideological. I never saw him being ideological in any way. That interview came straight out of the blue,” Joy Reid, who worked with Dokoupil at MSNBC, told me.

The intense and pointed nature of the questions to Coates, which saw Dokoupil ask the author what “so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state” and if he just didn’t believe Israel “has a right to exist,” apparently sparked murmurs within CBS News about Dokoupil’s possible connections to conservative pro-Israel groups and activists.

Three well-placed CBS News sources said there was internal speculation in the newsroom about whether pro-Israel advocacy groups such as the ADL had begun communicating with Dokoupil to build a relationship with the anchor following the October 7 attacks, though no evidence of editorial coordination has been established.

Two sources familiar with the matter told me that Noa Tishby, an Israeli actress and outspoken activist who once served as the Israeli government’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, met with Dokoupil.

The ADL denied that the organization had privately met with Dokoupil in recent years. Representatives for Tishby did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

CBS News did not respond to repeated requests for comment about whether Dokoupil met with Tishby. A CBS News spokesperson had previously told Zeteo when reached for comment on this story that, “This whole screed reads like it was written in crayon on the back of a paper placemat. It’s entirely fabricated lies. Just like all of Zeteo’s ‘coverage’ of CBS News.”

That Dokoupil went from the controversy-sparking Coates interview to CBS News’s top anchor chair in little more than a year is not so much about the standard machinations of network newsrooms. Instead, this is a story, based on conversations with 11 people who have known him through the years, about what they say is a “mediocre” but “good-looking white guy” who has continually “failed upwards,” only to eventually hit pay dirt by defending Israel, saluting Donald Trump’s Cabinet members, and finding the one benefactor who would take him to the top – Bari Weiss. It’s also a behind-the-scenes account, based on multiple well-placed sources, of a newsroom divided over Dokoupil’s new status and journalistic approach.

A Conversion and a Circumcision

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A memo is circulating in Congress detailing five laws and international standards that obligate the United States to stop sending or selling weapons to Israel.

Sent by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, the memo has been distributed to offices across Capitol Hill. A source familiar with the effort says the memo was sent to every Democratic office in Congress.

The memo comes after 40 senators voted to block some arms sales to Israel in mid-April – a record number. Still, the entire Republican Party and a handful of Democrats prevented Congress from fulfilling its legal obligations and blocking some weapons transfers to Israel in response to its genocide in Gaza, and its ramped-up violence in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran.

One of the votes – which ultimately failed to pass – was simply to block the sale of bulldozers to Israel. The Israeli government has used these bulldozers to demolish homes in the West Bank, as it seeks to illegally expand there and steal even more land. Israeli soldiers also used a bulldozer to kill 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie in 2003, as she stood against such demolitions.

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The high mark of support to block arms transfers to Israel underscores how drastically public support for Israel has cratered, particularly among rank-and-file Democrats, but also among independents and even some Republicans. With that collapse, public pressure is at an all-time high for Congress to follow the law and stop using US tax dollars to aid Israel’s violence.

Accordingly, an upsurge of politicians and organizations is shifting on the issue of arming Israel. Everyone from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to likely 2028 candidate Rahm Emanuel, to pro-Israel and pro-peace organization J Street has come out in opposition to US aid to Israel. However, the new rising consensus still leaves open the opportunity for Israel to buy US weapons with its own money. While cutting aid to Israel may be a radical shift from the status quo, it still falls short of fully blocking all weapon transfers to Israel.

Here, as per the memo, are five laws and standards obligating Congress to do so:

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We are now officially two years old. Happy birthday to us!

At our second birthday party at the Au Za’atar restaurant in New York, surrounded by an audience of politicians, activists, celebrities and, of course, lots of journalists, I laid out my vision for independent journalism and the key goals of Zeteo.

Despite having given hundreds, perhaps thousands, of speeches over my 47 years on this planet, I’ll be very honest with you: Zohran Mamdani is a hard act to follow. I was a little nervous speaking right after him.

Nevertheless, do give my remarks above a watch. I explained how Zeteo’s mission is to tell the truth “no matter how awkward, or uncomfortable, or controversial,” and not “both-sidesing” or “euphemizing” the truth, whether it is about fascism at home or genocide abroad.

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Independent journalism requires support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber - even a founding member - as we celebrate this second anniversary of Zeteo. And if you’re already a paid subscriber, consider donating to Zeteo to further support our work and our growth.

I have to say: Zeteo could not have reached this milestone, two years!, had it not been for the support and encouragement of all of you: our subscribers, our friends, our family. Thank you!

Onwards and upwards!

Best wishes,

Mehdi

P.S. Keep an eye on your inbox in the coming days for exclusive pictures from our second birthday party. You can see which big-name politicians, celebs, and journalists attended and celebrated with us!

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Good morning! Andrew here, to talk about Donald Trump’s latest effort to get Jimmy Kimmel fired. The comedian’s response is well worth reading. More on that below.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ as Stephen Miller once said, only fascists are enraged by the idea of free speech. Plus, Republicans are using super PAC trickery to try to pick the Democrats who run against them, and Ron DeSantis wants to delete four Democratic congressional seats.

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‘Scared of Comedy’

In September, President Donald Trump and MAGA managed to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air by twisting his words. Now, the president – who once pledged he would “bring back free speech in America” – is again demanding Kimmel be fired, this time for telling a mean joke.

Thanks to public outcry, Kimmel’s previous suspension was only temporary – and ever since Disney and ABC brought him back, he’s been unleashing on Trump with abandon. Last Thursday’s episode was no different, when Kimmel donned a tuxedo and performed a mock version of a roast that a comedian might offer at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, “if our president wasn’t a trembling drama queen who’s scared of comedy.”

Kimmel, as is the case these days, did not hold back. After joking about the president’s age and visibly declining health, and the possibility he “has a medical emergency tonight,” Kimmel turned to the first lady. “Look at Melania Trump, so beautiful,” he said, as video of the first lady sitting in a crowd played on the screen. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

The comments attracted little controversy at first, until… well… you’ve probably heard by now: An apparent gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, with multiple shots fired after he raced through the security perimeter inside the Washington Hilton – leading the Secret Service to usher Trump, Melania, and top officials out of the gala, attendees to duck down amid the chaos, and the festivities to end early.

The unfortunate turn of events gave Trump and his team an opportunity to again call for Kimmel’s firing.

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Melania Trump stepped up first, saying: “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”

In a statement she almost certainly didn’t write herself, the first lady claimed that “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” and that “his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America” – as if her husband isn’t the country’s #1, unquestioned, biggest hatemonger. Trump regularly calls his political opponents “terrorists,” “garbage,” and the “enemy from within.” He’s accused Democratic lawmakers of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.” (Just watch this video we put together!)

Trump – the man who just recently threatened to end a “whole civilization” in Iran, a nation of over 90 million people – wrote a post accusing the late-night comedian of issuing a “despicable call to violence,” adding: “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Never mind the president’s ode to “free speech in our Constitution” during his press briefing Saturday evening, after evacuating the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

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In addition to appearing to dance on the graves of both former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and film director Rob Reiner, Trump has a long history of inciting violence against others.

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From calling the Democratic Party “the enemy from within” or exaggerating everyone is “a communist” and referring to Democrats as “vermin,” “anarchists,” and “fascists,” to joking about the 2022 attack of Nancy Pelosi’s husband and saying he wouldn’t mind if someone shot “the fake news,” the video above from Zeteo contains just a few of the times Trump used all kinds of violent language against his political opponents.

If you believe in the work we do and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo today to support us and help build independent media.

If you’re already a paid subscriber (thank you!), please consider making a donation to Zeteo.

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