Netanyahu and Trump Meet in D.C. as Qassam Ambush Stuns Israeli Forces
Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill, and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Jon Elmer of Electronic Intifada to break down today’s major developments.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
--------
1:27:01
--------
1:27:01
Nuclear-Armed Countries Are Flexing Their Muscles: What Are the Actual Risks?
The United States carried out airstrikes last month against three sites in Iran tied to its nuclear program. The attacks were the culmination of years of belligerence that began when Trump violated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and embarked on a strategy of confrontation with Iran, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.While the level of damage done to the sites remains unclear, the Iranian government has responded to the attacks by ceasing cooperation with international monitoring agencies. Iran is also hinting it retains the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon if it chooses.The standoff with Iran is just one aspect of a larger story of the reemergence of nuclear weapons and possible nuclear warfare as a major risk in the 21st century.The U.S. and Russia are currently in the process of building up to a new nuclear arms race, while, at present, China has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal of any country . Recently, the India and Pakistan conflict made many nervous that one of the countries would use nuclear weapons.After years of relative stability, the size of the nuclear club also looks very likely to grow with new nations potentially carrying out nuclear tests in the years ahead. These changes mean that the risk of a nuclear war is growing after the end of the Cold War rather than decreasing.Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Ankit Panda. Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the author of the new book “The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon.”Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
--------
54:00
--------
54:00
It’s Systemic: How International Law Fails to Protect Civilians
The Israeli genocide in Gaza is entering its 22rd month, with a staggering toll of dead and wounded continuing to rise every day. Throughout the war, the U.S. and many European nations have acted as shields for Israel—defending it against legal scrutiny, providing diplomatic and political support, and continuing to fund and arm its military assault.Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Anand Gopal, a journalist focused on the region and the author of the forthcoming book on Syria, “Days of Love and Rage.”Gopal discusses the history of the laws of war and systemic problems in the international legal system. If the laws of war are not able to protect civilians during conflicts, what are they good for? As Gopal explains, the genocide in Gaza exposes the underlying contradictions of the international legal system. Even though there are laws on the books, the international arbiters supposed to enforce them are made up of the belligerent states themselves. Hussain and Gopal discuss the international legal order and how the system itself makes civilian deaths inevitable.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
--------
37:29
--------
37:29
Trump Claims He Wants Ceasefire Deal "Next Week" as Israel Expands Attacks in Gaza and West Bank
Israel has continued to intensify its attacks across the Gaza Strip as President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he hopes a ceasefire “is going to happen and we're looking for it to happen sometime next week.” His comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he will travel to the U.S. this weekend and is expected to meet with Trump, his national security team, and U.S. Congressional leaders. Despite Trump’s public campaign for an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas has said there have been no substantive new proposals submitted and that the discussions seem to be exclusively between Israel and the U.S. Meanwhile, Israel launched a new series of raids in cities and villages across the occupied West Bank Tuesday as part of a continuation of a months-long series of assaults and ground incursions that have resulted in the largest forced displacement operations against Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967. Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous are joined by two Palestinian analysts for a wide-ranging discussion on all of the latest developments: Jehad Abusalim, co-editor of “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire” and Executive Director of the Institute for Palestine Studies-USA, and Abdaljawad Omar, an adjunct professor at Birzeit University and a writer based in Ramallah.Photo: Donald Trump speaks to the press on July 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
--------
1:22:53
--------
1:22:53
The U.S.-Israeli War of Aggression Against Iran
It has been ten days since Israel launched an unprovoked campaign of sustained bombing against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hundreds of Iranian civilians have been killed as Israel assassinated dozens of military and intelligence leaders, including commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as nuclear scientists and other technical experts. In some cases, these assassinations have been conducted in crowded residential buildings.This weekend, the U.S. overtly joined Israel’s war against Iran, launching a series of bombings targeting several Iranian nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer. President Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear capability has been totally decimated and praised himself for his decision to bomb Iran despite no evidence that Iran posed any imminent threat to the United States. Iran has suggested these attacks, which included the use of fourteen 30,000 pound bombs, did far less damage than the U.S. and Israel have suggested.On Monday, in response to the U.S. bombing, Iran fired missiles at U.S. Central Command headquarters at al Udeid air base in Qatar. This weekend, Trump and other U.S. officials threatened even greater use of force against Iran should it retaliate against the unprovoked U.S. bombings this weekend. The U.S. position is that Iran must capitulate to the demands of the U.S. and Israel.Shortly before Iran launched its missile strikes on U.S. CENTCOM in Qatar, Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to the Iranian international law scholar Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi to discuss the widening U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. In March, she was suspended and ultimately fired by Yale University after a Zionist-led campaign to portray her as a member of a terror organization. She served as the deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale.She is currently a scholar of international law and geopolitical economy and she is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tehran. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Independent reporting on war and politics in the U.S. and across the world, delivered by Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and the Drop Site team. www.dropsitenews.com
España