Exxon plans to cut about 2,000 jobs worldwide as part of its years-long effort to streamline operations and consolidate smaller offices into regional hubs, according to Bloomberg.

The reductions, equal to roughly 3%–4% of its workforce, were announced in a memo to employees from CEO Darren Woods on Tuesday.

Bloomberg writes that Exxon received attention Monday when Imperial Oil Ltd. — nearly 70% owned by Exxon — disclosed it would reduce its workforce by 20%. Combined, the moves highlight a sweeping restructuring effort that Woods has pursued since 2019 to simplify Exxon’s sprawling global footprint, a legacy of its merger with Mobil two decades ago.

Woods said the company is making “tough decisions” to sharpen competitiveness. “The changes we’ve announced today will further strengthen our advantages and grow the gap with our competition, helping to keep us in the lead for decades to come,” he told employees.

The company declined to comment beyond the memo, but noted that its new hubs will focus on growth areas like oil in Guyana, liquefied natural gas along the Gulf Coast, and global trading. As part of the shift, employees in Brussels and Leatherhead, U.K., are being moved to central London to align with the firm’s trading operations.

When Woods took over in 2017, Exxon had nine semi-independent units that created layers of bureaucracy and duplication. Now the company operates with three divisions — production, refining, and low-carbon — supported by shared services such as IT and engineering. That structure has already helped Exxon cut $13.5 billion in annual costs, more than all other international oil majors combined. The company, which employed 61,000 people at the end of 2024, expects to boost savings another 30% by 2030.

Exxon is hardly alone in trimming staff. As we have noted over the past few months…Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP have also each announced thousands of job cuts in recent months as crude prices faltered under pressure from OPEC and its allies.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Torelló, a town in the Osona region of Catalonia, is facing growing insecurity after a leaked recording revealed local police officers acknowledging they are unable to control violent migrant groups gathering in certain areas, and have been laughed at and forced to retreat from dispatch calls.

The audio, verified by authorities and reported by ElCaso.cat, captures an officer telling a resident that police cannot act against around 25 rioters in Sant Josep Street because only two officers were on duty.

“They are laughing at us,” the officer said in the call. “They are throwing us out. If we don’t want to get hurt, we too [must leave],” he added, describing how officers had to withdraw after being met with hostility.

Residents say the area around the old Vitri lot has become a hotspot for antisocial behavior, fights, and intimidation.

The call has been widely circulated by neighbors, who see it as a symbol of law enforcement’s loss of control. Many have organized a rally outside the town hall for Monday evening to demand action from local authorities.

Security Councillor Elisabet Viñas, from the Republican Left, confirmed the recording’s authenticity and acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. In a private message to residents, she wrote: “The Local Police are going there, they are there and have arrested them many times. The laws are not strong enough, nor justice fast enough to get rid of these filthy people.”

She added that the problem stemmed largely from young men, “mostly foreigners from the Maghreb,” who had occupied several nearby apartments and were allegedly involved in burglaries and shop break-ins.

Municipal sources admitted the issue extended beyond Torelló. “We need stronger laws, faster justice, and more police on the streets,” one official said, noting that insecurity was a growing concern across the country. The town council has announced the creation of five new positions in the Local Police to strengthen its force.

Catalonia has become the epicenter of violent crime in Spain, with foreigners vastly overrepresented in serious offenses, according to interior ministry crime stats published in January.

The stats portal for 2023 showed that all 10 Spanish cities with the highest rates of violent robberies and intimidation are located in Catalonia, with Barcelona leading the list.

Remix News previously reported in November last year on statistics highlighting the extent of foreign overrepresentation in Catalan prisons. At the time, 50.48 percent of the inmate population comprised non-Spaniards.

Read more here…

“Russia always supports and welcomes any efforts by President Trump aimed at ending this ongoing tragedy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, offering Moscow’s first reaction to the White House’s newly unveiled 20-point plan for Gaza peace.

“Of course, we want this plan to be implemented and for it to help bring events in the Middle East to a peaceful conclusion,” Peskov added, though without commenting on specifics.

He only mentioned that Russia was not part of the US ceasefire plan or consulted, though key Arab nations did, led by Qatar and Egypt, which dubbed the initiative “sincere”. Even the Palestinian Authority has welcomed Trump’s “sincere and determined efforts.”

However, many points remain very controversial, especially a ‘Peace Board’ headed by Trump himself, which will oversee the disarming of Hamas. Additionally, the president made clear that if the Palestinian militant group doesn’t agree to the plan, then Israel will have the full backing of the United States to “finish the job”.

The plan actually calls for a partial Israeli military withdrawal within the Strip and the handing over of all remaining Israeli hostages, living and deceased.

Trump ended Monday’s presentation of the plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by warning that Hamas must accept the plan or face the consequences. He has since warned the group has “three or four days” to respond.

Trump declared that both Israeli and Arab leaders had accepted the proposal and “we’re just waiting for Hamas.” Though in reality it doesn’t look like Hamas or the Palestinians had any real part to play in hashing out the conditions of the plan.

He even stipulated that at this late point, there’s “not much” room for negotiations and that: “Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a very sad end.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday…

• TRUMP: SO DISAPPOINTED IN PRESIDENT PUTIN
• TRUMP: PUTIN SHOULD’VE HAD THAT WAR DONE IN A WEEK

Other world leaders, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, welcomed the Gaza plan on Monday. He posted on X that it “provides a viable pathway to long term and sustainable peace, security and development for the Palestinian and Israeli people, as also for the larger West Asian region.”

He added: “We hope that all concerned will come together behind President Trump’s initiative and support this effort to end conflict and secure peace.”

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Rose Docherty is what they call a criminal recidivist in the United Kingdom. The 75-year-old woman has been arrested for a second time for the same fiendish act: offering to speak to women considering an abortion. She was arrested  outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for carrying a placard which stated “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Fortunately, she and her sign were quickly seized by the local police to protect the public.

Free speech literally does not have a prayer in the United Kingdom. We previously discussed the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested for standing near an abortion clinic while silently praying. Police asked what she was doing standing at the location and when she said that she was praying in her head, they arrested her.

How Docherty ended up in the hoosegow in Glasgow is a chilling tale of how censorship can consume a nation.

The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act came into force last September. The architect of the law, Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay, denounced protests of abortions as “totally unacceptable abuse and obstruction” outside hospitals. So it is now a crime to behave in ways that could influence the decisions of women and staff to access services within the buffer zones.

In other words, it is a crime to exercise free speech. In this case, the “unacceptable abuse” was offering to speak with other women about abortion.

The United Kingdom shows how limiting speech can create an insatiable appetite for greater and greater speech controls. I discuss the UK as a cautionary tale for the United States in my book, The Indispensable Right.

A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”

British censorship now extends to not just silent prayers but toxic thoughts.

Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”

Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:

“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”

Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.

After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because  he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”

The idea of cracking down on “toxic ideologies” is of course nothing new in countries like China and Iran. However, the anti-free speech movement in Europe has succeeded in destroying the foundations for free speech in the West. the European Union is now one of the most hostile, anti-free speech organizations in the world.

As the anti-free speech movement grows in this country, citizens need to look at Europe for where this path would take us. Americans are appearing before the EU and speaking at European conferences in support of such measures. Anti-free speech views and books are all the rage in academia. It is a dangerous conceit to believe that what has occurred in Europe cannot occur here.

Just ask Rose Docherty.

Spain has continued to be a leading EU nation in ramping up the diplomatic pressure on Israel, and seeking to isolate it. It’s government this week has moved to prohibit US military planes and ships from using its territory to transfer weapons and equipment to Israel.

As reported by leading newspaper El País on Monday, the new decision applies specifically to the Rota naval base and the Morón air base, both located in the southwestern part of the country – long used as key Mediterranean region transfer hubs.

There has long existed routine coordination between Spanish and American military officials, however, the relationship is becoming increasingly tense, given the move reflects a serious political divergence amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Rota base, near Cádiz on the Atlantic coast, is under Spanish control but heavily utilized by American forces. Also, the Morón air base, which is near Seville, is a key hub for US military operations, with American forces long operating with a broad degree of freedom there.

Madrid is defending its decision as rooted in Spain’s sovereignty and terms outlined in a 1988 bilateral defense agreement, amid growing European scrutiny of Israeli military action against Palestinians, which currently is largely focused on the complete military takeover of Gaza City.

According to more details via The Telegraph:

Citing sources familiar with the Spanish-American committee that manages the bases in Seville and Cadiz, El Pais reported that Spain has banned supplies going directly to Israel and those with a stopover as their final destination.

“Rota and Morón are not a sieve,” sources told El Pais, which first reported the ban.

“They are Spanish sovereign bases, under the command of a Spanish military officer, and everything that happens there must be authorized by the Spanish authorities.”

These reports have made clear that as of yet Spain does not typically inspect US transport planes or ships that stop at Spanish bases – but if arms smuggling to Israel is uncovered during the ban, this could prove highly embarrassing and damaging to Madrid-Washington relations and cooperation.

Meanwhile, Spain is pressing its case against both Israel and the US through other avenues as well, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling for Israel to be excluded from international sports competitions over human rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinians.

🇪🇸 Spain has extended its ban on U.S. weapons shipments to Israel, blocking planes and ships from using the Rota naval base in Cádiz and the Morón air base in Seville, El País reports. Madrid reinforced its arms embargo with a royal decree prohibiting the transit of military… pic.twitter.com/QqQr78ZZAp

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 30, 2025

“Israel cannot continue to use any international platform to whitewash its image,” he told officials of his Socialist Workers’ Party earlier this month, describing that Israel should have the same pariah status and isolation as Russia in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

These are the 2020 Lublin Triangle (Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania), the 2022 de facto alliance between Ukraine, Poland, and the UK, and early August’s Odessa Triangle with Romania and Moldova.

Russia has in recent years consistently accused the West of turning Ukraine into an “anti-Russia” for containment purposes, in response to which Putin authorized the ongoing special operation. A year and a half before it began, Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine formed the “Lublin Triangle”, which involves military cooperation and continues to lurch along five years after its creation. Exactly one week before the special operation started, the UK, Poland, and Ukraine then formed a de facto alliance.

These two triangles facilitated the UK’s efforts to sabotage spring 2022’s peace talks, for which Poland deserves equal blame as explained here, thus perpetuating the conflict till now. Right after the news broke that Putin and Trump would hold their first in-person meeting since the latter’s return to office, which later took place in Anchorage, Ukraine announced the formation of another triangle with Romania and Moldova. Their “Odessa Triangle” is thus the third one centered on Ukraine for containing Russia.

These three interlocking triangles are expected to play significant roles in the post-conflict future.

• The first one, the Lublin Triangle, includes Lithuania, which now hosts Germany’s first permanent base abroad.

• As for the second, it importantly involves the UK, which has always worked to divide-and-rule Europe.

• And lastly, France has a base in Romania and a security pact with Moldova, which could lead to Paris exploiting them as launchpads for strengthening its newly reported secret presence in Odessa.

Ukraine’s seven associated partners (five of which are formal while the other two – Germany and France – are informal) could therefore either continue funneling arms into the country for prolonging the conflict or continuing Ukraine’s militarization afterwards and/or prepare to deploy there one day. Poland, the UK, France, and Germany also clinched security pacts with Ukraine all across last year, which this analysis here argues already amount to a form of Article 5-like guarantees.

As was written, “[Article 5] obligates members to assist those of their allies that come under attack, albeit as each of them ‘deems necessary’. Although the use of armed force is mentioned, it’s ultimately left to individual members to decide whether to employ this option. Ukraine has arguably enjoyed the benefits of this principle for the past three years despite not being a NATO member since it’s received everything other than troops from the alliance”.

It’s therefore moot whether Ukraine ever formally joins NATO since that wouldn’t guarantee that its allies would dispatch troops in its support should another conflict erupt. More realistically, they’d likely only resume and then ramp up the aid that they’re already providing in order to avoid a potentially apocalyptic conflict with Russia. The EU’s rapid militarization coupled with progress on the “military Schengen” for facilitating related logistics could create enduring post-conflict threats to Russia’s security.

From Poland and Romania, Ukraine’s other five partners could therefore station a large number of troops, store lots of military equipment, and possibly continue funneling arms and ammo across the border for either prolonging the conflict or continuing Ukraine’s militarization afterwards. Russia will certainly take these credible threats into consideration when deciding upon the best way to end the conflict in accordance with its national interests as they’ve evolved 3,5 years into the special operation.

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times,

Philadelphia raised the flag of communist China at City Hall on Sept. 30 despite criticism and protests from human rights activists and legislators.

The event, co-organized by a group with ties to the Chinese regime, is meant to commemorate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) National Day.

Oct. 1 marks the day the CCP declared its rule after a viciously fought civil war. Over the next few decades, the regime would become responsible for more deaths than both World Wars combined.

The Tibetan Association of Philadelphia organized a protest at the event, calling on the mayor to remove the flag immediately.

“The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of a brutal, totalitarian regime,” Tsering Jurme, president of the local association, said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.

“This regime is responsible for the persecution and murder of millions, the destruction of thousands of monasteries, and the ongoing cultural genocide of my people in Tibet and the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. To fly their flag here in our Philadelphia city hall is to legitimize terror and betray the dissidents who seek freedom.”

The Campaign for Uyghurs had also written to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on Sept. 26 to urge the city to cancel the event.

“The red flag of Communist China is not a symbol of culture or unity. It is the banner of a totalitarian regime that the U.S. government and numerous parliaments have determined is committing genocide,” said Campaign for Uyghurs founder Rushan Abbas, whose sister and aunt were arrested by the CCP in retaliation for Abbas’s advocacy.

Abbas’s sister, Gulshan Abbas, a retired doctor, was charged with so-called terrorism and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

“Under this flag, the CCP has built an extensive system of mass surveillance, separated millions of children from their families, sterilized women, erased religion, and targeted ethnic and faith communities, including Uyghurs, Christians, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and practitioners of Falun Gong. It imprisons innocent people like my sister, fuels a fentanyl crisis that has killed millions of Americans, and spends billions spreading propaganda and infiltrating civic institutions abroad,” Rushan Abbas said in a statement.

Members of the Overseas Chinese Association at the flag-raising event commemorating the founding of communist China in front of City Hall in Philadelphia on Sept. 30, 2025. The Epoch Times

This is not the first time Philadelphia, where the U.S. Constitution was signed, has raised the five-star flag of communist China. It held a similar event in 2019, as did Boston and San Francisco. New York City raised the flag in 2023.

A CCP-linked group had also done so in 2005 in Los Angeles to support “reunifying” China and Taiwan, and editorials in local publications noted that the last time this flag was raised was 20 years ago, when it was torn down immediately by anti-CCP onlookers.

The Philadelphia event drew criticism from state and federal lawmakers when it was announced.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano said it was a “terrible” idea to raise a flag that represents the CCP.

“Raising a red flag over Philadelphia with a star in the corner is meaningless, forgetting the Cultural Revolution and then almost 100 million people killed in the various persecutions over the years when the communists took over, when [President of the Republic of China] Chiang Kai-shek fled [to Taiwan] in 1949,” Mastriano previously told The Epoch Times.

Philadelphia United Chinese Coalition, an association that has hosted CCP United Front groups in Philadelphia, at the flag-raising event in front of City Hall on Sept. 30, 2025. The Epoch Times

Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) said on social media that the decision was “shameful.”

“The cradle of liberty flying the banner of tyranny,” he wrote on Instagram. “This is the regime that jails dissidents, censors speech, and wages genocide against its own people. And now its flag will wave over the birthplace of American independence?”

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), who chairs the House Select Committee on the CCP, had written to the mayor to urge reversal of the decision.

“The Five-Star Red Flag, embodying the totalitarian government led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), represents a regime that is persecuting spiritual people of all faiths, including the genocide of Uyghur Muslims,” the letter reads.

“It is a government that actively subsidizes the precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, which has killed or harmed millions of Americans. It is a Communist Party-State that is diametrically opposed to American values and working to undermine our interests worldwide.”

Moolenaar also highlighted other concerning ties between Philadelphia and the CCP.

Philadelphia is currently in a sister cities partnership with the city of Tianjin in China. While these partnerships purport to support cultural exchange, lawmakers at the state and federal levels have determined that the Chinese regime has made use of these partnerships to advance the CCP’s strategic goals and views.

The city is also home to the Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition (PUCC) and Greater Philadelphia Fujian Hometown Association, one of the co-organizers of the flag-raising event.

Chinese “hometown” organizations originated as associations of immigrants from the same region, but they are now officially part of the CCP’s United Front network. The United Front is the regime’s global effort to influence overseas opinions on the regime, and these groups are often seen to be actively promoting the CCP’s agenda and participating in transnational repression.

PUCC has also hosted United Front groups and spoken openly about advancing CCP interests, Moolenaar warned the mayor.

The mayor’s office did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time.

At a moment the Pentagon is busy rearranging its defense priorities toward readiness for a potential future conflict with China, Beijing itself is wasting no time in preparing for just such a scenario, particularly related to the Taiwan question.

“A classified US military intelligence report seen by the ABC says China is rapidly building up the country’s commercial ferry fleet to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan,” the Australian publication writes of a document said to be from earlier this year, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

This is nothing too new or much of a huge revelation, given Western intelligence – including the so-called Five Eyes which includes Australia – has for years been monitoring a trend where the PLA upgrades commercial ferries to become troop and tank carriers, for use in prior military exercises with an eye toward Taiwan.

Back in 2022, it was understood that China had over two dozen such modified ferries, but the ABC report cites that “China is building more than 70 of the large vessels by the end of 2026” – based on US intelligence forecasts.

Taiwan’s Ambassador to Tiawan, Douglas Hsu, has described that “Civilian vessels or other dual-use facilities in the maritime domain are also part of China’s strategy” for a future potential assault on the self-ruled island.

The ‘Classified’ DIA report contains some alarming information, including that the Pentagon would consider Chinese ferries ‘fair game’ for attack given their military ‘dual use’ purpose:

Satellite intelligence of the ferries from earlier this year shows them being used alongside a series of new landing docks off China’s coastline, as well as deploying amphibious forces in military exercises.

The landing docks are a new class of vessel that allows the ferries to deploy cargo and people onto a beach.

The US Department of Defense intelligence report assessed the commercial ferries as possible military targets in a conflict scenario with China. This means the ferries could be targeted and sunk by US forces in the event of a Taiwan crisis, even with civilian crews on board.

US intelligence has voiced that it believes Chinese President Xi Jinping to be ready to be capable of a full-scale invasion of Taiwan by the year 2027 if called upon.

It remains that these type of somewhat hyped threat assessments seem to be a regular thing issued from Western intel agencies about every year or so.

However, China’s official position remains that it wants reunification of Taiwan by peaceful means – though over the last years its military has ramped up ‘encircling exercises’ around Taiwan, provoking the condemnation of Washington.

China watcher and regional analyst Professor Hu Bo told ABC, “It’s common sense that China is preparing for a Taiwan crisis. This does not mean China will do something quickly in the future. Preparation is not the same as intention.”

So both the US and Chinese sides appear to be in a phase of long-terms preparation, hopefully for a war which will never be fought. Both will also seek to develop ‘deterrence’ capabilities in the Pacific region.

* * *

The PLA continues is shows of force and strength, aimed no doubt at Taiwan’s number one backer the United States…

NEW – China’s PLA successfully conducts ICBM test, reports. pic.twitter.com/8CktmQwRQ7

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 29, 2025

Authored by Lau Vegys via Doug Casey’s International Man,

The American Dream has become prohibitively expensive, with home affordability at historic lows and the traditional middle-class lifestyle now out of reach for most ordinary people.

But no demographic has taken it more on the chin than young Americans.

You can see it in stark terms in this week’s chart below. Since the postwar era, the share of 30-year-olds in America with both a family and a home has plummeted—from about 52% in 1950 to just 13% in 2025. That’s a staggering 75% decline over 75 years.

Let that sink in. In 1950, more than half of 30-year-olds had achieved what most would consider the basic markers of adult stability: marriage and homeownership. Today, it’s barely one in eight.

If you look closer, the graph shows two distinct phases of decline. From 1950 to 1990, there was a steady but manageable erosion—the share of 30-year-olds with both a family and a home dropped from 52% to about 43% over those 40 years.

That represented the gradual social changes we’re all familiar with: more women entering the workforce, people marrying later, changing cultural attitudes toward marriage.

Then something dramatic happened around 2000. The decline went into freefall. Between 1990 and 2025, the rate collapsed from 43% to 13%—a 70% drop in just over three decades.

What explains it?

We could, of course, blame this on changing cultural preferences—young people choosing career over family, prioritizing experiences over stability. That’s certainly part of the story. Young people today do have very different priorities than those more than half a century ago.

But there’s another side to this: the economics of young adulthood have become impossible. Keep in mind, today’s families would need the combined income of three households just to match the home affordability levels of a single family in 1959.

The situation gets worse when you factor in the debt burden crushing young adults. The very institution supposedly preparing young people for economic success—college—has become a wealth destroyer. Average student debt more than doubled from $17,297 to $37,850 between 2006 and 2024 alone (with total outstanding student debt exploding from $500 billion to $1.8 trillion).

Think about the brutal math facing today’s 30-year-olds.

They graduate with an average of $38,000 in student debt—though plenty are actually walking away with $60,000, $80,000, or even six-figure debt loads. They need $130,000+ in annual income to afford the average home, and compete in a job market where wages haven’t kept pace with housing costs.

In other words, they’re entering their peak family-formation years already financially crippled.

No wonder marriage and homeownership rates have collapsed.

The cruel irony is that we—scratch that, America’s political class—has created a system where the very credentials supposedly required for middle-class success have priced young people out of middle-class life.

Editor’s Note: If you have young people in your life wondering what the future holds in this broken system, Doug Casey and Matt Smith’s “The Preparation” offers a radical break from the usual path.

Instead of piling on debt for credentials of questionable value, the book lays out a blueprint for building real competence and independence outside traditional institutions. For those willing to think differently about their future, it may be the most valuable roadmap available. Click here to learn more now.

In yet another development which will certainly complicate current Trump administration efforts to find peace in Gaza, the National Security Committee in the Israeli Knesset is advancing a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners detained for killing Israelis.

Killings which are deemed motivated by “racism or hostility to the public” or aimed at harming the “State of Israel” or seeking to thwart the “revival of the Jewish people” would be a capital offensive, according to the legislation. Interestingly, the wording highlights Jewish citizens of Israel are the priority – and not for example Christian, Muslim, or Druze citizens.

It has unleashed immediate controversy both within and outside of Israel. For starters, some Israeli officials as well as families of Oct.7 victims fear that this puts the remaining hostages in Gaza at immediate risk. Notably, the bill does not apply the opposite direction – that is, it would not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s coordinator for negotiations on the captives, Gal Hirsch, has gone on record as vehemently opposing the bill.

“It’s not for nothing that we are asking not to hold this discussion. I completely disagree with your assessment of the situation, Minister [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” he said in a communication protesting the initiative. “Especially when we are engaged in a combined military and diplomatic effort to bring back the hostages, this discussion does not help us.”

An initial Sunday Knesset committee vote was 4-1 in favor, while more of rounds of votes needed for the bill to become law, according to protocol. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been leading the charge, resisting calls to postpone the vote due to the precariousness of the hostage situation. 

One Palestinian rights group had this to say:

The Israeli bill was denounced by the Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society as an “unprecedented savagery,” warning that it would entrench what they described as “systematic crimes” against detainees through legislation.

Increasingly, there have been shootings and terroristic attacks by Palestinians in places like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, related to ongoing events in Gaza and the West Bank.

Harsh confines at Israeli prison where Palestinians are kept:

A video report aired by Israel’s Channel 13 shows Israeli soldiers and guards mocking Palestinian detainees held at the Ketziot Prison in the Negev desert. Recent figures from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society state that at least 9,300 Palestinians are currently being held… pic.twitter.com/4CoemUDs8a

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 12, 2024

At times, Palestinian encounters with Jewish settlers in the West Bank has also resulted in shootings and killings. This legislation would have a further chilling effect on Palestinian villagers and farmers when settlers show up to take their land, given that if they fight back, they could be facing the death penalty.