July 8 (Reuters) - The global supply of heavy rare earths hinges in part on the outcome of a months-long battle between a rebel army and the Chinese-backed military junta in the hills of northern Myanmar.

The Kachin Independence Army since December has been battling the junta over the town of Bhamo, less than 100 km (62 miles) from the Chinese border, as part of the civil war that erupted after the military's 2021 coup.

Nearly half the world's supply of heavy rare earths is extracted from mines in Kachin state, including those north of Bhamo, a strategically-vital garrison town. They are then shipped to China for processing into magnets that power electronic vehicles and wind turbines.

China, which has a near-monopoly over the processing of heavy rare earths, has threatened to halt buying the minerals mined in KIA-controlled territory unless the militia stops trying to seize full control of Bhamo, according to three people familiar with the matter.

One of the people, a KIA official, said the Chinese demand was made in May, without detailing where the discussions took place. Another person, a KIA commander, said Beijing was represented by foreign ministry officials at the talks.

Today the Israeli death and rape-cult that has actually been engaged in systematic pedophilic gang-rape of Palestinian children, girls, boys, women and men is going to desperately try to re-launch the genocidal atrocity propaganda rape hoax.

Before I begin, this is essential: Haaretz itself citing the forensic pathologists at the Shura Base where all the bodies from October 7 were brought for detailed forensic analysis and autopsies stated that none of them, zero, had any signs of rape, sexual violence or genital mutilation. None of them. Zero.

So all these genocidal hoax-actors are proven liars. They are all established proven genocide-actors performing a script to ensure the actual mass systematic pedophilic gang-rape of Palestinian children, girls, boys, women and men continues until they have all been raped to death.

They link to the report which has now been published. Guess what? It cites Shari Mendes and ZAKA's Chaim Otmazgin as part of their cast of genocide-hoaxers, both of whom have been exposed as liars ages ago. Mendes said she saw non-existent fetuses cut from wombs. Otmazgin was forced to admit he lied about a rape he claimed he saw by the AP. Again, all of this was made public long ago and anyone who knows anything about the rape hoax is aware of this, as you can see here and here.

This by itself renders the entire "report" totally useless genocidal propaganda trash.

On page 38 they cite as evidence Otmazgin's claim that he has photos of a metal object inserted into a vagina. But the UN's Patten report, NBC News and Haaretz saw those photos and said he lied about it. I debunked the entire report in less than 10 seconds after I first opened it by just looking for this.

...

Disclaimer: casualty counts have already risen since Al-Manar published this

Six Israeli soldiers were killed, and 10 others were injured in a complex ambush carried out by the Palestinian resistance late Monday in northern Gaza, according to Zionist media outlets which underlined the loss of a soldier as well.

The southern command of Israeli Army started an immediate investigation into one of the hardest security incidents that faced the occupation forces in Gaza. Hospitals were prepared to receive the casualties, and the Zionist social media websites were filled with moaning and groaning over the harsh account.

According to the latest reports circulated by the Zionist media outlets, six soldiers were killed, and 10 others were injured in a firm ambush carried out by Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, late Monday.

The incident occurred when resistance fighters detonated an explosive device against an armored vehicle carrying soldiers and then targeted a robot loaded with tons of ammunition by an anti-tank missile while it was being prepared.

The resistance also targeted the Israeli rescue force that rushed into the scene. Residents of Ashkelon heard the sound of a “huge explosion,” according to Israeli news websites, which reported that one of the wounded was a senior officer.

“The recent incident in northern Gaza is still ongoing—intense fire belts and major chaos on the ground. One soldier remains missing, vehicles are burning, and all had entered areas rigged with explosive devices and were hit with RPG rounds,” the Zionist media reported.

Israeli media added that several Israeli soldiers were burned in northern Gaza.

Wounded soldiers are being evacuated from northern Gaza via military helicopters to five hospitals: Assuta Hospital in Ashdod, Soroka Hospital in Bersheba, Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Tel HaShomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, and Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, according to the Zionist media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, due to meet the US President Donald Trump at the White House, has been briefed on a major ambush of Israeli [...]

It would be so cool if there was a large chunk of Africa without any low-grade war

Donald Trump will send foreign leaders more letters notifying them of new tariffs in the days to come, said Karoline Leavitt.

“There will be additional letters in the coming days,” the White House press secretary said, in addition to the 12 he plans to send today and the two already made public, which were to South Korea and Japan’s leaders,

As for why Trump decided to start with the two Asian allies, Leavitt said:

It’s the president’s prerogative and those are the countries he chose.

One Lebanese citizen embraced martyrdom after an Israeli drone raided his (Rapid) car with two missiles in Deir Kifa town, South Lebanon.

In the context of the Israeli attacks on the border area since this dawn, at approximately 6:30 a.m., an enemy Israeli reconnaissance aircraft dropped a sound bomb near a fishing boat off the coast of Ras Al-Naqoura.

An enemy reconnaissance aircraft also dropped a sound bomb in the vicinity of a destroyed house in the outskirts of the town of Dhahira, before later dropping a second bomb in the same town.

In a related development, enemy bulldozers established a new, small site near the newly established “Al-Hamames” site inside Lebanese territory, opposite the city of Khiyam. Furthermore, during the pre-dawn hours, Israeli bulldozers paved a 200-meter dirt road inside Lebanese territory in the town of Kfar Kila, extending from the wall toward the road leading to the “Shalhoub” station.

The occupying forces also dropped an incendiary bomb in the woods of the town of Sheheen, sparking a fire in the wooded area.

Israeli warplanes intensified their assaults last night, launching an airstrike on the rugged outskirts of Bodai in western Baalbek District, then conducting two more strikes on the highland areas near Flawi in the same region.

These attacks come in the context of Israeli violations of the ceasefire signed in November of last year, as Israel blatantly disregards all relevant international agreements and laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zangezur_corridor

Archive: [ https://archive.is/jrbkO]

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility on Monday for an attack that damaged a commercial vessel in the Red Sea and forced its crew to abandon ship.

The Houthis "targeted the Magic Seas ship... using two unmanned boats, five ballistic and cruise missiles, and three drones" on Sunday, military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement.

He added that the ship was targeted for violating their ban on navigation to "occupied Palestine's ports."

"In one of the houses that we had been in, we had the big territory. This was the closest to the citizens' neighbourhood, with people inside. And there's an imaginary line that they tell us all the Gazan people know it, and that they know they are not allowed to pass it," he said. "But how can they know?"

People who crossed into this area were most often shot, he said. "It was like pretty much everyone that comes into the territory, and it might be like a teenager riding his bicycle," he said.

The soldier described a prevailing belief among troops that all Gazans were terrorists, even when they were clearly unarmed civilians. This perception, he said, was not challenged and was often endorsed by commanders.

July 7 (Reuters) - A proposal seen by Reuters and bearing the name of a controversial U.S.-backed aid group described a plan to build large-scale camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside - and possibly outside - Gaza to house the Palestinian population, outlining a vision of "replacing Hamas' control over the population in Gaza."

The $2 billion plan, created sometime after February 11 and carrying the name of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, was submitted to the Trump administration, according to two sources, one of whom said it was recently discussed in the White House.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32827367

Jeremy Scahill
July 7, 2025

"The Israeli delegation that arrived in Doha Sunday has not been empowered to make any decisions. Netanyahu’s lead negotiator, Ron Dermer, is not in Qatar, and instead the team is headed by the deputy head of the Shin Bet intelligence service. The Israeli side, according to the Hamas official, appears to have come to Doha with a limited mission of reiterating Israel’s demand that Hamas accept Tel Aviv’s terms for a temporary truce."

On July 2, the Associated Press released an exposé containing short videos which appeared to show American mercenaries associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opening fire on aid-seekers in Gaza during an incident in southern Gaza this May. The footage was supplied by a former employee of UG Solutions, a firm charged with securing GHF distribution sites.

In an apparent attempt to control the damage from the AP investigation, UG Solutions has distributed a pair of videos comprising over seven minutes of footage to the press.

The newly released footage offers an unprecedented glimpse of the disturbing interactions between the starving population of Gaza and well-armed, clearly unprepared Americans hired to provide security for GHF’s chaotic aid operations.

Filmed by one of its own employee, the recordings were seemingly distributed in an effort to show UG Solutions’ agents have not fired live bullets on unarmed crowds of Palestinians. According to a UG Solutions statement, the videos “not only clarify what happened, but provide critical context, which contradicts that [sic] AP’s reporting and shows that the accusations are unfounded.”