"What if we spent the $100,000 per person in America setting them up with housing assistance, healthcare, education, etc?" asked one critic.
By Brett Wilkins
Palau said Wednesday that it has agreed to take in up to 75 people deported from the United States during President Donald Trump’s purge of unauthorized immigrants in exchange for millions of dollars in financial assistance—a move that has sparked considerable opposition among the Pacific archipelago nation’s roughly 18,000 inhabitants.
The office of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. announced a memorandum of understanding with the United States under which the country will receive $7.5 million in assistance in exchange for taking in 75 third-country deportees who cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Earlier this week, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the people who will be sent to Palau have “no known criminal histories,” as is the case with the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, who have committed no crime other than the mere misdemeanor of entering the country illegally.
However, Palauans have voiced concerns over US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks during a Cabinet meeting earlier this year in which he said that, “We want to send some of the most despicable human beings—perverts, pedophiles, and child rapists—to your countries as a favor to us.”
Whipps said Wednesday that the relocation plan involves “people seeking safety and stability.”
“These are not criminals,” the president said during earlier debate on the proposal. “Their only offense was entering the United States illegally and working without proper permits.”
However, Palau’s Congress and its influential Council of Chiefs have twice rejected the transfers.
Piggot’s statement “highlighted US commitments to partner with Palau on strengthening the country’s healthcareinfrastructure, increasing Palau’s capacity to combat transnational crime and drug trafficking, and bolstering Palau’s civil service pension system.”
Palau, which was administered by the US from 1947-94 and is now associated with the United States under the 1994 Compact of Free Association, which guaranteed the country nearly $900 million economic aid over 20 years in exchange for exclusive US military access.
The country’s foreign policy often tracks closely to that of the US. For example, Palau is sometimes among the handful of usually similarly small nations that vote along with the United States and Israel against United Nations resolutions condemning Israeli crimes or affirming Palestinian rights.
Other developing nations including Eswatini, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda have also agreed to take in US deportees or are considering doing so.
Reactions to the US-Palau agreement drew criticism on social media, where one X user called the deal a “bribe” and another popular Bluesky account asked, “What if we spent the $100,000 per person in America setting them up with housing assistance, healthcare, education, etc?”
"Economic strangulation is warfare and civilians always pay the price," lamented CodePink.
By Brett Wilkins
President Donald Trump has ordered US military forces to further escalate their aggression against Venezuela by enforcing a “quarantine” on the South American nation’s oil—by far its main export—in what one peace group called an attempted act of “economic strangulation.”
“While military options still exist, the focus is to first use economic pressure by enforcing sanctions to reach the outcome the White House is looking [for],” a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, toldReuters.
The move follows the deployment of an armada of US warships and thousands of troops to the region, threats to invade Venezuela, oil tanker seizures off the Venezuelan coast, Trump’s authorization of covert CIA action against the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and airstrikes against boats allegedly running drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that have killed more than 100 people in what critics say are murders and likely war crimes.
“The efforts so far have put tremendous pressure on Maduro, and the belief is that by late January, Venezuela will be facing an economic calamity unless it agrees to make significant concessions to the US,” the official told Reuters.
The official’s use of the word “quarantine” evoked the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, an existential standoff that occurred after the John F. Kennedy administration imposed a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent Soviet nuclear missiles from being deployed on the island, even as the US was surrounding the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons.
“This is an illegal blockade,” the women-led peace group CodePink said in response to the Reuters report. “Calling it a ‘quarantine’ doesn’t change the reality. The US regime is using hunger as a weapon of war to force regime change in Venezuela. Economic strangulation is warfare and civilians always pay the price. The US is a regime of terror.”
Critics have also compared Trump’s aggression to the George W. Bush administration’s buildup to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, initially referred to as Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). But unlike Bush, Trump—who derided Bush for not seizing Iraq’s petroleum resources as spoils of war—has openly acknowledged his desire to take Venezuela’s oil.
“Maybe we will sell it, maybe we will keep it,” he Trump said on Monday. “Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping the ships also.”
On Wednesday, a panel of United Nations experts said that the US blockade and boat strikes constitute “illegal armed aggression” against Venezuela.
Multiple efforts by US lawmakers—mostly Democrats, but also a handful of anti-war Republicans—to pass a war powers resolution blocking the Trump administration from bombing boats or attacking Venezuela have failed.
The blockade and vessel seizures have paralyzed Venezuela’s oil exports. Ports are clogged with full tankers whose operators are fearful of entering international waters. Venezuela-bound tankers have also turned back for fear of seizure. Although Venezuelan military vessels are accompanying tankers, the escorts stop once the ships reach international waters.
According to the New York Times, Venezuela is considering putting armed troops aboard tankers bound for China, which, along with Russia, has pledged its support—but little more—for Caracas.
"This year's celebrations carry a message of hope and resilience for our people and a message to the world that the Palestinian people love peace and life."
By Julia Conley
With Gaza’s Christian population decimated by Israeli attacks and forced displacement over the past two years, those who remain are taking part in muted Christmas celebrations this week as the West Bank city of Bethlehem displays its tree and holds festivities for the first time since Israel began attacking both Palestinian territories in October 2023.
Middle East Eyereported that while Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, led a Christmas Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on Sunday and baptized the newest young member of the exclave’s Christian community, churches in Gaza have been forced this year to keep their celebrations indoors as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued its attacks despite a “ceasefire” that Israel and Hamas agreed to in October.
“Churches have suspended all celebrations outside their walls because of the conditions Gaza is going through,” Youssef Tarazi, a 31-year-old Palestinian Christian, told MEE. “We are marking the birth of Jesus Christ through prayer inside the church only, but our joy remains incomplete.”
“This year, we cannot celebrate while we are still grieving for those killed, including during attacks on churches,” Tarazi said. “Nothing feels the same anymore. Many members of our community will not be with us this Christmas.”
The IDF, Israeli officials, and leaders in the US and other countries that have backed Israel’s assault on Gaza have insisted the military has targeted Hamas and its infrastructure, but Christian churches are among the places—along with schools, refugee camps, hospitals, and other civilian buildings—that have been attacked since 2023.
At least 16 people were killed just days into the war when the IDF struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the oldest churches in the world. In July, Israel attacked the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing two women and injuring several other people.
Palestinian officials say at least 44 Christians are among more than 71,000 Palestinians who have been killed since Israel began its assault in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. Some have been killed in airstrikes and sniper attacks while others are among those who have died of illnesses and malnutrition as Israel has enforced a blockade that continues to limit food and medical supplies that are allowed into Gaza.
George Anton, the director of operations for the Latin patriarchate in Gaza, estimated that the number of Christians killed so far is at least 53, with many dying “because we could not reach hospitals or provide medicine, especially elderly people with chronic illnesses.”
In the past, Muslims in Gaza have joined Christian neighbors for the annual lighting of Gaza City’s Christmas tree and other festivities, and churches have displayed elaborate lights and decorations in their courtyards for the Christmas season.
“We decorated our homes,” Anton told MEE. “Now, many homes are gone. We decorated the streets. Even the streets are gone... There is nothing to celebrate.”
“We cannot celebrate while Christians and Muslims alike are mourning devastating losses caused by the war,” he added. “For us, the war has not ended.”
Hilda Ayad, a volunteer who helped decorate Holy Family Church earlier this month, told Al Jazeera that “we don’t have the opportunity to do all the things here in the church, but something better than last year because last year, we didn’t celebrate.”
About 1,000 Christians, who were mainly Greek Orthodox or Catholic, lived in Gaza before Israel’s latest escalation in the exclave began in 2023.
Greek Orthodox Church member Elias al-Jilda and Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the church’s Sebastia diocese in Jerusalem, told the Washington Post that the population has been reduced by almost half. More than 400 Christians have fled Gaza in the last two years. Those who remain have often sheltered in churches, including the ones that have sustained attacks.
Al-Jilda told the Post that this year’s celebrations “will not be full of joy, but it is an attempt to renew life.”
In Bethlehem in the West Bank, officials have sought to send a message to the world this Christmas that “peace is the only path in the land of Palestine,” Mayor Hanna Hanania toldAnadolu Agency.
“This year’s celebrations carry a message of hope and resilience for our people and a message to the world that the Palestinian people love peace and life,” he said.
At Al Jazeera, Palestinian pastor Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac wrote that “celebrating this season does not mean the war, the genocide, or the structures of apartheid have ended.”
“People are still being killed. We are still besieged,” he wrote. “Instead, our celebration is an act of resilience—a declaration that we are still here, that Bethlehem remains the capital of Christmas, and that the story this town tells must continue.”
“This Christmas, our invitation to the global church—and to Western Christians in particular—is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live,” Isaac continued. “If the Christian world is to honor the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem—not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity, and peace.”
A military spokesperson refused to comment on what the admiral told Congress beyond confirming that "he did inform them that during the strike he sought advice from his lawyer and then made a decision."
By Jessica Corbett
The journalist who initially revealed that President Donald Trump’s administration killed shipwrecked survivors of its first known boat bombing reported Tuesday that the admiral in charge consulted with a US military lawyer before ordering another strike on the two alleged drug traffickers who were clinging to debris in the Caribbean Sea.
Just days after Trump announced the September 2 bombing on social media, Intercept journalist Nick Turse exposed the follow-up strike that killed survivors, citing US officials. The attack has sparked fresh alarm in recent weeks, since late November reporting from the Washington Post and CNN that Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley ordered the second strike to comply with an alleged spoken directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everyone on board, which Hegseth has denied.
After the first strike, “Bradley—then the head of Joint Special Operations Command—sought guidance from his top legal adviser,” according to Turse. He interviewed several sources familiar with the admiral’s recent classified briefing to Congress, former members of the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, and ex-colleagues of the JSOC staff judge advocate to whom Bradley turned, Col. Cara Hamaguchi.
As Turse reported:
How exactly [Hamaguchi] responded is not known. But Bradley, according to a lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified briefing, said that the JSOC staff judge advocate deemed a follow-up strike lawful. In the briefing, Bradley said no one in the room voiced objections before the survivors were killed, according to the lawmaker.
Five people familiar with briefings given by Bradley, including the lawmaker who viewed the video, said that, logically, the survivors must have been waving at the US aircraft flying above them. All interpreted the actions of the men as signaling for help, rescue, or surrender.
Bradley, now the chief of Special Operations Command, declined to comment, the reporter noted. SOCOM also declined to make Hamaguchi available, though the command’s director of public affairs, Col. Allie Weiskopf, said: “We are not going to comment on what Admiral Bradley told lawmakers in a classified hearing. He did inform them that during the strike he sought advice from his lawyer and then made a decision.”
Tuesday’s reporting caught the attention of the former longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Kenneth Roth, who has stressed that not only is it “blatantly illegal to order criminal suspects to be murdered rather than detained,” but “the initial attack was illegal too.”
Various other experts and US lawmakers have similarly condemned the dozens of strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September—which as of Monday have killed at least 105 people, according to the Trump administration—as “war crimes, murder, or both,” as the Former JAGs Working Group put it after the Hegseth reporting last month.
“Extrajudicial executions,” declared public interest lawyer Robert Dunham on social media Wednesday, sharing Turse’s new report and tagging the groups Amnesty International USA, HRW, and Reprieve US, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and independent experts who report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Those experts on Wednesday rebuked Trump’s recent aggression toward Venezuela, including not only the boat strikes but also threats to bomb the South American country and attempts to impose an oil blockade. They said that “the illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region.”
"The illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region."
By Jon Queally
Experts at the United Nations on Wednesday issued a scathing rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s aggression toward Venezuela, saying attempts to impose an oil blockade based on US-imposed sanctions and a series of bombings of alleged drug-trafficking vessels at sea are clear violations of international law.
“There is no right to enforce unilateral sanctions through an armed blockade,” said the UN experts.
A blockade is a prohibited use of military force against another country under article 2(4) of the UN Charter. “It is such a serious use of force that it is also expressly recognized as illegal armed aggression under the General Assembly’s 1974 Definition of Aggression,” the experts said.
“As such, it is an armed attack under article 51 of the Charter – in principle giving the victim State a right of self-defence,” they said.
“The illegal use of force, and threats to use further force at sea and on land, gravely endanger the human right to life and other rights in Venezuela and the region,” the experts said.
Aggression is a crime attracting universal jurisdiction under international law, which gives all countries the power to prosecute it, although the most senior government leaders retain immunity from foreign prosecution while still in office.
The experts behind the joint statement were: Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; and Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.
Their statement notes that the US sanctions imposed on Venezuela may be “unlawful” because they are “disproportionate and punitive” under international statute. The Trump administration has used alleged violations of US sanctions to justify its blockade and the seizure of vessels.
“The threat is not Venezuela. The threat is the US government.” —Venezuela UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada
The aggression of the US government toward Venezuela was also rebuked at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, with China, Russia, Cuba, Colombia, and others backing Venezuela’s call for an end to the series of criminal boat bombings against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific and the unlawful seizure of oil tankers as a way to coerce the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada equated Trump’s Dec. 16 order that the US was establishing a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” coming into or out of Venezuela an admission of “a crime of aggression” by the US president, who Moncada said wants to “turn back the clock of history 200 years to establish a colony” in the Latin American country.
Moncada characterized the recent US seizure of two oil tankers in international waters as “worse than piracy” and “robbery carried out by military force,” warning that such brazen acts set “an extremely serious precedent for the security and navigation of international trade” in the region and worldwide.
“We are in the presence of a power that acts outside of international law,” he said of the US delegation, “demanding that Venezuelans vacate our country and hand it over. We are talking about pillaging, looting, and recolonization of Venezuela.”
During his comments to the council, Mike Waltz, the US Representative to the UN, defended Trump’s policies by calling the threat of “transnational terrorist and criminal groups” the “single most serious threat” in the hemisphere. Waltz repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that Maduro’s government is part of a criminal gang called “Cartel de Los Soles,” which Moncada said was “ridiculous” as the group is “non-existent,” an invention of the Trump administration.
Human rights groups, UN experts, and scholars of international have all stated that Trump’s extrajudicial targeting of alleged drug boats—which have now left over 100 people killed—are nothing short of “murder” on the high seas.
In their Wednesday statement, the four UN experts said the killings at sea ordered by Trump “amount to violations of the right to life,” citing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the US government ratified in 1992.
The experts called on all UN member states “to urgently take all feasible measures to stop the blockade and illegal killings” by the US government, “including through diplomatic protest, General Assembly resolutions, and peaceful counter-measures—and bring perpetrators justice.”
“Collective action by States is essential to uphold international law,” they said. “Respect for the rule of law, sovereignty, non-use of force, non-intervention, and the peaceful settlement of disputes are essential to preserving peace and stability worldwide.”
In his remarks, Moncada said Venezuela would defend itself against aggression but did not consider itself at war with the United States.
“Let it be clear once and for all that there is no war in the Caribbean, there is no international armed conflict, nor is there a non-international one, which is why it is absurd for the US government to seek to justify its actions by applying the rules of war,” Moncada told the council.
“The threat is not Venezuela,” he said. “The threat is the US government.”
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Rather than launching a military invasion that would provoke public backlash and congressional scrutiny, Trump is doubling down on something more insidious.
In Jesus’ own words, Christianity is a faith where the first shall be last and the last shall be first. It is meant not for the rich, the satisfied, and the powerful. Rather it is first intended for the poor, the hungry, the downtrodden, and the rejected.
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