Technology developed by the US firm Palantir was deployed by the Israeli military during its attacks on Lebanon in 2024, including the infamous pager attack, which Israel has nicknamed “Operation Grim Beeper,” according to a new book. The book, a biography of Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp, titled The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State, was written by Michael Steinberger, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine. Steinberger wrote that Palantir’s “technology was deployed by the Israelis during military operations in Lebanon in...

Two US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets were spotted by flight trackers on Tuesday flying deep inside the Gulf of Venezuela, a body of water surrounded by Venezuelan territory on three sides, marking the latest US provocation amid threats of a potential regime change war aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The flight appears to be the closest US aircraft has gotten to Venezuela’s coast since the US military began its major buildup in the Caribbean a few months ago. Since October, US bombers have regularly flown to the north of Venezuela’s coast, and F/A-18s have begun flights near...

Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of US Southern Command who abruptly announced he was stepping down in October, was pushed out by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The report said that Hegseth and Holsey were at odds during the first months of the Trump administration, and the tension intensified when Holsey expressed concerns about the “murky legal authority” for the bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in Latin America, which is clearly illegal under US and international law. Holsey also objected that parts of the operation fell outside...

President Trump sent a short handwritten letter to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda leader who took power in Damascus with his group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), nearly one year ago. “Ahmed, you will be a great leader — and the United States will help!” Trump said in the note, which was delivered by Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, who has also served as an envoy to Syria. Attached to the letter was a photo of Trump and Sharaa’s Oval Office meeting that took place last month. Barrack met with Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, and, according to...

Pope Leo XIV has warned the US against invading Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean and threats of the US launching a regime change war. Leo was asked about the US threats against Venezuela during a press conference he held on his way back from Lebanon, where he prayed for peace in the war-torn nation that faces the threat of an escalation of ongoing Israeli attacks. The US-born pontiff pointed out to reporters the mixed signals coming from the Trump administration and urged dialogue. “On the one hand, it seems there has been a...

The Israeli military on Saturday killed two brothers, a nine-year-old and a ten-year-old, in southern Gaza as it continues to violate the US-backed ceasefire deal by launching attacks against Palestinians. The boys were identified as Fadi and Juma Abu Assi, and according to family members, they had gone out to gather wood for their wheelchair-bound father in Bani Suheila, a town to the east of Khan Younis and close to the so-called “yellow line,” the de facto boundary that separates Israeli-occupied Gaza from the rest of the Strip. Witnesses told Al Jazeera that the boys were killed when a...

France and the UK are still insisting that troops from NATO countries must be deployed to Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal, an idea that Russia has repeatedly rejected. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a virtual meeting on Tuesday night of the so-called “coalition of the willing,” referring to countries willing to deploy troops to post-war Ukraine. According to POLITICO, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part in the call and told the European officials that the US wants a peace deal before agreeing to any security guarantees for...

President Trump has told his advisers that he’s planning to speak directly with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Axios reported on Monday, citing administration officials. While the Trump administration has continued to build up its forces in the Caribbean, bomb boats in the region, and leak information to the media that suggests it’s preparing a regime change operation in Venezuela, Trump has signaled in recent weeks that he’s open to diplomacy with Maduro’s government after previously cutting off talks. “I see a diplomatic solution as being very likely,” one Trump adviser told Axios....