“We can’t say genocide is a crime against humanity on the one side and then say that those who act against it are criminalized. It’s one or the other.”

Four Palestine Action activists were sentenced as terrorists in the UK on June 12 — the first time in British legal history that protesters convicted only of property damage have faced a terrorism designation at sentencing.

The four — Charlotte Head, Leona Kamio, Samuel Corner, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani — were convicted after a retrial of criminal damage for dismantling equipment at Elbit Systems’ Filton factory in 2024, destroying over 40 Israeli weapons including killer drones. The jury was never told they could face terrorism-level sentences, and the terrorism designation was kept secret from both the jury and the public until after the verdict. Sentences ranged from five years and eight months to eight years and eight months.

Drop Site contributor Noa Avishag Schnall was at Woolwich Crown Court on the day of the sentencing and explains the ongoing developments of the Filton 25 case, as a second trial of eight more defendants continues at the Old Bailey.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Top Iran analyst Dr. Hassan Ahmadian tells Drop Site that Donald Trump was forced to seek a deal on Iran's terms after meeting the “hard rock” of Iranian resistance. Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran University on Friday, following President Trump’s announcement that a deal with Iran was imminent.

“The United States has hit the hard rock of a formidable force that stopped its aggression and they have to deal with it,” said Ahmadian. “President Trump realized that he cannot change the failure, the military failure of the war into a diplomatic win.”

Throughout the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Trump has constantly flailed in his campaign to portray it as a historic success. The blunt reality is that what Trump announced as a quick and easy war of regime change rapidly transformed into a quagmire. For the past two months, Trump has struggled to find a way to declare victory, alternating between claims that Iran is begging him for a deal and threats to destroy Iranian civilization.

On Thursday morning, Trump threatened to hit Iran “very hard.” Later in the day, Trump claimed a deal was now at hand, suggesting it could be signed as early as this weekend. “Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved.”

Trump has made such claims more than three dozen times since the initial two-week ceasefire was signed on April 7, and behind the scenes, Iranian officials maintain they have stood firm in protecting their own red lines in any deal framework.

This time, however, the initial response from Tehran indicates that a deal may well take shape. Scahill and Ahmadian discuss the events leading up to Trump’s announcement on Thursday, Iran’s red lines—including the unfreezing of assets and an end to the war on Lebanon—and how Israel will seek to sabotage a deal while continuing its overt and covert actions targeting Iran. They also discuss the economic impact on Iran and the domestic political situation.

Hartzell Gray is an activist and organizer from Kansas City who is now running for Congress in Missouri’s 4th District. He’s touting a platform centered on delivering for working people, advocating for Medicare for All, getting PAC money out of politics, and strengthening workers’ rights to unionize.

He spoke with Drop Site’s Julian Andreone on the House steps about his strategy moving forward in the campaign cycle and some of the obstacles he may face should he become a member come January.

You’ve seen the AI-generated LEGO clips flooding your feeds during the 40-day war — Trump in the Pentagon, Iranian soldiers holding bloodied backpacks, threading together political commentary on Vietnam, the genocide of Native Americans, and Epstein Island. Banned repeatedly on YouTube and Instagram, they’ve still built a massive American audience.

Ryan Grim and Areeba Fatima spoke with the team behind Akhbar Enfejari (Explosive Media) about who they are, their process, and how their content has resonated with the American left.

Adam Hamawy is a surgeon who worked in war zones, most notably during America’s war on Iraq and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He is now running for Congress in New Jersey's 12th District on a platform of Medicare for All, getting corporate money out of politics and ending all wars.

Drop Site’s Julian Andreone caught up with Dr. Hamawy outside of the Rayburn House Office Building, where the candidate may be working a year from now, to discuss his life experience and how it has informed his stances on policy.

The war against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has not gone according to plan. What was initially portrayed as a quick regime change action that would destroy the Islamic Republic and spark a domestic uprising soon morphed into a war of attrition in which Iran stunned the U.S., Israel, and international observers. Six weeks after the opening strikes that assassinated much of Iran’s leadership, it is President Donald Trump who appears desperate to find an exit. The Iran war is now at a definitive crossroads and the coming days will prove decisive.

In a wide-ranging interview, Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke with Iranian analyst Dr. Hassan Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran University. Since the war began, Ahmadian has become one of the most prominent Iranian commentators in the Islamic world because of his viral appearances on Al Jazeera Arabic.

Scahill and Ahmadian talk about what Iran would be willing to accept as part of a deal with the U.S., how it could ensure that the U.S. and Israel do not renege on an agreement and restart the war, and how Iran will approach the issue of its enriched uranium stockpiles. They also discuss the internal decision-making process in Iran, debates among the political, religious and military echelons, and the role of Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baghar-Ghalibaf, Tehran’s lead negotiator in the current talks with the U.S. Ahmadian also offers a comprehensive overview of Iranian strategy and its perspective on reestablishing deterrence and regional balance in the aftermath of the U.S.-Israeli wars.

Ahead of the Wednesday vote on whether to reauthorize FISA without any reforms, Drop Site’s Julian Andreone caught up with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to address reporting that, led by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the group sought to join the Trump administration—in particular, Stephen Miller—in pushing for a swift passage.

Progressives and House Freedom Caucus members alike are demanding that amendments be offered and debated on the bill. The current version of the bill still includes a backdoor search loophole, which allows intelligence agencies to monitor Americans’ conversations without a warrant, and a data broker loophole, which allows the government to purchase American citizens’ commercial data.

The U.S. government notably used the backdoor search loophole to spy on Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. Now, just hours before the vote, some CBC members are changing course and backing reforms.

Roughly half of Congress own individual stocks, but members tend to make disproportionately higher returns on their trades and investments than ordinary Americans on the market. Are senators and representatives insider trading?

To get to the heart of this question, Drop Site’s Julian Andreone's new series Capitol GAINS analyzes the most significant stock trades and traders in Congress, examining the committees they sit on, the returns they’ve made, and any conflicts of interest or news developments that make the trades particularly notable.

In the days following the launch of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, the circumstances of a strike that killed at least 175 civilians at a girls school in Minab have been heavily debated — specifically, the question of which country’s military was behind the strike. As of Wednesday, the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation confirmed the US to be at fault.

Drop Site’s Washington correspondent, Julian Andreone, asked members of Congress what they knew about the strikes and potential investigations into the subjects. Here’s what they said:

Oliver Larkin, a progressive Democrat and former staffer on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign seeking the primary nomination for Florida’s 23rd Congressional District against incumbent Jared Moskowitz — one of the most prominent conservative, pro-Israel Democrats in Congress — spoke with Drop Site’s Julian Andreone on Friday about his campaign and the issues driving it.

The longtime progressive organizer discussed how to actually get progressive policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal passed in Congress despite entrenched institutional hurdles and the influence of special interests, as well as the reasons he believes his campaign can defeat such a high-profile incumbent in a deep-blue district.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a Bernie Sanders-endorsed doctor running for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s next United States senator in 2026. He ran for governor of Michigan in 2018, but has his eyes on Washington as he seeks to get money out of politics, pass Medicare for All, and end forever wars.

He met up with Drop Site’s Julian Andreone on Wednesday to discuss why he is running for higher office, among other topics, including the Iran War, corruption in Congress, and Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to intelligence agencies.

Roughly half of Congress own individual stocks, but members tend to make disproportionately higher returns on their trades and investments than ordinary Americans on the market. Are senators and representatives insider trading?

To get to the heart of this question, Drop Site’s Julian Andreone's new series Capitol GAINS analyzes the most significant stock trades and traders in Congress, examining the committees they sit on, the returns they’ve made, and any conflicts of interest or news developments that make the trades particularly notable.

The House and the Senate will hold separate votes on a War Powers Resolution on Thursday, sponsored by Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie and Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul respectively.

The War Powers Resolution seeks to halt President Donald Trump's war of aggression on Iran through the constitutional authority vested in Congress to authorize a war. So we sent our Capitol Hill correspondent Julian Andreone to the Capitol to ask members of Congress how they plan to vote on this resolution and why.

Roughly half of Congress own individual stocks, but members tend to make disproportionately higher returns on their trades and investments than ordinary Americans on the market. Are senators and representatives insider trading?

To get to the heart of this question, Drop Site’s Julian Andreone will be embarking on a new series — Capitol GAINS. He’ll analyze the most significant stock trades and traders in Congress each week, examining the committees they sit on, the returns they’ve made, and any conflicts of interest or news developments that make the trades particularly notable.