by Sharon Zhang | Jul 23, 2026 | Article, Israel, Military Industrial Complex, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This article was originally published by Truthout on July 22, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) issued a stark warning this week about a congressional measure that would merge the U.S. and Israel’s military technology industrial complexes, saying that it represents an “existential threat” to U.S. democracy.
The provision — called the “U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” or Section 219 — is included in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed the House in a 216 to 212 vote on Wednesday. Six Democrats broke from the party to vote “yes,” and seven Republicans voted “no.” The bill is still stalled in the Senate, however, after Democrats voted against its advancement last week.
The NDAA “includes a provision to merge parts of our military with the [Israeli military],” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on social media on Tuesday. “This [provision] is an existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy. Every member of Congress must vote NO.”
The provision, if included in the final bill, would entrench Israel’s enmeshment with the U.S. military, mandating cooperation with regard to technology and intelligence with Israeli forces even when the U.S. gets little in return. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has advocated for the measure as public scrutiny over the U.S.’s monetary military aid to Israel has increased amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Some lawmakers in Congress have waged a bipartisan effort for Section 219 to be stripped from the NDAA. Representatives Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) have introduced an amendment to the bill to remove Section 219.
However, these efforts have been quashed by pro-Israel lawmakers, who
by Maximillian Alvarez, Dave Zirin, and Jules Boykoff | Jul 22, 2026 | edge of sports, Edge of Sports TV, Fascism, Opinion, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Sports, The Cultural Front
For many around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a welcome distraction from the dismal state of the world and the daily overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism, and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that, no matter how much we love sports and want them to be an escape from politics and the pain of living in a broken society, there is no way to truly escape those things, and the manufactured illusion that sports are an escape from political reality is just that: an illusion.
At a live event hosted on July 16, 2026, at Chilo’s bar in New York City, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke with legendary sportswriters Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff about what it means to love sports in an age of authoritarians.
Additional links/info:
Chilo’s bar website and Instagram
Jules Boykoff, OR Books, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine
Dave Zirin, Penguin Randomhouse, The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. The 2026 World Cup is now officially over after Spain defeated Argentina in the final match on Sunday. And for many of us around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a very welcome distraction from the ambient awfulness and doom and the daily delugion overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that no matter how much we love sports and the global spectacle of the
by Nada Elia and Noura Erakat | Jul 22, 2026 | Article, Gaza, Israel, Opinion, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Prisons and Policing, Reprint
by Sharon Zhang | Jul 21, 2026 | Article, cuba, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
by Michael Fox | Jul 20, 2026 | Article, big tech, free speech, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, The Battle for Free Speech
When activists in Ireland heard that Peter Thiel’s secret club, Dialog, was planning to meet in the Irish countryside, they launched a campaign to stop it. They succeeded.
Peter Thiel is a Silicon Valley tech financier and the founder of the companies PayPal and Palantir who donated lavishly to Trump’s 2016 presidential run. In 2022, he financially backed 16 far-right congressional candidates. Thiel’s company Palantir has come under fire for supporting both the genocide in Gaza and the immigration crackdown in the United States.
Leaks about Dialog dropped in June, revealing information about Thiel’s 20-year-old elitist invitation-only organization and its planned Irish conference in August. Meeting topics included World War III, battlefield technologies, building a cult, and improving your sex life.
The meeting was to be held in the five-star Powerscourt Hotel in County Wicklow, Ireland. Several grassroots Irish groups — including Your Tech, Their Deaths and North Wicklow Against Genocide — created #DropDialog, a campaign to get the conference cancelled. They planned several protests at the Powerscourt Estate. They didn’t have to. News broke on July 3 that the event had been cancelled.
“Media reports say the genociders’ event, the Dialog conference, will not be hosted at Powerscourt Hotel,” they wrote, in a statement on the #DropDialog website. This is a victory for all people of conscience who mobilised against it and shows that direct action works! We issue a warning to any other hotel or venue on the island of Ireland who may consider hosting these individuals. Genociders, warmongers and technofascists are not welcome in Ireland. Power to the people!”
Jude Farrell is a founder of the group Your Tech, Their Deaths. She is a former
by Ross Domoney and Nadia Péridot | Jul 17, 2026 | Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Syria, video, Yemen
Israel’s recent attacks on Lebanon and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are part of a long history of military aggression and occupation. But the Zionist project of creating a “Greater Israel” in the region has reached new heights, with senior government officials openly advocating territorial expansion into sovereign nations like Lebanon.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Palestinian refugee camps of Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh have been a home to generations of Palestinians displaced during the 1948 Nakba. Residents of these camps have endured decades of violence, while holding onto the dream of one day returning to their stolen homeland.
TRNN was granted exclusive access to the Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camps. In this on-the-ground report, we take you inside the camps in the midst of the latest conflict, and we speak to residents about their lives, resistance, and dreams of returning home.
Credits:
Filmed, directed and edited by Ross Domoney
Produced by TRNN, Antonis Vradis, and Shadowgraph Media
Voiceover and Script writing by Nadia Péridot
Local Production by Mohamad Hanoun
Translation by Siham Shamalakh
Graphics by Jack Lafone-hill
Transcript
A transcript will be provided when ready
