Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Mosab Abu Toha- My translation of a new poem by my friend Hamed Ashour, who is in Gaza and writing from there: And just like this, whenever you smile, I see sorrowful peoples migrating from one cheek to another, mistaking—while thirst is killing them— every dimple they encounter for a well of water.

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

My translation of a new poem by my friend Hamed Ashour, who is in Gaza and writing from there:

And just like this,

whenever you smile,

I see sorrowful peoples migrating

from one cheek to another,

mistaking—while thirst is killing them—

every dimple they encounter

for a well of water.

https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/2061653289687474377/photo/1

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4)... Vatican announces theme for 2026 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation - traditionally SEPTEMBER 1

Nature (AFP or licensors)

Vatican

Vatican announces theme for 2026 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development announces the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV for the 2026 celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, held on September 1, as "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4).

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Leo XIV has chosen “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4) as the theme for the 2026 edition of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, traditionally celebrated on September 1.

In the statement from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development making the announcement, the Dicastery states that the Holy Father’s Message for the Day highlights the connection between armed conflict and environmental degradation.

Such degradation, it underscored, constitutes both a serious violation of our duty to care for creation, as well as a long-term threat to the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Moreover, it said "the now widespread awareness of the impact of war on natural resources has not led to the creation of adequate institutions or to responsible decisions aimed at preventing conflicts and resolving disputes peacefully."

Finally, the statement concluded that the title, the passage in which the Prophet Isaiah prophesies the transformation of weapons into agricultural tools, "is an explicit invitation to prioritize development and sustainability over violence and destruction."

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-06/vatican-theme-2026-world-day-of-prayer-for-the-care-of-creation.html

B'Tselem: "Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem through discriminatory legislation, planning procedures, funding allocations and service provision, all designed to advance the Judaization of the area. "

B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم

@btselem

Immediately after occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel annexed about 70,000 dunam (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares) from the West Bank to its territory in violation of international law. Parts of this area were added to Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

One third of the annexed territory was used to build settlements expressly designed to secure a Jewish majority and create a contiguous territorial bloc, while pushing Palestinian communities out of the urban space.

The Silwan area, located near the Old City, is home to about 20,000 Palestinians who suffer from systemic, criminal neglect in terms of public infrastructure and services the Jerusalem Municipality is obligated to provide: Many streets are unpaved, waste is left to pile up in the streets, and street lighting is limited.

On top of this neglect, residents face daily harassment and violence by both Israeli security forces and settlers.

Right now, about 1,800 Silwan residents are being forced out of their homes, which Israel is granting to settler families. This follows the past two years in which hundreds have already been uprooted and left homeless, as their houses are being demolished to make way for a national park and a parking lot.

Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem through discriminatory legislation, planning procedures, funding allocations and service provision, all designed to advance the Judaization of the area. Read the full article >> btselem.org/jerusalem/2026

"Tech billionaires are plowing hundreds of millions into political campaigns, to fend off attempts at regulation and evade accountability lest their endeavors go awry. They want to make sure nobody butts in as they work to reshape society. And they are largely succeeding – for now, no one with the power to stop them is butting in."

Our tech overlords are planning for conscious AI to conquer the cosmos. What could go wrong?

A new belief set is uniting some of the wealthiest men in the world around a ‘transhuman’ future – actual humanity be damned

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the Internet a few years ago to propose that homo sapiens would be the first species “to design our own descendants”. In his best case scenario, the “merge” between humans and artificial intelligence occurs at some point over the next 50 years. The alternative, where we remain simply human and the machines follow their own path, is more ominous. “If two different species both want the same thing and only one can have it – in this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond – they are going to have conflict,” he wrote.

More recently, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who at one point last year was granted the power to reconfigure the US federal government, argued on his social media platform, X, that “it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence” – our role in the history of the cosmos reduced to that of the low level code that boots up a computer before you can run sophisticated programs on it.

And Musk is on the tame side of the evolutionary proposition. According to Silicon Valley lore, he once pushed back against Google co-founder Larry Page’s claim that our next manifestation, to follow in the steps of the meat-and-bone humans you see walking about today, would necessarily have digital form in order to spread throughout the galaxy. (In fact, he recently testified in court that it was those concerns that prompted him to found OpenAI with Altman.) Meat and bones do not make for efficient interstellar travelers.

It would be a mistake to understand these weird worldviews as an ultimately harmless take by techies who grew up on a diet of dystopian science fiction. The notion that we are approaching the end of the homo sapiens, as defined since Darwin’s day, is coalescing into a durable body of belief among the elites at the helm of our technological future.

Their dreams are not all perfectly aligned. But like the folk stories and superstitions that have for ever revolved around more established religious traditions, the collection of far-fetched scenarios valley oligarchs are writing into our future exhibits the hallmarks of a religion in the making, a body of belief to confer a sense of cosmic transcendence and inevitability to their hi-tech project.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/31/transhuman-silicon-valley-ai

Monday, June 1, 2026

Imagine what we could have done to educate, inspire, and care for our children here instead of spending billions to bomb our children there... Whatever there you are thinking about right now, theey are our children, too. - MLK Jr Center

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center

@TheKingCenter

Imagine.

#OurChildrenEverywhere #BelovedCommunity #TheKingCenter #MLK #WorldHouse

https://x.com/TheKingCenter/status/2061508148167319806/photo/1

From Gaza to Iran, the pattern is the same: precision weapons, chosen blindness, and dead children. The cost of failing to regulate AI warfare is already too high:

These aren’t AI firms, they’re defense contractors. We can’t let them hide behind their models

Avner Gvaryahu

Sun 15 Mar 2026

There is an Israeli military strategy called the “fog procedure”. First used during the second intifada, it’s an unofficial rule that requires soldiers guarding military posts in conditions of low visibility to shoot bursts of gunfire into the darkness, on the theory that an invisible threat might be lurking.

It’s violence licensed by blindness. Shoot into the darkness and call it deterrence. With the dawn of AI warfare, that same logic of chosen blindness has been refined, systematized, and handed off to a machine.

Israel’s recent war in Gaza has been described as the first major “AI war” – the first war in which AI systems have played a central role in generating Israel’s list of purported Hamas and Islamic jihad militants to target. Systems that processed billions of data points to rank the probability that any given person in the territory was a combatant.

The darkness in the watchtower was a condition of the terrain. The darkness inside the algorithm is a condition of the design. In both cases, the blindness was chosen. It was chosen because blindness is useful: it creates deniability, it makes the violence feel inevitable, it moves the question of who decided from a person to a procedure. The fog did not lift. It was given a probability score and called intelligence.

It may have been chosen blindness that led, at the start of the US-Israeli Iran war, to the strike at the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, in southern Iran. At least 168 people were killed, most of them children, girls aged seven to 12.

The weapons were precise. Munitions experts described the targeting as “incredibly accurate”, each building individually struck, nothing missed. The problem was not the execution. The problem was intelligence.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/mar/15/ai-defense-warfare-companies

Dear America- You can't win a modern war. You can destroy homes & families, you can usurp land & resources from the rightful owners, and you can undermine & destroy a free press and the fourth estate- but people worldwide have memories, as well as a sense of right and wrong that cannot be bombed into oblivion.

Forget-me-not flowers- A symbol of PEACE

& Remembrance

Dear America,

When my children were little I taught them to admit when they were wrong and to apologize. It takes strength of character to do so. Strength of character shapes a good person, and a good person helps makes the world a better place.

Lead by example: Greed and corruption are wrong. Bully tactics are wrong. Insults are wrong. Lies are wrong... AND WAR IS VERY VERY WRONG.

We live in a world filled to the brim with stockpiles of both simple and sophisticated weaponry- all of it is polluting our shared planet earth. From the manufacturing to the deployment of lethal weaponry- bullets- bombs- bulldozers-missiles- jets- drones- molotov cocktails- war pollutes the land & air and war mongering pollutes minds as power hungry tyrants on all sides use bully tactics & bombs as if one can win a modern war.

You can't win a modern war. You can destroy homes & families, you can usurp land & resources from the rightful owners, and you can undermine & destroy a free press and the fourth estate- but people worldwide have memories, as well as a sense of right and wrong that cannot be bombed into oblivion.

We live in the information age. When our mainstream news failed to provide fair coverage of the full story for decades, our comics stepped up to say it in jokes, and the internet thrived as people reached out far and wide for more honest perspectives. Now tech billionaires want to capture it all in massive hyper-scale DATA Centers that they control and can easily infiltrate, manipulate, and fill with AI artificial information/misinformation to empower their favored projects and politicians.

STOP and THINK...

Golden Rule thinking is enlightening: Respect for real freedom and democracy. Respect for UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS and the rule of fair and just laws to shape the best way forward, for everyone. Respect for real history and heritage, respect for differences and diversity, respect for human dignity- and ALL our children.

We are in the wrong to arm Israel as it steals land, rights, and peace from the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.

And we are in the wrong to bomb Iran.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

"The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes..." UN Human Rights Palestine

"For ease and speed, we are degrading our ability to connect and to organise our societies. We must assert our trust in humans over machines" Nesrine Malik

NPR: Israel seizes medieval castle as it expands major offensive in southern Lebanon... "Israel must know that its scorched earth policy, collective punishment and expropriation of villages and towns will not achieve security and stability but will instead deepen the divide with the Lebanese people"

“I have never in my career witnessed the level of atrocities and targeting of my medical colleagues as I have in Gaza,” Adam Hamawy, The doctor who came back from Gaza and is leading a New Jersey congressional race

"Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm."

"... Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom." Pope Leo XIV on AI Artificial Intelligence

"I was just a boy when I learned that my family would soon be leaving my beloved homeland of Palestine to begin a new life in America. To the adults, it was a practical decision—one made in search of opportunity and a better future, away from the suffocating Israeli occupation & oppression. But to me, it felt as though my entire world was being torn away. How could I explain what Palestine meant to a child? It was not merely a place on a map. It was the hills that encircled our small village of Beit Hanina and served as my endless playground. It was the olive and fruit orchards where I wandered freely beneath the sun. It was the caves hidden among the rocky slopes, the handmade kites dancing in the wind, and the familiar scent of earth after the rain. It was home." Mike Odetalla

"The chaotic, unique, beautiful Lebanon I knew has been reduced to rubble. When will it end? Suspected war crimes happen almost daily as Israel continues its bombardment, which Unicef estimates is killing nearly 14 children a day. We cannot write this off as just another war in a war-torn region"

"The first time I heard a song by Saint Levant, only three years ago, was in a world that does not exist any more. Gaza’s buildings were intact, as were its schools and roads and markets and mosques. My home city of Khartoum in Sudan was standing, as it had for centuries. Back then, I could scroll for fun, not in dread. I could stumble, say, in late 2022, upon an arresting clip on TikTok of a song by an Arab artist with a pun for a name..." Nesrine Malik

A network of fake academic journals masquerading as legitimate publications has published more than a hundred AI-generated papers in recent months, in some cases using the names of real professors at top universities without their knowledge- Online academic journals falsely attributed articles, likely written by AI, to several professors, who say the fiasco is a warning about the future of scientific knowledge.

Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt's 1948 letter to the New York Times: They saw the creation of a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine at the expense of its indigenous Muslim and Christian population as a profound injustice and moral catastrophe. Einstein and the other signatories explicitly compared Begin’s Herut (Freedom Party), born from the Irgun, to Nazis and Fascists, warning that their ideology of racial superiority and violent ethnic nationalism posed a grave danger to the moral and political future of the new state.

Ongoing Nakba in Gaza, Palestine: People inspect the remains of a residential building hit by an Israeli airstrike... Listen to the stories of Gaza’s women to fully grasp the horrors Israel is inflicting

"At a moment when Islam is framed as a source of division, it is worth recalling that on his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, Malcolm X encountered Muslims of all races, worshipping as equals together, an experience that transformed his understanding of race and human dignity. It revealed an Islam grounded not in fear, but universality, exposing the poverty of racial hierarchies and the distortions that sustain them." Kenneth Mohammed in The Guardian

TIME: The Solemn History Behind Nakba Day ... From 1947 to 1949, 531 towns were destroyed by Israeli militias- Of the 1.4 million-strong Palestinian population at the time, 800,000 were displaced; the massacres of families and towns left enduring scars on the survivors.

"Reducing inequality was “not only about fairness, but essential for the resilience of economies, the stability of democracies, and the viability of our planet”" .......Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds- Data from World Inequality Report also showed top 10% of income-earners earn more than the other 90%

Dear Governor Shapiro- The word 'antisemitism' excludes Arabs and Muslims, and has come to mean criticizing Zionism which is a political movement that is shaping horrifically cruel policies and actions here and in Israel and Palestine. So maybe find a better word or phrase to use- like 'bigotry' or 'racist hate' or 'mental illness' to describe hate mongering violations and violence.

DEAR AMERICA

STOP THE BOMBS and the bigotry, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop accepting bribes & propaganda & bad advice from a very foreign country that seeks to destroy support for UNIVERSAL human rights and the rule of fair and just laws.

Along the way we learned that slavery is wrong. We learned that domestic violence is wrong. We learned that racist hate is wrong. SO WHY are we funding Israel and why are we bombing Iran for Israel!!!

Violence is a problem- not the answer

In 1945, 50 nations came together in San Francisco to create a new organization for peace, prosperity & human rights- the United Nations

"The United Nations is the only place on Earth where all the world's nations come together to discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This intergovernmental organization born out of the ashes of the Second World War remains indispensable to the pursuit of world peace, justice, equality and sustainable development" https://www.un.org/en/

The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties. https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-palestinian-refugees-the-right-of-return-under-international-law/441

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

"The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes..." UN Human Rights Palestine

UN Human Rights Palestine

@OHCHR_Palestine

• Israel’s repeated choice to use heavy munitions in densely populated areas despite foreseeable outcomes led to a shockingly high rate of civilian casualties in Gaza, including women and children.

• Narratives that treat Palestinian men as inherently lawful targets or security threats are egregious, cause immeasurable harm, and violate the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law.

• Israel’s conduct involved committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Read Overview report covering 19 months from 7 October 2023 through the end of May 2025: ohchr.org/en/documents/c

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/opt/occupied-palestinian-territory-overview-report-east-jerusalem-practices-en.pdf

"...... 3. The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes. The cumulative effects of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, which compounded the damaging effects of over 58 years of occupation and 18 years of blockade and closure of the strip, created conditions of life incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in much of Gaza.2 Many of these trends and their impacts were present in the Israeli military’s large-scale siege and attacks on North Gaza between 6 October 2024 and 19 January 2025, which is analyzed as an emblematic case study in this report.

4. In parallel, the West Bank experienced an alarming surge in the unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians, including through the deployment of means and methods of the use of force designed for warfare. Coercive and discriminatory Israeli practices and legislative measures proliferated and intensified, deepening Israel’s near-total control over, and violation of, Palestinians’ political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights. These developments came amid intensified Israeli settlement activity, associated displacement, and administrative moves and rhetoric by Israeli officials promoting the application of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank – together consolidating Israel’s annexation of large parts of the territory.

5. The deleterious human rights situation was further compounded by the Palestinian authorities’ intensified unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank, practices of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture, and a crack-down on civic space.

6. Considered together, Israeli Government’s measures and steps across Gaza and the West Bank reflected a concerted and accelerating practice of undermining the fabric of Palestinian life while consolidating the annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and forcibly displacing Palestinians from much of their land and territory. The cumulative effect of the Israeli practices detailed in this report was to entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory and, in doing so, to render increasingly tenuous the prospect of the Palestinian people’s exercise of their right to self-determination, including the realization of an independent and sovereign State.4

Furthermore, an appraisal of the totality of Israel’s policies and practices raises serious concerns about its compliance with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders and its obligations to prevent the commission of acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide...."

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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