International News Briefs for Tuesday, June 3, 2025
HAVANA TIMES – Here are some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
Israeli Forces Again Fire on Crowds Trying to Access Aid in Gaza, Killing Another 27 Palestinians
Jun 03, 2025
In the Gaza Strip, witnesses say Israeli forces again opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians this morning as they gathered at a humanitarian aid site in the southern city of Rafah, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 90 others. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as Palestinian families moved toward a distribution site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and suddenly came under attack by Israeli soldiers and quadcopter drones. Most of the wounded were reportedly struck in the head and chest.
Wedad Zou’rob: “Hunger killed us. Hunger slaughtered us. O world, have mercy on us. O world, have mercy on us, for the sake of elderly women, for the sake of the widows, for the sake of the children. We are all hungry. We are all dying of hunger. Dying of hunger. The children cry. The women cry. The widows cry. No one has mercy on anyone. We are all hungry. We are all hungry, dying of hunger. We walk like skeletons on the ground. Skeletons on the ground. Our children died of hunger.”
U.N. Calls for Probe into Israel’s Aid Site Massacre That Killed 31 People
Jun 03, 2025
The massacre follows a separate assault Sunday when witnesses saw Israeli troops killed at least 31 people, also at a U.S.-backed aid distribution center, injuring over 170 others. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned Sunday’s massacre and called for an immediate and independent investigation.
Separately, The Guardian reports recent deadly airstrikes by Israel on schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza were part of a deliberate Israeli strategy that saw military planners loosen limits on strikes on places where large numbers of civilians are present. Israel has attacked six schools in recent months, killing over 120 people.
UNICEF: Israel Has Killed or Injured Over 50,000 Children in Gaza Since Start of Genocide
Jun 03, 2025
The U.N. Children’s Fund reports the number of Gaza’s children killed or injured by Israel since October 2023 has passed 50,000. In a statement, UNICEF wrote, “How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?”
Israeli Forces Kill 14-Year-Old West Bank Palestinian as Settler Attacks Soar
Jun 03, 2025
Image Credit: Defense for Children International – Palestine
Officials in the occupied West Bank say Israeli forces have arrested at least nine Palestinians following raids in Jenin, Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem. The arrests follow Monday’s killing of 14-year-old Palestinian boy Yousef Fuad Abdulkarim Foqahaa, who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Israel’s military later said the boy had been throwing stones and bottles, something witnesses refuted.
This comes as the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office reports Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank are at their highest rate in at least two decades, with an average of 44 Palestinians injured each month in attacks by settlers.
Protests Erupt as ICE Arrests High School Students
Jun 03, 2025
Image Credit: Brian Snyder
In Massachusetts, protests are continuing in response to the arrest of Brazilian high school student Marcelo Gomes da Silva while he was on his way to volleyball practice over the weekend. Students at Gomes’s high school in the Boston suburb of Milford staged a walkout, many wearing their graduation gowns, joining a series of other demonstrations across town in recent days demanding Gomes’s release. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged the teen was not the target of the arrest operation but was still taken into custody. Gomes has lived in the United States since 2012. This is Boston ICE official Patricia Hyde.
Patricia Hyde: “In regard to Marcelo Gomes, he remains in ICE custody. He was not the target of the investigation, but like we have repeatedly said, sanctuary policies put us in a position to go out into communities and look for people.”
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to provide the court at least 48 hours’ notice before the teen is transferred out of Massachusetts.
The ICE arrest of another high school student here in New York has also sparked widespread outrage. Attorneys representing the 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker, identified as Dylan, have filed a habeas corpus petition in a federal court in Pennsylvania, where Dylan is currently detained, urging his release over due process violations. Dylan lives in the Bronx with his mother and two younger siblings.
Avelo Airlines Faces Protests, Boycotts over ICE Deportation Flights
Jun 03, 2025
Image Credit: Molly Martin
Protesters took to the streets of at least 40 cities nationwide over the weekend calling for a boycott of Avelo Airlines over the company’s contract with ICE to operate deportation flights. The protests came as the Arizona Mirror reported the Boeing 737 used by Vice President JD Vance’s campaign has been chartered more than a dozen times this year by the Trump administration to deport immigrants to Guatemala and El Salvador.
In more immigration news, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign into law a bill that would require most state sheriffs to collaborate with ICE in arresting and detaining immigrants. The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature approved the bill last week.
Meanwhile, in Tucson, Arizona, witnesses say ICE agents falsely claimed to be utility workers for Tucson Electric Power as they attempted to ambush and detain an immigrant from Honduras. The man avoided arrest after his neighbor intervened.
Senate Takes Up Budget Bill to Make Tax Cuts for the Rich Permanent
Jun 03, 2025
On Capitol Hill, the U.S. Senate is taking up President Trump’s sweeping budget this week. The bill, which just squeaked through the Republican-led House last month, seeks to make permanent Trump’s 2017 tax giveaways for the wealthy, while gutting essential social programs including Medicaid and food assistance. Some Republican senators are calling for even steeper spending cuts in the bill and have opposed its impact on the national debt. Meanwhile, Democrats could call on the Senate parliamentarian to rule against key measures of the package, including the longer-term impact on the deficit. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said Democrats would challenge a provision that would limit judges from enforcing contempt citations.
Advocates for Poor & Disabled Arrested at Capitol Hill Protest Against Social Spending Cuts
Jun 03, 2025
On Monday, the Rev. William Barber and other activists were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda as they held a prayer demonstration against the budget. Rev. Barber and his group Repairers of the Breach also held a rally outside the Capitol to condemn the spending cuts, which threaten to strip Medicaid coverage from 14 million people. This is disability rights activist Sloan Meek.
Sloan Meek: “The way I moved around in the world, the way I communicate, the people who help me do all the things I want for my life, it is all supported by Medicaid. Proposing to cut Medicaid is a death threat to me and my friends with disabilities. Without Medicaid supporting my home and my community, I will be forced into a nursing home to spend the rest of my life in a hospital bed until I die.”
Trump Cabinet Officials Seek Oil & Gas Drilling as Trump Ends Alaskan Wilderness Protections
Jun 03, 2025
Image Credit: X/@SecretaryWright
The Trump administration is moving to strip federal protections for millions of acres of Alaska’s pristine wilderness to allow oil drilling and mining in one of the nation’s last untouched regions. While touring an oil field near the Arctic Ocean, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and EPA head Lee Zeldin praised Trump’s push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska, which has long drawn condemnation from Indigenous communities and environmentalists. The move reverses a Biden-era measure that restricted future oil and gas leasing on portions of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
Far-Right Party Withdraws from Netherlands Ruling Coalition, Toppling Government
Jun 03, 2025
The government of the Netherlands has collapsed after Geert Wilders withdrew his far-right Party for Freedom from the ruling coalition over other parties’ refusal to back Wilders’s “strictest asylum policy ever.” Wilders’s plan proposed halting the asylum process and pausing the reunification of families whose members have been granted refugee status. Opposition parties are calling for fresh elections.
Meanwhile, Poland’s liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced lawmakers will hold a confidence vote on his government on June 11, after the nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki won the country’s presidential election on Sunday.
Boulder Man Who Attacked Israeli Hostage Advocates Charged with Hate Crime, Attempted Murder
Jun 03, 2025
In Colorado, authorities have charged the suspect in Sunday’s attack on a Boulder protest for Israeli hostages with a federal hate crime and 16 counts of attempted murder. The attack, believed to be carried out with a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices, injured 12 people.
Former State Department Spokesperson Matt Miller Now Says Israel Committed War Crimes in Gaza
Jun 03, 2025
The State Department’s spokesperson under former President Biden has admitted he believes Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. Matt Miller’s reversal comes after he spent over a year as the face of the Biden administration’s foreign policy, repeatedly defending Israel against allegations of war crimes and genocide. This was Miller speaking in April of last year.
Matthew Miller: “We have been very clear that we want to see Israel do everything it can to minimize civilian casualties. We have made clear that they need to do every — that they need to operate at all times in full compliance with international humanitarian law. At the same time, we are committed to Israel’s right to self-defense.”
But during an interview that aired Monday on Sky News, Matt Miller now says he believes Israel has committed war crimes in Gaz and that Israeli soldiers are not being held accountable.
Matthew Miller: “I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think the — I think it is, without a doubt, true that Israel has committed war crimes.”
Mark Stone: “You wouldn’t have said that at the podium.”
Matthew Miller: “Yeah, look, because I — I mean, when you’re at the podium, you’re not expressing your personal opinion. You’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government.”
VA Order Bars Doctors and Researchers from Publishing in Medical Journals
Jun 03, 2025
The Guardian reports the Department of Veterans Affairs is ordering staff scientists not to publish in medical journals without first receiving official clearance. The agency sent an email last week, following the publication of an article by two VA pulmonologists in The New England Journal of Medicine. Their opinion piece warned that the Trump administration’s mass cancellation of contracts and planned staff reduction of 80,000 VA employees is putting the health of a million veterans at risk, including those seeking treatment for toxic exposure.
Supreme Court Leaves State Gun Control Laws Intact, for Now
Jun 03, 2025
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up challenges to two state laws regulating guns, leaving in place Maryland’s assault weapons ban and Rhode Island’s 10-round magazine limit. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case. Three of the court’s six far-right justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — dissented from both decisions. Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated the question of assault weapons is poised to return to the court’s docket soon, but said lower courts should first be given more time to rule on the issue.
NYC Vigil Supports Laila Soueif Amid Hunger Strike Hospitalization
Jun 03, 2025
Here in New York, a vigil was held Monday in solidarity with Laila Soueif, who’s been hospitalized in London after eight months on hunger strike to demand the release of her son, Egyptian British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. This is Farida El Hefni at yesterday’s vigil.
Farida El Hefni: “This is not just about one prisoner. This is about the brutal machinery of Sisi’s regime. Egypt’s prisons are bloated with over 80,000 prisoners, and those are just the numbers that we are aware of, that don’t include even the forcibly disappeared. So, Laila Soueif, in her fight, is not just fighting for her son’s life, but for all the political detainees in Egypt’s prisons, who we only hope could be free one day.”
Laila Soueif has vowed to continue her hunger strike despite doctors warning her blood sugar has dropped so dramatically, she’s now at risk of “sudden death.”