Podcast
Drop Site News
Hosted by Drop Site News · EN
Independent reporting on war and politics in the U.S. and across the world, delivered by Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and the Drop Site team.
www.dropsitenews.com
www.dropsitenews.com
50episodes
Episodes
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"The Film the BBC Wouldn’t Air," From Question Everything
Oct 1300:44:25Summary readyToday, Drop Site presents an episode from our friends at Question Everything, a podcast from KCRW and Placement Theory.The episode, titled “The Film the BBC Wouldn’t Air,” tells the inside story of how the BBC killed an important and timely documentary film into Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.The British network faced relentless criticism for its decision to not air the film. Question Everything’s producer Sophie Kazis tells the story. The episode features Ramita Navai, an award-winning British-Iranian investigative journalist and Ben de Pear, an award-winning British journalist.You can watch the film the BBC wouldn’t air, “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,” on Zeteo.com.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Two Years of Genocide in Gaza: On the Struggle for Decolonization
Oct 700:59:21Summary readyToday marks two years of genocide in Gaza. Two years of the most violent episode in the modern history of Palestine.Israel has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, including over 20,000 children. That number is a bare minimum. Thousands more are missing under the rubble. There have been countless massacres. Flour massacres, aid massacres, Red Crescent massacres. School massacres. The massacres of over a thousand families and bloodlines that have been wiped out forever.We do not even know the number of deaths not caused by bombs or bullets or shells or drones—the number of preventable deaths caused by Israel’s assault. We do know that at least 460 Palestinians, including 154 children have starved to death and more are dying every day from Israel’s campaign of forced starvation and famine.Entire cities have been reduced to dust and broken concrete. Homes, hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches, bakeries—everything that knits a community and society together has been destroyed. Even color seems to have been obliterated. Everything now covered now in gray dust.92% of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Over 500 schools and every university has been damaged or destroyed. Only 1.5% of cropland is still accessible and suitable for cultivation.Nearly every Palestinian in Gaza —95% of the population—has been displaced, most of them multiple times. Hundreds of thousands now live in tent cities where they are still bombed and shelled and shot.Health care has been devastated. Out of 38 hospitals in Gaza, 25 are completely shut down while the rest are barely functioning. The number of doctors and medical personal killed is over 1,700. Over 360 have been detained.Journalists have been slaughtered. Israel has killed between 250 and 270 journalists and media workers over the past two years. An unprecedented number. There is so much that is unprecedented.Israel’s massive colonial violence is by no means confined just to Gaza. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a huge escalation in daily attacks and dispossession in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from their homes in the largest wave of displacement in the West Bank since 1967. The number of Palestinians arrested in the West Bank and Jerusalem over the past two years has topped 20,000, including over 1,600 children. At least 77 political prisoners have died in custody.And it is not just Palestine. Israel has bombed Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Qatar.All of this has been backed and supported and armed by the United States more than any other country. A new report by the Costs of War Project at Brown University found that the U.S. has provided Israel with at least 21 billion dollars in military aid over the past two years alone. It concludes with the obvious: Israel would not have been able to sustain its wars across the Middle East without massive US backing.On today’s Drop Site livestream, Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar Noura Erakat joins Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous to discuss all of this and more. Erakat addressed the UN Security Council on Monday—only the second Palestinian woman to brief the Security Council since October 7, 2023 and the first to present the legal case that Israel’s war on Gaza is genocide.Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
Summary
Hamas Responds to Trump Gaza Plan: What to Know
Oct 400:56:54Summary readyHamas issued a response to President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire proposal on Friday “in the interest of stopping the aggression and genocide” in the Gaza Strip. The movement said it “values the Arab, Islamic, and international efforts, as well as the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump, aimed at halting the war on Gaza, securing a prisoner exchange, allowing immediate entry of aid, rejecting the occupation of Gaza, and rejecting the displacement of our Palestinian people from it.” It continued:"Within this framework, and in order to achieve an end to the war and the full withdrawal from Gaza, the Movement declares its approval for the release of all Israeli captives—living and remains—according to the exchange formula outlined in President Trump’s proposal, with the necessary field conditions in place to carry out the exchange. In this context, the Movement affirms its readiness to immediately enter, through mediators, negotiations to discuss the details."The Movement also renews its approval to hand over administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats), based on Palestinian national consensus and backed by Arab and Islamic support."As for other issues in President Trump’s proposal relating to the future of Gaza and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, these are tied to a collective national stance and rooted in relevant international laws and resolutions. They will be discussed within a unified Palestinian national framework in which Hamas will participate and contribute with full responsibility."Trump reposted the statement on Truth Social and responded postively in a separate post: “Based on the statement just issued by Hamas , I believe they are ready for for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”In a breaking Drop Site livestream, Prominent Palestinian academic and activist, Dr. Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, joins Drop Site journalists Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous to analyze the latest developments.Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Breaking Down Trump’s 20-Point Gaza Proposal
Sep 3001:12:02Summary readyJeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim break down what Trump’s 20-point plan, released on Monday, would really mean for Gaza. “The priority is going to be investment… making that money and the kickbacks,” Scahill warns, comparing it to Iraq after 2003, with Tony Blair is set to oversee redevelopment. “Colonial powers always used the local population to test out whatever new technologies, new theories, new medicines,” he says.Palestinian factions, consequently, largely see Trump’s “peace plan” as a farce. Crafted by Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides with no Palestinian input, it ties food and medicine to Hamas’ surrender and hands Gaza to a foreign “viceroy.” Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Palestinian Statehood, Iran Sanctions, and the Future of the Middle East
Sep 2501:07:33Summary readyA number of western states, including the UK, Canada, Portugal, France, Belgium, and Australia recently recognized Palestinian statehood as the United Nations General Assembly is underway in New York City.At the same time, talks between Iran and the E3 counties—Germany, France and Britain—to avert the looming “snapback” of UN sanctions are breaking down. The developments increase the odds of another war between Iran and Israel backed by the US and Europe.Meanwhile, Russian drone incursions into NATO territory could spark direct conflict with Moscow.Drop Site News’ Murtaza Hussain speaks with Dr. H.A. Hellyer, a British scholar of Middle East politics and security and a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the Center for American Progress, about the shifting global order.Hellyer highlights that while Palestine has long been recognized by over 140 UN member states of the Global South, the recent recognition by western states serve to isolate Washington. Symbolically, he says, it affirms Palestinians’ right to self-determination, but recognition without enforcement risks repeating the Oslo “trap”: lofty rhetoric masking impunity as Israel expands settlements and intensifies its genocidal campaign in Gaza. Without pressure or consequences, recognition could amount to little more than “recognizing a graveyard.” Hellyer argues that the collapse of the U.S.-led order risks ushering in a fragmented era where the most vulnerable populations pay the highest price.Subscribe to Drop Site’s free and independent journalism at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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VIDEO: Serbia at the Crossroads
Aug 2300:15:47Summary readyBELGRADE, SERBIA—On August 12, 2025, in the cities of Vrbas and Bačka Palanka, Serbia, several hundred people took to the streets to protest against the repression by the regime of President Aleksandar Vučić. That evening, pro-government supporters attacked demonstrators, throwing stones and frozen water bottles and targeting them with fireworks. The protestors retaliated, throwing objects back at Vučić’s supporters. The police did not intervene, though they were also struck several times.These events sparked outrage, in part because the police stood by and allowed the violent attacks by Vučić’s supporters against the demonstrators, and on August 13, people in several Serbian cities protested in front of the ruling party’s offices. The police responded with force, and since then, clashes between protestors and police have continued across Serbia. Almost every night, the streets of the capital, Belgrade, and other Serbian cities are filled with police deploying tear gas and armored vehicles on one side, and regime opponents on the other.The roots of the uprising stretch back to November 1, 2024, when a concrete canopy weighing over 300 tons collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. This canopy had been officially reopened just four months earlier after reconstruction.This tragic event sparked a wave of protests across Serbia, led by a segment of the population previously considered the most indifferent to social and political issues in the country—university students. They swiftly formed the core of a movement waging a campaign for accountability and against corruption and vowing to drive Vučić from power.Arrests of protesters, particularly students, are ongoing.Vučić has ruled Serbia for 13 years. A veteran of Serbian politics who served as information minister under the government of Slobodan Milošević in the 1990s, Vučić is well known for his ability to calibrate his positions to maintain strategic alliances with both the U.S. and its adversaries. Although the country officially remains on the path to joining the European Union and enjoys warm relations with the Trump administration, Vučić also maintains close ties with Russia and China.Vučić is conducting talks with the EU regarding the status of Kosovo, which formally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. His government sends weapons to both Ukraine and Israel and Belgrade reportedly signed a recent deal with the Israeli weapons technology firm Elbit Systems worth $1.6 billion for long-range rockets, drones, and surveillance systems. Rio Tinto—a powerful mining company that environmentalists accuse of causing pollution and other environmental damage in addition to allegations of mistreatment of workers—plans to open a mine in a lithium- and boron-rich area of Serbia called Jadar. Just over two months ago, the European Commission declared the Jadar project one of strategic importance for the EU.Vučić’s opponents call him an autocrat and dictator, claiming that corruption in the country has never been higher. They cite as an example the cost of the Paris Olympics last year—€10 billion—and compare it with the projected costs for Serbia’s EXPO, scheduled to be held in Belgrade in 2027, which is expected to cost nearly €18 billion.According to recent polls, Vučić’s popularity is on the decline and he has rejected calls for new elections, despite the country being in deep political crisis.Dušan Čavić and Dušan Šaponja, cohosts of the popular Serbian YouTube documentary news program Marka Žvaka produced this report for Drop Site News explaining how Serbia once again has found itself at the political crossroads. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Netanyahu and Trump Meet in D.C. as Qassam Ambush Stuns Israeli Forces
Jul 8, 2025Tap to summarizeRyan Grim, Jeremy Scahill, and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Jon Elmer of Electronic Intifada to break down today’s major developments.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Episode 2: How to Make Friends
Oct 30, 202400:39:04Summary readyInvestigative journalist Antony Loewenstein uncovers how the Palestine Laboratory has operated since 1948, detailing Israel’s long-standing role as a major arms dealer to some of the world’s most repressive regimes. Using declassified documents, Loewenstein traces secret deals made with dictators from Pinochet's Chile to apartheid South Africa and explores how Israel's military model is now being replicated in places like Myanmar and India. As history repeats itself, how does Israel continue to act with impunity?Guests: Daniel Silberman and Sasha Polakow-SuranskyThe Palestine Laboratory Podcast is Drop Site’s first investigative series, looking into how Israel is using Palestinian territories as a testing ground to develop its occupation-enforcing tech industry. Hosted by investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein and based on his recent book, this podcast series examines how Israel is reshaping conflict and population control globally. What happens in Palestine never stays there. CreditsHost: Antony LoewensteinSeries Producer: Elle MarshProducer: Bethany Atkinson-QuintonProduction & Sound Engineering: Tim JenkinsField Recording: Cinnamon NippardStudio Recordings at 2SER: Michael Jones and Jonathan ChangOriginal Music: Ara Koufax Music Direction: Sunless StudioPodcast Artwork: Debashish ChakrabartySpecial Thanks: Anu HasboldTranscript available at dropsitenews.com Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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How Drop Site News is Covering Israel’s Wars Against Palestine and Lebanon
Sep 26, 2024Tap to summarizeOn this joint episode of Intercepted and Deconstructed, the team of journalists from Drop Site News discuss their reporting on the U.S.-backed Israeli wars in the Middle East. Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Drop Site News editor Nausicaa Renner and journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous. They discuss the Biden administration’s enduring commitment to arming and supporting Israel, why Iran might be exhibiting restraint in its military response to Israeli attacks, and what we know about Hezbollah’s military capabilities. They also discuss Drop Site News’s reporting on Pakistan and the attempts to censor and ban Drop Site. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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Announcing Drop Site News
Jul 8, 2024Tap to summarizeGet full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe
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