Vive La France! / America’s Secret Police / IDF Whistleblower Reveals the Truth About the Bombing of a Gaza Hospital / Trump thinks Troops Can Boost Bonds / Putin’s Assassinations / The Earth’s Shadow / Dolly Parton RIP
The HKR Look Back
Aux Armes, Citoyens!
Charles: In 1940 the Nazis invaded Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the Channel Islands. By the end of that year, it was almost impossible for any civilized person in Europe to feel any optimism about the future.
And yet, less than four years later–82 years ago this week–Free French Forces liberated Paris.
The tiny handful of optimists of 1940 had been vindicated.
On the evening of August 24, 1944, Charles de Gaulle gave a five minute speech on the radio which set the tone for all of his future efforts to bind up the wounds of his tortured nation:
Why should we hide the emotion which seizes us all, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris that stood up to liberate itself and that succeeded in doing this with its own hands? No! We will not hide this deep and sacred emotion. These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives. Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France! With those words, de Gaulle immortalizes all those who had fought the Germans as the only “real” Frenchmen of “eternal France.”
Charles de Gaulle in front of the Arc de Triomphe, August 25, 1944
The next day, de Gaulle defies American commanders who want to use General Leclerc’s troops to guard the northeast approaches to the city. The French general concedes that militarily, the Americans are correct, but he insists, “We must have this parade,” and he needs Leclerc’s troops to provide security for the huge festivity. “Today we were to revive, by the spectacle of its joy and the evidence of its liberty, the self-awareness of a people who yesterday were crushed by defeat and scattered in servitude.” At three o’clock in the afternoon, de Gaulle lays a huge wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe and relights the eternal flame, the first Frenchman to do so without German minders watching since the Occupation had begun four years earlier. De Gaulle thinks Parisians are watching him “as though I were the materialization of a dream.” Shots ring out as de Gaulle leaves the Champs-Élysées to turn into the place de la Concorde, and thousands dive to the sidewalks, although de Gaulle thinks most of the fire is pointed up into the air. The same thing happens againwhen he arrives in front of Notre-Dame, and it even continues inside the cathedral. But no one has ever been more certain that he is a man of destiny than he is. He wrote about himself on this day, “Since each of all of those here had chosen Charles de Gaulle in his heart as the refuge against his agony and the symbol of his hopes, we must permit the man to be seen…so that the national unity should shine forth at this sight.” And so de Gaulle walks straight down the nave of the cathedral, never flinching at the sounds of gunfire.
–The Cost of Courage
It is that handful of 1940’s optimists who make it possible for me to remain optimistic about America’s future.
As my father always said, “La Marseillaise is the only one that really works.”
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The Scope of ICE Surveillance Operations Targeting Americans in Minnesota is Exposed
The Guardian
People look on from a skyway as demonstrators march during a “Nationwide Shutdown” demonstration against ICE enforcement on 30 January 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Scott: Trump sought and the MAGA Congress granted a total of $145 billion for ICE and its operations in 2025 and 2026, a sum that exceeds the military budgets of all of America’s NATO allies. The funding is described as designed to fund the removal of “illegal immigrants” from the United States. But only a modest part of the budget is actually used for that purpose. A significantly large amount is being expended for the creation, outfitting and intelligence gathering support for America’s first secret police force that fully meets the definition. As is the case with other secret police forces around the world, the American one, ICE, is under the direct control of the Leader, guided out of the White House. Its major preoccupation is identifying the enemies of the regime, and taking steps to silence them. The experience of failed ICE operations in Minnesota is now leading to discovery of just how that works. As is the case of most totalitarian states, the secret police uses undercover agents in an effort to incite unlawful conduct as a pretext for enforcement actions. The Guardian’s Sam Levin reports.
Newly disclosed records reveal how undercover federal agents posed as concerned community members to spy on residents and activists who opposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) crackdown in Minnesota.
Internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) files, disclosed in federal court and reviewed by the Guardian, document the actions of several undercover agents, including one who went by the username “peanutbutterjelly” in Signal chats with activists. The documents show that the officer kept records of Signal conversations, screenshotting chats about protest plans, and offering to help with fundraising efforts and volunteer recruitment.
Another undercover agent took photos at demonstrations and protest planning meetings, including of demonstrators in frog costumes, a poster that mocked JD Vance with heavy eye makeup, and a protester writing an anti-ICE message in chalk. Other DHS agents trailed a protester as he left his home, got coffee and went to a church.
The records were released as part of the Department of Justice’s ongoing prosecution of 15 Minneapolis protesters, accused of being part of a “conspiracy” to “impede” ICE.
A tranche of internal DHS files disclosed in the case earlier this month revealed DHS extensively spied on prominent leftwing groups and protesters as part of its investigation into anti-ICE activity. DHS called the investigation “Operation Puppet Master”, the files showed, sending undercover agents to community meetings, infiltrating Signal chats and obtaining financial records of left-leaning non-profit organizations and unions.
The surveillance escalated during widespread anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. Civil rights groups and the protesters’ attorneys have argued the government was surveilling people without justification and is criminalizing lawful protest activity.
DHS and the DoJ did not immediately respond to inquiries on Tuesday. In response to questions about the previous records released in the case, a DHS spokesperson said earlier this month that HSI, its branch that carried out the investigations, “does not comment on the existence or status of specific on-going investigations, nor on investigative methods”.
Undercover agent 9843, who went by the name “peanutbutterjelly” in the Signal chats of organizers, worked for homeland security investigations, the investigative arm of ICE, records show. In December 2025, the agent was deployed to “participate” in virtual and in-person meetings, records show. The agent’s objective was to “gather intelligence regarding any organized networks of conspirators – operating online and in person – who may be providing material support to violent opportunists and individuals engaged in impeding federal law enforcement”, DHS summarized in a February report.
The undercover agent attended a virtual “ICE watch” training on 3 December during which community members discussed how to monitor ICE officers’ activities. Organizers at the meeting “urged participants to observe nonviolently and obey law enforcement commands”, DHS said. The agent attended another “legal observer” training in person four days later, reporting there were no signs of “threats to public safety”.
IDF Soldier Blows the Whistle on IDF Disinformation About the Bombing of Gaza’s Nasser Hospital
Le Monde
Scott: One year ago, on Aug 25, 2025, one of the worst war crimes in the history of the Gaza conflict was perpetrated by Israeli forces through an attack on what was then the Gaza strip’s principal hospital, which Israel decided to put out of operation. Twenty-two persons were killed and dozens seriously injured. Responding to international uproar over the event, the Israeli government scrambled to describe the hospital as a center for Hamas operations and to describe victims as Hamas agents. Now an IDF soldier has come forward to put the lie to Israel’s claims about a Hamas presence at the hospital, and to describe the frenzied effort to cobble together claims after the attack.
One year after the bombing that killed 22 people, including five journalists, at Nasser Hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip, an Israeli soldier has told several media outlets, including Le Monde, how the Israeli army pulls out all stops to link bombing victims to Hamas.
It is a rare account from a military source who spoke out to shed light on one aspect of the information war: How the Israeli army responds and organizes itself when there is suspicion of a war crime, in order to counter and minimize the impact of published footage or information. Under strict conditions of anonymity, the soldier described to Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) Breaking the Silence, as well as to several media outlets including Le Monde, the standard method used by the military, drawing on a significant episode from the war in Gaza.
Shortly after 10 am on the morning of August 25, 2025, an Israeli military strike hit a building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Palestinian territory. A few minutes later, the hospital compound was targeted a second time. In total, 22 people were killed and 50 injured. Among them were healthcare workers and five journalists, including correspondents from the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies. From outside, a camera recorded the second strike, which hit rescuers and journalists as they were helping victims of the initial explosion.
The attack sparked strong international outcry. The soldier who spoke out described the method used by Israel to try to contain the consequences in international public opinion. First, the military claimed that the target on the hospital roof was a camera used by Hamas to monitor the movements of Israeli soldiers. The claim was not true, as a Reuters investigation later showed. Above all, the military initiated what it called a “retrospective incrimination”: making every effort to link the victims of this double strike to Hamas, the group responsible.
