The so-called Board of Peace that President Donald Trump officially launched in Davos, Switzerland last week is developing sweeping plans for a U.S.-backed administration to rule Gaza. Leaked documents exclusively reported on by Jonathan Whittall show the Board’s bureaucratic plans for total control of Gaza—without Palestinian participation or input.

Whittall, who was a senior UN official in Palestine before being expelled by Israel last year, joins Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous to discuss the reality on the ground in Gaza, Trump’s installation of himself as the indefinite chair of the Board of Peace, and what Israel is doing to make its presence in Gaza permanent.

Jonathan Whittall is a political analyst with two decades of experience in humanitarian work with Médecins Sans Frontières and the UN. He is now executive director of KEYS Initiative.

Pieces discussed:

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/leaked-board-of-peace-resolution-gaza-trump-us

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-yellow-line-earth-berms-blocks-physical-barrier-israel-palestinians

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cmcc-leaked-documents-gaza-residential-zone-surveillance-checkpoints-rafah

Documentary photographer and essayist Kaveh Rostamkhani has been on the ground in Tehran throughout the unrest and bloodshed that gripped Iran over the past weeks, and he published an essay on Instagram on Wednesday under the title, “Iran Unrests: A Feast for Vultures.” Rostamkhani describes some of what he observed and raises questions about the events that took place:

"In what would become the longest internet blackout in Iran’s history, only a semi-functional nationwide intranet was left available. Not only had the security forces clearly underestimated the mobilisation capabilities of the monarchists and their accomplices, but also observers and ordinary citizens were surprised by the excessive riots. By Saturday, January 10th, the nation would wake up soaked in blood.

"Over the next days, eye and ear witnesses recounted harrowing atrocities. One told me that in their neighbourhood there had been so many corpses that the authorities had to patrol through the blocks and load them onto pick-ups. The scale of deaths is beyond deniability, thus, the state TV airs scenes from Tehran’s legal medicine morgue, where scores of corpses are piled waiting to be identified by mourning relatives.

It might be easy to solely accuse the regime of a massacre of thousands, as many activists quickly did, though the reality seems to be more complex. Whilst there is a high number of deaths apparently as a result of a firm crackdown and the use of live ammunition, among the corpses there are also scores who have died due to wounds from knives, carpet cutters, and other improvised sharp blades. Then there are others who have endured gunshots at close range. Still others have succumbed to burns. And this is not an isolated issue limited to Tehran or a certain area, but all over the country there are also numerous corpses that have succumbed to wounds none of which correspond with a crowd and riot control perspective. It doesn’t make any sense for security forces to risk physical engagement and injury when their units have a de facto carte blanche to use lethal ammunition from a safe distance."

Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill spoke with Rostamkhani on Thursday morning.

The U.S. is moving additional military assets into the Middle East amid speculation Trump could green light an attack on Iran at any moment. The sense that an overt war is imminent has abated and the protests, riots, and bloodshed in the streets of Iran that took place earlier this month have, for now, ended, yet the incendiary situation remains liable to develop into wider conflict. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that if Iran sought to assassinate him, “the whole country's going to get blown up.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that any attempt to assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.”

Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to Dr. Foad Izadi, professor of American studies and international relations at University of Tehran, on Wednesday. They discussed the origins of the protests, the narrative war, how Iran might respond to another military attack by the U.S. and more.

“The U.S. wants to repeat the Libya experience, disintegrate Iran, take out the oil-rich southern part, and then the rest of the country would fall apart. This is the ultimate plan they have,” said Izadi. “I don't think they have given up. I think Trump has basically given the Iran portfolio to Netanyahu. He decides what to do. And then basically Trump implements whatever Netanyahu has decided to do. And Trump is going to be in office for another three years. So I don't think they are done with Iran.”

Behind the war of words between the U.S. and Iran are two competing narratives about what took place in early January. Western governments and much of the corporate media have characterized Iran as an authoritarian regime, one facing widespread protests, that carried out a series of bloody massacres. Opponents of the Islamic Republic, including Iranians who participated in the protests, have characterized this moment as one where a dying repressive regime, desperate to keep its grip on power, has violently crushed protests by those who dare to oppose it.

Iran has pushed back forcefully on both these allegations and this description, saying that the domestic unrest is nothing short of a U.S.-Israeli sponsored violent infiltration in the country that sought to hijack legitimate protests to pave the way for regime change. Iranian officials have charged that what began as peaceful marches—meeting no violent crackdown from the state—turned deadly when agitators, encouraged and supported by the U.S. and Israel, began attacking government buildings, religious sites, and other infrastructure, while assassinating and executing police and other security personnel, along with ordinary citizens. Iran said the events of the past weeks are a continuation of the 12-day war waged against Iran in June that saw the U.S. and Israel bomb the country for 12 days.

For the past 12 days, the government has almost entirely shut down the internet in Iran. The limited internet has made it very difficult to independently verify events on the ground.

A new wave of mass protests has erupted across Iran, sparked by deepening economic crisis, and escalating in some areas into a revolt against the ruling government. Human rights monitors say that hundreds of protesters and members of government security forces have been killed amid a sweeping crackdown—with fears mounting over mass arrests, death sentences, and destruction of critical infrastructure. An internet blackout remains in effect over most of Iran, but final death tolls are expected to rise.

The unrest has also prompted renewed threats of U.S. military intervention, with President Donald Trump threatening attacks on Iran and cancelling planned talks with Iranian officials. Iranian leaders meanwhile have warned they are prepared for war if the U.S. escalates, including by targeting U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf.

Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Narges Bajoghli, an associate professor of anthropology and Middle East Studies at John’s Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and Samira Mohyeddin, managing editor for On The Line Media, to break down what’s driving the protests, what we know under conditions of severe information blackout, and why Washington’s talk of intervention carries enormous risks for both Iranians and the broader region.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe.

Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim discuss the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the situation in Venezuela with Carlos Ron, Venezuela’s former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, and Jack Murphy, a journalist and former Army Ranger.

Ron says anger and indignation over American aggression has “served to bring together the Venezuelan population,” with mass mobilization in support of the Bolivarian project, and no visible opposition effort to capitalize on the attack. There’s “no fracture” within the governing base, he tells Drop Site, as Caracas gradually returns to daily life.

Murphy lays out in detail how the operation to kidnap Maduro unfolded, citing months of preparation, elite U.S. units, and critical local assets, including a CIA source very close to Maduro.

Murphy’s reporting can be read here on The High Side: https://thehighside.substack.com/p/bold-delta-force-raid-leads-to-capture

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A major new report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab that reviewed and analyzed satellite imagery has found that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “engaged in widespread and systematic mass killing in El-Fasher, North Darfur upon gaining total control of the city and surrounding area on 26 October 2025.” The report found that the RSF “engaged in a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence of its mass killings through burial, burning, and removal of human remains on a mass scale. This pattern of body disposal and destruction is ongoing.”

Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, joins Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Sharif Abdel Kouddous to discuss the findings of the report, the critical role of the United Arab Emirates in funding and arming the RSF, and why he thinks the worst violence is yet to come.

Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill joins the livestream to talk about his exclusive interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, what disarmament of the Palestinian resistance really means, the state of negotiations around phase 2 of the so-called “ceasefire,” and more.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe.

The foreign policy of the Trump administration has followed a similar pattern to past administrations, both Republican and Democrat, despite campaigning as a “peace president.” Past presidents have been influenced by the neoconservative foreign policy establishment that has reigned since the end of the Cold War—and Trump has been no different.

Trump has attacked Yemen and Iran, supported Israel amid its genocide in Gaza, and is now targeting Latin America and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The Trump administration is offering more of what the world is used to from the U.S.—endless wars waged for the benefit of a small elite and largely at the expense of ordinary people.

After supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trump is currently pushing forward a plan to transform the Gaza Strip into a protectorate run by Israel and the Gulf Arab states that would potentially eliminate the future sovereignty of the Palestinian people, and is likely to be rejected by Palestinians themselves.

This week, Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Erik Sperling, the executive director of the advocacy group Just Foreign Policy. Hussain and Sperling discuss Trump’s foreign policy maneuvers, including the Gaza plan, Trump’s strikes on Venezuelan boats, and more.

Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The genocide in Gaza has slowed with the so-called ceasefire but it has not stopped. The Israeli attacks, airstrikes, shelling, shootings continue. More Palestinians are killed in Gaza nearly every day. The demolition and destruction of Gaza continues. The heavy Israeli restrictions on food, fuel, medicine, reconstruction materials entering Gaza continues. The famine continues. The exchange of captives according to the so-called first phase of the deal is nearly over and there is no real substantive agreement on what comes next.

As all eyes have been on Gaza, there has been a massive escalation of violence and attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli troops are conducting raids on villages and towns on a daily basis, displacing families, conducting mass arrests and shooting and killing Palestinians. Meanwhile, settlers operate with complete impunity and in collaboration with the Israeli military. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem since October 2023, including over 200 children. Of those 200 children who have been killed, 42 have been killed since the beginning of this year alone. So the violence is only accelerating.

October, which marked the start of the olive harvest in Palestine, marked the highest monthly number of recorded Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians by UN OCHA since the agency began documenting such incidents in 2006. OCHA recorded more than 260 attacks in October resulting in casualties, property damage or both—an average of eight incidents per day. Meanwhile, one in every five Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far in 2025 across the West Bank and Jerusalem is a child.

In the month of October alone, 442 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank, including 33 children. Today, Israel is undergoing a periodic review by the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva and is facing numerous allegations of torture, abuse, starvation, isolation, medical neglect, and more against Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights attorney and former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization, joins Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Murtaza Hussain to talk about the accelerating surge of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem; the torture and abuse of Palestinians captives in Israeli prisons and detention centers; and the lack of accountability for the genocide in Gaza.

Murtaza also discusses “The Epstein Files”— his exclusive investigative series with Ryan Grim on Jeffrey Epstein’s role in Israeli intelligence operations through his relationship with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to Drop Site at https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe.