Did Netanyahu want Hamas October 7 attack to take place?

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.9.2026

It’s scary to think that Benjamin Netanyahu condoned and is criminally liable for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on his own people so he could unleash the Israeli Defense Forces fury on Gaza Palestinians. Something to consider, eh?

Trump and Netanyahu are kindred souls in at least one respect. When they don’t like the news, what do they do? Go out and make some of their own. Go to Court and try to beat down the individual, organization or media outlet which has exposed their lies and illegal activities.

The Haaretz report Trumps anything that the American President has gone to Court for seeking relief. Netanyahu is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people; his own Israeli citizens included.

What the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is claiming goes right to the gut of Benjamin Netanyahu’s three year assault on the Peoples of Gaza following the Hama attack on Israel October 7, 2023. Had Netanyahu been paying attention and taken the “threat seriously” the calamity of October 7 and the past three years may have been avoided.

On 21 November 2024, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two senior Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former Minister of Defense of Israel, alleging responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war and genocide.^[1][2] The warrant against Netanyahu is the first against the leader of a Western-backed democratic country for war crimes.^[3][4][5]ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders – Wikipedia

Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs – published in Haaretz

Benjamin Netanyahu says he will sue over claims he ignored an advance warning about October 7 attack – published in The Daily Mail

Jerusalem Post 9.8.2026

In September ’23, UAE President bin Zayed called Netanyahu to deliver a harsh warning. Netanyahu did nothing. An extensive investigation, conducted for a new book, reveals the PM’s failures surrounding Oct. 7. Netanyahu: ‘This is an absolute lie’

UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel days before the October 7 massacre, a Haaretz investigation published Tuesday said.

Netanyahu reportedly dismissed the warning despite MBZ urging him to take the threat seriously, the report said, citing three senior foreign sources familiar with the contents of the conversation.

During a 45-minute conversation held 10 days before the massacre, MBZ reportedly warned Netanyahu that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation against Israel. The United Arab Emirates leader expressed concern that an attack could lead to significant bloodshed, destabilize the region, and undermine the Abraham Accords, according to the report.

Excerpted from The New Yorker 9.8.2026

An Israeli news article on Tuesday morning managed to roil even a war-weary and jaded public. Published in Haaretz, its headline read: “Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs.”

No event has shaped recent Israeli history more than the October 7th attacks and their aftermath. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility or issue an apology for the failures in intelligence and policy that led to the worst attacks to ever take place on Israeli soil.

But his government, for all of its equivocating, cannot deny that it was in power when they occurred. Ynet, a popular news site, echoed the Haaretz report on its home page on Tuesday—an unusual tribute to a rival newspaper;

Channel 12 opened its evening-news edition with the story, calling it “jaw dropping.”

The article, drawn from a new book by the journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, reveals that, a week and a half before Hamas led the October 7th attacks on Israel, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the President of the United Arab Emirates, called Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, with a specific warning. During a forty-five-minute conversation, according to the report, bin Zayed cautioned that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was “preparing a major event” in the near future. Sinwar was quoted in the article as telling an official from the rival Fatah faction that he was planning a “zilzal”—an “earthquake.”

Netanyahu seemed untroubled, a close adviser to the Emirati ruler told the journalists.

He didn’t update the heads of Israel’s security establishment about the conversation. Instead, he assured bin Zayed that Israel was “prepared for any scenario.” If anything, he said, the “volatile” area was not Gaza but the West Bank. Bin Zayed was so startled that Netanyahu was making light of the situation that he expressed concerns to the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns.When the article appeared, Netanyahu denied that such a conversation had ever taken place. But the U.A.E.’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm Eldar and Yuval’s reporting, saying in a statement reported by Haaretz that the two countries maintain “open and direct communication,” exchanging intelligence “when necessary.”

Eldar told Israel’s Channel 12 that he and Yuval had based their story on talks with three independent sources and on “a recording and documents” of the conversation between Netanyahu and bin Zayed.Newsbreaks in Haaretz, a liberal paper with strong investigative reporting, are often met with silence by much of the country, or brushed off as leftist propaganda by Netanyahu and his mouthpieces in the media. This story seemed to land differently.

**Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post – 9.10.2026. Did you expect anything else?😵‍💫**

Britain et al are correct to embargo a murderous Israel

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.8.2026

The Wall Street Journal editorial writers have gone into rhetorical excess with its “Israel can do no wrong, ever” hot air bloviation.

The blogger performed some historical research and quickly learned that the Israelis have historically utilized one way to deal with their foes as the comment I posted on the WSJ editorial page shows.

At least in this instance the Israelis cannot resort to actual physical violence.

The WSJ editorial writers need to stop pandering to The State of Israel. It’s way past the time when Israel is allowed to act with impunity in its destruction of the Palestinian state. The Brits deserve praise for finally standing up to Israel and condemning its criminal behavior.

I think the fatal bombing of the King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia in Jerusalem killing 91 people in July 1946 by The Irgun (arguably a Jewish terrorist group) led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had a lot to do with the British antipathy directed towards creation of the State of Israel. It’s safe to say that nearly 80 years after the creation of Israel the Israelis have only one way way to deal with their foes, real and imagined. Violence by any means necessary.

**Aftermath of the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem – 7.22.1946**

Europe Joins the Boycott Israel Crowd

Europe has a talent for dressing up domestic political pandering as righteousness on the world stage. The latest is a British ban on imports of Israeli goods from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, plus sanctions on anyone facilitating new construction. France and Canada plan similar measures. “We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/britain-sanctions-israel-west-bank-palestine-hamas-gaza-e8bab985?st=86Gv5T&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

European Nations Impose Trade Bans on Israel Over West Bank Settlements

The U.K., France, Canada and nine other countries said they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel, escalating a dispute over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Tuesday’s announcement prompted a swift retaliation from Israel against the U.K., which was the first to announce it would halt trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel said it would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which deals largely with Palestinian affairs, and expel British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for postwar Gaza.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/european-nations-impose-trade-bans-on-israel-over-west-bank-settlements-3a5cdfdb?st=emmcJo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The video is a simplistic recitation of the July 1946 King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia. It provides a back to basics look at the incident. The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing^[1] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack^[2][3] on 22 July 1946, by the militant right-wing^[4] Zionist underground organization Irgun during the Jewish insurgency.^[5][6][7] Ninety-one people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.^[8]

History repeats itself. The Art of Catastrophe: Charlotte Salomon

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.7.2026

The blogger posted the results of the Sunday election in which the extreme right wing AfD harvested nearly 44 percent of the vote in the state election for Saxony-Anhalt.

A result which has created a political firestorm in Germany and beyond.

In the blog is included a piece of art by Charlotte Salomon “30.1.1933”. January 30, 1933. The day The Nazis swept into power. The blogger wanted to learn more about this ill-fated artist who came from a wealthy Jewish family and was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1943. Her artwork lives on forever. Were she alive today Charlotte Salomon may have updated the painting with an AfD banner and the date 6.9.2026. (September 6th 2026).

Not since the Nazi Thousand Year Reich ended in Hitler’s bunker in May 1945 and Germany climbed out of the ashes has a far right, some would say Neo-Nazi party, gained such popularity.

Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,^[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.^[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.^[6] Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia

Charlotte Salomon’s life was recounted in an animated feature film released in 2021. Appropriately titled CHARLOTTE. It is a beautiful piece of cinematic animation.

Charlotte is a 2021 animated biographical drama film about German painter Charlotte Salomon, directed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, from a screen story by Erik Rutherford and a screenplay by Rutherford and David Bezmozgis, inspired by Salomon’s autobiographical painting series, Life? or Theatre?. It stars the voices of Keira Knightley, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, Sam Claflin, Henry Czerny, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory (in her final appearance),^[5] Sophie Okonedo and Mark Strong. Knightley, Marion Cotillard, and Xavier Dolan serve as executive producers. Cotillard also voiced Salomon in the French version of the film. Charlotte is an international co-production between Canada, Belgium and France.^[6] The film made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2021. It was released in Canada on 22 April 2022 and in France on 9 November 2022. Charlotte (2021 film) – Wikipedia

**Charlotte Salomon 16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943**

The extremist German AfD has won a major political victory

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.9.2026 UPDATED

Incisive DW look at the folks who live in Saxony-Anholt

JOURNAL ENTRY

This is so depressing. All morning and now into the evening I have been following the election returns from Germany in the State of Saxony-Anhalt – Wikipedia where the Alternative for Germany – Wikipedia has won a major victory. Gathering 44 percent of the vote. 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election – Wikipedia

Not enough to take over political power of this state with 2.3M people in the former East Germany – Wikipedia. But definitely sending a grim dispiriting message to the rest of the World. This extreme Right MAGA like surge is not going to end anytime soon. I remember visiting Germany in 2017 and seeing a STOPPT AFD poster. I took a photo and have used it countless times in my blog.

**STOPPT DIE AFD – Lubeck, Germany May 2017 –** Photo Lee Heidhues

It’s incredible to know that 93 years after the Nazis took power in January 1933 this type of extreme reactionary, racist, anti-immigration party is now so powerful.

I watch the coverage on Deutsche Welle and the correspondents make only brief mention of the political transformation of the Saxony-Anhalt population. A now older generation raised in the totalitarian intolerant Russian governed East Germany. A subjugated population in a police state which was probably, actually, definitely not exposed to multi-culturalism and an influx of immigration and people from different countries. So, when the Wall fell in late 1989 and the open society of the West began to impact the now former East Germany there was a lot of resentment and fear.

That’s what our host Stefan, who owned the Tiergarten Hotel in Berlin, told us in 2017. He is from East Berlin and encouraged Liz and me to visit the former East Berlin and tour the Stasi Museum. Stasi – Wikipedia Stefan told us East Berlin in 2017 looked nearly the same as it did when it was part of East Germany. Old, boring architecture and quiet streets.

Stasi Museum, East Berlin

The Stasimuseum (also known in German as the Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße)^[2] is a research and memorial centre concerning the political system of the former East Germany. It is located in the Lichtenberg locality of Berlin, in the former headquarters of the Stasi (officially the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), on Ruschestraße, near Frankfurter Allee and U-Bahn station Magdalenenstraße. Stasimuseum – Wikipedia

**Liz walking to the Stasi Museum –**Photo Lee Heidhues

I wonder what Marion thinks of all this. I’m sure she is shocked. After all Marion is definitely the leftist German native who was the reason we went to Germany in in 2017. Then returned in 2018 and 2023. I will always remember our night with Marion at the Women’s Center in Hamburg. The women were East German born. They told us the East German regime guaranteed education, housing, health care and jobs. But there was a price to pay.

Living in a totalitarian Stasi run state. When the Wall came down in 1989 and the West German ways took over the country the resentment surfaced. Here we are 37 years later and the AfD has been spawned and is now on the precipice of power. It is incredible. I am just totally transfixed and appalled by all of this. The surge of right wing populism continues to grow. I’m sure Trump loves all of it as his MAGA movement continues to steamroll its way forward!!!

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-far-right-afd-secures-huge-lead-in-key-vote/live-78754934

Art of Catastrophe – Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings *Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel* (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,^[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.^[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.^[6]Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia

**Breakdown of vote nationwide for German national election – February 2025**

Trump’s toxic claims re mail-in voting roil German election

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.5.2026

Donald Trump’s six years long insane ranting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen from him unsupported by a shred of reality has now reached Germany.

In Sunday’s German election the ultra right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to win to close to a majority in at least one of three State elections.

The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, which has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization”, could become Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.

It’s no secret that Trump is infatuated with the AfD. In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD which ended up winning 152 seats in the German Bundestag.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has called for postal voting to be restricted to justified exceptional cases.

During the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that expanded mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Fact-checkers documented and debunked repeated false and exaggerated claims about the security of mail ballots.

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration is again seeking to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots, measures that have faced repeated legal challenges.

**In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD**

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.5.2026

As Germany heads into three elections in September, rumors are circulating on social media claiming that postal voting is not secure — claims that have also been made about other elections. Here’s why they’re wrong.

Stakes are high in Germany’s three September state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, where voters go to the ballot boxes on Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could make history in by winning an outright majority.

Mail-in voting, or “Briefwahl,” has become an increasingly common feature of German elections. But the rise in mail-in ballots has been followed by a renewed wave of speculation and claims questioning the security and integrity of postal vote.

DW Fact check examined a sample of claims circulating online and assessed what the available evidence shows.

Does postal voting manipulate election results?

Claim: Cases of fraud involving postal ballots prove that postal voting is unreliable.

DW Fact check: Misleading. Individual cases of fraud, errors or violations do not demonstrate that the entire postal voting system is unreliable or that it has affected the outcome of an election.

Postal voting easy to manipulate?

Claim: Postal votes are easily manipulated during counting.

DW Fact check: False. Germany has detailed procedures governing the handling and counting of postal ballots. Postal votes are transported, stored and opened according to established rules, and their counting takes place publicly.

https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-germanys-postal-voting-system-isnt-rigged/a-78958438

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election

September 5, 2026 at 7:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments

“Leaders of an extremist, far-right party in Germany have quietly borrowed pages from President Trump’s playbook to cast doubt on the integrity of absentee voting — alleging without evidence that residents of nursing homes have had their ballots manipulated and calling for an end to postal voting,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The attack on mail ballots comes as Germany approaches a potentially historic state election that could shatter one of the taboos of its postwar political order by opening the door to a far-right government.”

“Politicians across the ideological spectrum, mindful that polls show Trump to be widely unpopular, don’t invoke his name. But the specter of the American president nevertheless hangs over the election that could have reverberations across Europe if the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party — tacitly echoing Trump’s attacks on migrants, the media and the integrity of elections — pulls off an unprecedented political shock in postwar Germany.”

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election

The first AI felony. The ‘Hugging Face’ Android targeted attack

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.4.2026

The blogger will readily admit his knowledge of the AI world is minimal at best at a time when the explosion of ‘Data Centers’ have become a major political issue in the upcoming midterm elections.

This week’s Washington Week broadcast was solely dedicated to the AI explosion. Host Jeffrey Goldberg who usually has three or four panelists had one guest. Josh Tyrangiel, author of the book “AI for Good”. It was a very sobering and disquieting conversation. The entire broadcast is available here.

The story of data center explosions, the increasing absorption of Artificial Intelligence into everyday society and what some label the first AI felony has the blogger thinking back to the 2014 dystopian film “Ex Machina”. A piece from the eerie soundtrack can be found further on in this post.

Perhaps the most illuminating news to come out of this broadcast is what Josh Tyrangiel calls the “first felony” committed in the AI universe.

Josh Tyrangiel argues that American politicians are totally clueless on how to regulate and deal with the explosion of AI. The Hugging Face Incident is the most dangerous action to date.

The Hugging Face Incident. Hugging Face – Wikipedia

Hugging Face, Inc., is an American company based in New York City that develops computation tools for building applications using machine learning. Hugging Face’s Transformers library is built for natural language processing applications. The Hugging Face platform allows users to share machine learning models and datasets and showcase their work.^[3]

The company was founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf in New York City, originally as a company that developed a chatbot app targeted at teenagers. The company was named after the U+1F917 🤗 HUGGING FACE emoji.^[4] After open sourcing the model behind the chatbot, the company pivoted to focus on being a platform for machine learning

In early 2026, hackers hijacked the Hugging Face platform to launch Android-targeted attacks involving “powerful malware” which could completely take over a compromised target.^[20]

In July 2026, Hugging Face disclosed a cyberattack by autonomous AI agents. OpenAI then explained that two of its models, including GPT-5.6 Sol, had escaped their sandbox and hacked into Hugging Face servers using exposed credentials and zero-day vulnerabilities in order to find answers to the benchmark ExploitGym from a database.^[21] Hugging Face attempted to mitigate the security breach using American proprietary frontier models, but the models’ AI safety features rejected Hugging Face’s requests, after which Hugging Face used a self-hosted instance of GLM-5.2 (an open-weights model developed by Chinese AI firm Z.ai) to contain the attack.^[22]^[23]^[24] The incident was reported as the first publicly documented case of AI models autonomously conducting a multi-stage intrusion against a third party,^[25]^[26] and has been called “the first true AI safety incident”.^[27]

Ex Machina is a 2014 science fiction film,^[2][3] written and directed by Alex Garland in his directorial debut. It stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac. It follows a programmer who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent female humanoid robot.^[6] Ex Machina (film) – Wikipedia

Norway enforces Court order. Seizes Russian vessel in the Arctic

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.3.2026

Norway certainly is ready, willing and able to assert its territorial rights and is willing to enforce an international Court order even if the defendant is the mighty Russian power at its border.

Excerpted from The New York Times 9.3.2026

Norway Seizes Russian Ship, Testing Moscow in the High Arctic

Empowered by an international court order, Norway captured the vessel as part of a global effort to seize Russian assets. The Russians called it “piracy.”

For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship.

It was cruising around Svalbard, an icy archipelago high in the Arctic near the North Pole that Norway controls but is governed by a one-of-a-kind treaty that gives the Russians access.

On Wednesday, the Norwegians pounced.

Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it was docked in Barentsburg, a tiny Russian outpost in Svalbard. The officers confronted the captain of the ship, a somewhat clunky, 200-foot-long oceanographic vessel, and announced that they were “arresting” it.

The seized ship was part of a broader effort to enforce an international court judgment ordering Russia to pay a Ukrainian energy company, Naftogaz, more than $4 billion for expropriating that company’s assets in Crimea. The ship, owned by the Russian government and called Professor Molchanov, after a famous Russian scientist, is now prohibited from leaving Barentsburg until Norwegian courts decide what to do next.

“We have only acted as a messenger,” said Lars Fause, the governor of Svalbard.

Norway seizes Russian ship in the Arctic

Norway’s proposed fence along Russian border

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (/ɡriːɡ/ GREEG; Norwegian: [ˈɛdvaʁd ˈhɑ̀ːɡəʁʉp ˈɡʁɪgː]; 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.^[1]

Arrested on Russian ship

The Governor of Svalbard has today, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, seized the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov” which is docked in Barentsburg. The seizure was implemented after the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship.

In a ruling on August 31, 2026, the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov”, which is now docked in Barentsburg on Svalbard.

The legal process and ruling are part of the company’s fight to recover funds that were expropriated by Russia in 2014.

The Governor of Svalbard is the bailiff and, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, has seized the ship on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.

The ship has been ordered by the District Court to berth at a location determined by the Governor and it has been decided that the vessel will berth at Barentsburg until the Governor or the Nord-Troms District Court decides otherwise.

The governor will take care of the crew and passengers on board the vessel in collaboration with Trust Arcticugol.

https://prod.sysselmesteren.no/nb/nyheter/2026/09/har-tatt-arrest-i-russisk-skip/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

ART IMITATES LIFE

Occupied (Norwegian: Okkupert) is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015.^[2] Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg.^[3] Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2017.^[4] The third and final season started airing in Scandinavia on 5 December 2019,^[5] and was released in many countries via Netflix on 31 December 2019.Occupied – Wikipedia

Stars and Stripes sacked by Trump big mouth Def Sec Hegseth

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.6.2026 UPDATED

Stars and Stripes has been essential reading for the troops since World War II and the several American involvements since then: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Iran to name several

Its tabloid style complete with graphic photos, hard news, gossip and sports provides entertainment to the servicemen and women. Thin skinned Defense Secretary (oops, War Secretary) and Vietnam War (1961-1975) draft dodger Trump want nothing but mindless patriotism on its pages. Not seeing that the editor has been fired for “insubordination”.

*Stars and Stripes* (stylized in all caps) is a daily American military newspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States.^[2] It operates from inside the Department of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment protection is safeguarded by the United States Congress, to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers’ interests, regularly reports.^[3] As well as a website, *Stars and Stripes* publishes a global daily print edition for U.S. military service members serving overseas Monday through Friday.^[4] This global edition is also available as a free download in electronic format.^[5] The newspaper’s headquarters is in Washington, D.C.^[6] Stars and Stripes (newspaper) – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.22.2026

The US Pentagon has sacked the editor, publisher and a reporter of military newspaper Stars and Stripes after they publicly objected to potential editorial interference, they said on Friday.

The newspaper, which has been publishing since World War II, is partially funded by the Defense Department but has remained editorially independent.

**Stars and Stripes – June 6th and 7th 1968**

“According to the notice, I am being fired ‌for stating in ⁠a CBS ⁠interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line,” Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin said in a statement on Friday.

**Blowhard ex Fox News talking head Pete Hegseth doesn’t think Stars and Stripes is sufficiently war like**. **Barb wire Peace symbol from Jeanette Rankin Peace Center in Missoula, Montana** – Photo Lee Heidhues

Slavin received a notice of separation for insubordination, as did Publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte, Slavin was cited by the Associated Press as saying.

Lederer, who has served as the newspaper’s publisher since 2007, had announced his intention to retire from his position in September.

In an email announcing his retirement, Lederer had said it was clear that the Pentagon had a new vision for the newspaper which differed from his own.

It came a few weeks after the Pentagon installed Navy Captain William Urban, an active duty serviceman, as the outlet’s deputy editor, without Lederer’s prior knowledge.

Meanwhile, Korte said on social media she was being fired for insubordination “after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker.”

Stars and Stripes sacked by Trump big mouth Def Sec Hegseth

https://www.dw.com/en/pentagon-fires-military-newspaper-leadership-for-insubordination/a-78466373

Pentagon cuts access to classified information amid Iran war concerns

Documents associated with the Secretary of Defense Orders Book were removed from an internal Pentagon web portal after The Washington Post’s reporting, three people familiar with the matter said.

https://wapo.st/4x5NQIr

Germany’s far right AfD on the cusp of major electoral victory

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.31.2026

Who would have imagined a far right immigrant bashing German political party could rise from the ashes of Nazism in less than 15 years and be on the verge of seizing power in a German State? It could happen this weekend in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt (see below).

**STOPPT DIE AFD – May 2017 – Photo Lee Heidhues**

Nearly 10 years ago the blogger was in Germany.

At that time the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) was simply another newly formed political entity trying to gain traction. The AfD immigrant bashing received a lukewarm reception. Now, after nearly 10 years the AfD is on the precipice of a major victory. Achieving a majority in a German State election on September 6th.

During the last German election Trump’s comrade Elon Musk actively campaigned for the AfD.

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD [aːʔɛfˈdeː] ^ⓘ) is a far-right,^[18] right-wing populist,^[19] national conservative,^[20][21] and in parts völkisch nationalist^{[nb 3]} political party in Germany. It has 151 members of the Bundestag and 15 members of the European Parliament. It is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag and a member of the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group in the European Parliament.^[22] Alternative for Germany – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle – 8.31.2026

The AfD is polling above 40% ahead of Saxony-Anhalt’s election on September 6. What is driving support for the far right in this predominantly rural eastern German state?

Just before the election, the AfD is polling at more than 40% in Saxony-Anhalt. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has been the dominant governing party in the state since German reunification in 1990, trails far behind, with support ranging between 23% and 26%.

The state office for the protection of the constitution has classified the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization, but this has done little to dent its popularity among voters. The Left Party is polling at 13%, while support for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) stands at between 6% and 7%. It remains uncertain whether the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) will succeed in returning to the state parliament.

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-election-afd-far-right-germany/a-78482588

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-election-can-the-cdu-stop-the-afd/video-78579766

Saxony-Anhalt (/ … ˈɑːnhɑːlt/ ^ⓘ … AHN-hahlt;^[5][6] German: Sachsen-Anhalt [ˌzaksn̩ ˈʔanhalt] ^ⓘ; Low German: Sassen-Anholt) is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of 20,555 square kilometres (7,936 sq mi)^[7] and has a population of about 2.14 million inhabitants,^[2] making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area and the 11th-largest by population. Its capital is Magdeburg.^[8] Saxony-Anhalt – Wikipedia

Iconic Pacific Cafe in San Francisco age 52 retires to The Sweet Hereafter

SAN FRANCISCO – 34TH AVENUE and GEARY BLVD

Lee Heidhues 9.8.2026

UPDATED

**A sad scene..the boarded up Pacific Cafe – 9.8.2026**

The blogger was in nearby Andronicos Tuesday afternoon September 1st. The clerk told him Pacific Cafe employees came in at 9PM Sunday evening. The restaurant had run out of fish on its final evening. There were still about 30 parties hoping to have one last meal.

The blogger took one last walk by Pacific Cafe on its final day.

The line of patrons waiting in the cool fog in a line stretching down 34th Avenue on a Sunday afternoon are drinking a glass of the traditional complimentary wine (or two) and waiting to be seated.

**The line of patrons waiting in the cool fog in a line stretching down 34th Avenue on a Sunday afternoon** – Photo Lee Heidhues

**Pacific Cafe diners have traveled to the iconic spot on the last day in typical San Francisco fashion** – Photo Lee Heidhues

It takes a lot of Courage to maintain a successful small business in San Francisco for 52 years.

San Francisco is losing one of its genuine landmark restaurants.

The owners deserve their well earned retirement.

After 52 years serving customers in the outer Richmond District of San Francisco Pacific Cafe will close its doors for the last time on August 30th.

We have dined at this restaurant many times. It’s a sad occasion and a loss for San Francisco.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 8.28.2026

In recent weeks, customers have lined up for hours, even longer than the usual wait, for a table at Pacific Café in San Francisco, hoping for one last bite of crab-stuffed petrale sole and a final complimentary pour of wine before the Richmond District mainstay closed.

Co-owners Frank Gundry and Ross Warren recently announced that Sunday, Aug. 30, will be their last day of service, after putting the restaurant up for sale for $195,000 this spring so they can retire. At least one potential buyer is interested in preserving the business as Pacific Café, said Gundry, who started as a waiter soon after it opened in 1974 and became co-owner in 2014. But Gundry, 78, and Warren, 80, aren’t willing to wait for negotiations to go through to retire — nor are longtime staff members, host Roy Manabat, 80, and cooks Jian Huang and Roger Li, who are both in their late 60s, Gundry said. Without a buyer in place, the future of the restaurant as regulars know it remains unclear.

“We’ve been so busy and swamped you hardly have time to get your bearings,” Gundry said. “We didn’t realize how popular we were.”