Israel flattened Beirut in 1982. No Hamas. No Hezbollah. No October 7 to point to then. Just 17,000 dead Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Even US president then Ronald Reagan, who armed Israel, called Begin furious after seeing a photo of a 7-month-old baby with its arms blown off and said “It is a holocaust”. They killed so many innocent people that the survivors had no choice but to pick up weapons. Then Israel had the audacity to keep using “Self-Defense” excuse every decade. Israel didn’t stumble into endless war. Israel built it. Brick by brick. Own it.

Voters beware: Marylanders deserve to know just two groups are spending $7.6 MILLION in the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District to support ONE candidate. With early voting underway, here’s what you need to know:

🇺🇸 🇵🇸 Sama Safi, a 20-year-old American citizen and honors psychology student at Birzeit University, remains in Israeli detention after soldiers seized her from her family’s home near Ramallah at 3 a.m. on June 2, with lawmakers warning her life is at risk. Safi, whose family lives in Florida, was taken without charge and transferred to Ofer prison, then to the Moscovia interrogation center in Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. Her family says she has a chronic condition that causes fevers up to 105°F and requires daily medication and a quarterly injection she travels abroad to receive. She was one of five Palestinian women detained that week, including two members of the Palestinian women’s national football team. The Israeli military said the women were suspected of “promoting terrorist activities.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Sen. Chris Van Hollen have both demanded her release. “I am really sick and tired of the Israeli government taking American taxpayer dollars and then mistreating Americans,” Van Hollen said. Israel has not told her family or the U.S. embassy where she is being held. Rep. Tlaib said, “Her life is at risk—our government must free her now!”

Sea Campion near Kilcrohane today. ⁦@BSBIbotany⁩ #wildflowerhour

It was Rogation-tide, when the land was blessed and the ancient bounds of the parish were beaten, every gospel oak and half-forgotten brook and fielden edge remembered and passed down the generations. On the Monday, at sun-rise, a long procession left the Vicarage, led by the Rev'd Lion, Old Fox and the Dragon of Kensington Church Street, who was visiting from London for a long weekend. It was a very colourful and purposeful cavalcade: there were brightly-embroidered banners representing various parochial saints and the crops and goods of the village – barley, wheat, flax, fish, sail-cloth, apples, watercress, honey. In the mid-flow were rows of mice from Watercress lane itself carrying their willow poles decked with flowers – languid garden roses and delicate briar, wild mustard and oxeye daisies, milkwort as blue as the sky, red and yellow Tom Thumb's from high on the lark-haunted barrows, and the very last of the May blossom and the very first of the elder.

Nature's effervescence.

A colourful clump of harebells seen along the #WhiteCliffs Saxon Shore Way footpath.. @wildflower_hour #wildflowerhour #coastalplants

Happy new week. Smelling it before I saw it, I'm welcoming in Monday with this fragrant Philadelphus. Growing wild in the country park 🤍 #GardeningX #SummerFlowers

#June by Eugene Grasset, for La Belle Jardinerie, #artnouveau calendar, 1896. #June1st #1stJune #FolkloreSunday #MythologyMonday

The Man Orchid site was also home to seas of Ox-eye Daisy, a truly stunning visual spectacle that just makes you want to stand and stare... #KentOxEyes #wildflowerhour

Just metres away from the bustling town regatta, I found a wildlife haven at All Saints Church, Marlow @ThamesPathNT Bees, butterflies and damselflies were enjoying the flowers, and I enjoyed the peace. #ChurchyardFlowers #wildflowerhour

Sea Kale among the Dog Daisies for #WildflowerHour

For today’s reflection — like a fragment of blue torn from the sky, quickening beneath storm clouds. My first glimpse this year of an uncommonly beautiful Common Blue butterfly. #WildFlowerHour #CommonBlue #ButterfliesOfBritain #BirdsFootTrefoil #NoticingNature

Yellow Corydalis #wildflowerhour #churchyardflowers 🍃

Ox-eye daisies and field bindweed in the churchyard of St Michael's, Weston under Wetherley #wildflowerhour #churchyardflowers

It was the most perfect June day, the skies as blue as sea-glass & a sweet, brisk breeze from the south. Heaven-lent weather, Wolf called it & it had lifted his spirits enough for him to come down to the gardens & lie amongst the tangled roses & the fennel & the daisies.

Thrilling visit last Sunday to @gloswildlife's Badgeworth reserve with @TimOsbo44735565 to see the critically endangered Adder's-tongue Spearwort, Ranunculus ophioglossifolius. An impressive display this year due to ideal conditions. #WildflowerHour @BSBIbotany @wildflower_hour

How did we lose Matthew Perry to ketamine but not this guy?

Dappled Light. 15°C with a mix of sun and showers. Barley ripening.

The United States is showing you why no economy should ever prioritize capital over living beings or the ecosystem.