https://www.newsweek.com/seattle-pro-palestinian-protest-tries-block-israeli-owned-cargo-ship-1602070?piano_t=1

Seattle police arrested 10 people on Thursday after a group of pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to block the unloading of a cargo ship owned by an Israeli company. The incident comes amid renewed Mideast hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians.

The protest, organized by Palestinian feminist collective Falastiniyat, took place after a cargo ship owned by Israeli company ZIM docked at the Port of Seattle. Activists said the vessel was initially scheduled to unload its cargo in Seattle on June 2.

KUOW reported the union representing dockworkers said it supported the protesters' first amendment rights in a statement.

Fred Felleman, president of the Port Commission, told KUOW he disagreed with the protest, adding ZIM is "a public entity on the stock market."

"To target a shipping company is not targeting the cause of the problem," he said. "The impact is not on world politics, but on the working-class waterfront."

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant was among the protesters, tweeting: "Unions & the labor movement courageously blocking corporate profits will be crucial."

The Seattle demonstration is part of Block The Boat, a series of port-based protests led by the California-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). AROC said Block The Boat operates under the Boycott Divest Sanctions (BDS) movement.

https://mondoweiss.net/2021/06/seattle-teachers-union-endorses-bds-demands-end-to-police-partnership-with-israel/

The Seattle Education Association (SEA) has passed a resolution expressing solidarity with Palestine and endorsing the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement (BDS). The resolution also demands an end to collaboration between the Seattle Police Department and Israeli military.

“The SEA leadership will use all the existing means of communication (email, Facebook, texts, and any other social media the union uses) to encourage all SEA members and community allies to learn about these issues and to encourage people in their communities to stand in solidarity with unions and oppressed people in Palestine,” declares the resolution.

“As a Jewish Educator, I am proud to be a member of SEA,” Seattle educator and union member Emma Klein told Mondoweiss in a statement. “Our Representative Assembly took a bold, vocal stand against injustice from Seattle to Palestine and called attention to the inexcusable relationship between Seattle Police and Israeli military and police.

>>13931945

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/06/ukraine-arrests-ransomware-gang-in-global-cybercriminal-crackdown/

As part of its Cl0P takedown, the Ukrainian police on Wednesday said that it had conducted 21 searches in the Kyiv region of homes and cars of those arrested, seizing computer equipment, 5 million Ukrainian hryvnias (around $185,000), and property. Video footage shared by the police showed officers raiding homes in what appeared to be wealthy neighborhoods, and towing luxury cars including Teslas.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/18/white-house-ukraine-military-lethal-weapons-495169

White House freezes Ukraine military package that includes lethal weapons

Officials prepped $100 million worth of arms as Russia massed troops on the border, then pulled the plug as the Biden-Putin summit approached.

One of the sources said the package is still intact, and could be sent to Ukraine quickly. The Washington Post first reported that the administration considered and has now frozen the package. The fact that National Security Council officials froze the aid and the specific weapons discussed for inclusion in the aid package have not been previously reported.

he Pentagon has approved two aid packages to Ukraine this year alone, totaling $275 million. The first, in March, added two more armed Mark VI patrol boats to the Ukrainian fleet, part of a larger, $600 million deal for 16 of the boats signed in 2020.

The package included 32 Seahawk A2 gun systems and dozens of 30mm cannons for the shallow-water boats, which gives them offensive power.

In June, another $150 million congressionally mandated package was approved. It does not appear to include any lethal aid, but instead will ship several radar systems designed to track incoming artillery rounds and drones, which have played a large role in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine over the past several years.