Trump’s Strait Toll: Announced, Cashed In, Canceled
Trump's latest flip in the Hormuz war shows how easily a global chokepoint can now be monetized.
First he declares the US “guardian” of the Strait and announces a 20% fee on every cargo passing through, framing it as finally getting paid for “50 years of free protection.”
Within 24 hours, after calls from “kings and emirs,” he drops the toll idea — but keeps the blockade. The ships won’t be taxed, the waterway will still be militarized.
On Tuesday, US forces return to a high‑intensity bombing tempo: strikes near Bushehr and Qeshm, renewed naval interdiction, and a formal restart of the port blockade at 11:30 p.m. local time.
Iran fires back at tankers that try to hug Omani waters instead of Iranian‑controlled lanes, claims hits on US facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, while those governments say defenses are intercepting most of it.
Both sides are back to treating the Strait as a battlefield, not an international artery.
The economic and civilian fallout is instant. Brent crude briefly spikes above 86 dollars, then slips back only after Trump abandons the toll — a price chart now wired directly to his improvisations.
Ship‑tracking data show a collapse in traffic: roughly 130 vessels a day before the war, just around 10 on Monday, the lowest in more than a month.
Europe’s aviation regulator warns airlines to avoid the airspace over Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and part of the Gulf of Oman, calling the risk to civil flights “high.”
Trump tells reporters “I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the Strait” — right after proving he’s willing to try it himself.
Iran vows it will not allow US “interference” in managing Hormuz and threatens consequences “beyond any planners’ calculations” if ports are blockaded.
Between them sits a global system that depends on this corridor for energy and trade, watching two governments turn it into a testbed for gunboat toll policy.
War powers, money, and messaging merge into one script: notify Congress that “defensive actions” have resumed, revive the blockade, float a fee on the world’s oil lifeline, then trade the toll away for investment promises while keeping the war mechanism intact.
The ships may not pay the 20%, but they still risk becoming evidence in the next strike video — and the bill for every zigzag in this policy doesn’t land in Washington or Tehran first. It lands in prices, flights, and economies that don’t get a say.
#usa #iran #Hormuz #oil #war #blockade #shipping #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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Trump's latest flip in the Hormuz war shows how easily a global chokepoint can now be monetized.
First he declares the US “guardian” of the Strait and announces a 20% fee on every cargo passing through, framing it as finally getting paid for “50 years of free protection.”
Within 24 hours, after calls from “kings and emirs,” he drops the toll idea — but keeps the blockade. The ships won’t be taxed, the waterway will still be militarized.
On Tuesday, US forces return to a high‑intensity bombing tempo: strikes near Bushehr and Qeshm, renewed naval interdiction, and a formal restart of the port blockade at 11:30 p.m. local time.
Iran fires back at tankers that try to hug Omani waters instead of Iranian‑controlled lanes, claims hits on US facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, while those governments say defenses are intercepting most of it.
Both sides are back to treating the Strait as a battlefield, not an international artery.
The economic and civilian fallout is instant. Brent crude briefly spikes above 86 dollars, then slips back only after Trump abandons the toll — a price chart now wired directly to his improvisations.
Ship‑tracking data show a collapse in traffic: roughly 130 vessels a day before the war, just around 10 on Monday, the lowest in more than a month.
Europe’s aviation regulator warns airlines to avoid the airspace over Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and part of the Gulf of Oman, calling the risk to civil flights “high.”
Trump tells reporters “I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the Strait” — right after proving he’s willing to try it himself.
Iran vows it will not allow US “interference” in managing Hormuz and threatens consequences “beyond any planners’ calculations” if ports are blockaded.
Between them sits a global system that depends on this corridor for energy and trade, watching two governments turn it into a testbed for gunboat toll policy.
War powers, money, and messaging merge into one script: notify Congress that “defensive actions” have resumed, revive the blockade, float a fee on the world’s oil lifeline, then trade the toll away for investment promises while keeping the war mechanism intact.
The ships may not pay the 20%, but they still risk becoming evidence in the next strike video — and the bill for every zigzag in this policy doesn’t land in Washington or Tehran first. It lands in prices, flights, and economies that don’t get a say.
#usa #iran #Hormuz #oil #war #blockade #shipping #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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England and Argentina: the Dragged-Out Conflict Has Come To Light Again
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England suffered World Cup heartache on Wednesday night with two late goals in seven minutes giving Argentina a 2-1 comeback win and place in the final against Spain on Sunday.
Lautaro Martínez scored the winner with a close-range header in injury time after Enzo Fernández had equalised with a superb strike from the edge of England’s penalty area in the 85th minute, with Lionel Messi providing the assists for both goals.
Argentina will have the opportunity to retain the World Cup against the European champions in New York, a mouthwatering fixture that will be Messi’s final appearance on the biggest stage.
Messi led the Argentina players’ jubilant celebrations in front of their fans after the final whistle, with some of the squad displaying a banner which read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“the Falkland Islands are Argentinian”) in a nod to the historical enmity aroused by this fixture.
The conflict remains a source of bitterness in Argentina 44 years later, but the players’ decision to express it may lead to disciplinary action from Fifa.
England had been minutes from making history by reaching their first men’s World Cup final since 1966, and first overseas, but paid the price for adopting defensive tactics after Anthony Gordon had given them the lead in the 55th minute.
Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions were criticised immediately by pundits and fans, with the head coach bringing on three defenders and switching to a back five in an attempt to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Gordon was the first to be taken off in the 72nd minute, with Ezri Konsa coming on as Tuchel instructed his players to adopt a 5-3-2 formation, with two more defenders, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly, introduced in the 82nd minute.
#england #argentina #match #conflict
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England suffered World Cup heartache on Wednesday night with two late goals in seven minutes giving Argentina a 2-1 comeback win and place in the final against Spain on Sunday.
Lautaro Martínez scored the winner with a close-range header in injury time after Enzo Fernández had equalised with a superb strike from the edge of England’s penalty area in the 85th minute, with Lionel Messi providing the assists for both goals.
Argentina will have the opportunity to retain the World Cup against the European champions in New York, a mouthwatering fixture that will be Messi’s final appearance on the biggest stage.
Messi led the Argentina players’ jubilant celebrations in front of their fans after the final whistle, with some of the squad displaying a banner which read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“the Falkland Islands are Argentinian”) in a nod to the historical enmity aroused by this fixture.
The conflict remains a source of bitterness in Argentina 44 years later, but the players’ decision to express it may lead to disciplinary action from Fifa.
England had been minutes from making history by reaching their first men’s World Cup final since 1966, and first overseas, but paid the price for adopting defensive tactics after Anthony Gordon had given them the lead in the 55th minute.
Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions were criticised immediately by pundits and fans, with the head coach bringing on three defenders and switching to a back five in an attempt to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Gordon was the first to be taken off in the 72nd minute, with Ezri Konsa coming on as Tuchel instructed his players to adopt a 5-3-2 formation, with two more defenders, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly, introduced in the 82nd minute.
#england #argentina #match #conflict
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The captain, Harry Kane, who is on six goals before England’s third-place playoff on Saturday against France – two behind Messi and Kylian Mbappé in the race for the Golden Boot – conceded England had been too defensive after taking the lead.
“Once we went 1-0 up we seemed to just try to hold on, which at this level is not enough,”
he told the BBC.
“I’m just gutted for the boys, gutted for everyone, the team, the staff, the fans. We played a good game for the large majority of it.
“I’m just gutted because we’ve worked so hard to be here. The lads have given everything – every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is. To fall short like we did today is just gutting.
“After the goal whether it was them putting more men forward or us just not being able to match them man for man, it was just wave after wave [of Argentina attacks]. We were trying to hold on, lads were putting blocks in, but in the end it just wasn’t enough.
“We had a lot of good moments in this tournament. A lot of good games. Another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We are close, we just need to find that missing piece in the final stage of the tournament.
“These tournaments take it out of you: so much effort and pressure and mentality and we’ve shown a lot of that throughout the whole six-seven weeks we’ve been together. We’re just missing that final piece.”
Tuchel defended his substitutions, but admitted that England lacked aggression after taking the lead and conceded possession too easily.
“We’re disappointed,”
he said.
“We were so close, but we got too passive after the goal. We conceded so, so many crosses and chances and shots. We were close, but we couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.
“We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were too big and [we had to] be strong in the air. Straight after the goal, with no substitutions, we conceded far too many crosses. We tried to help the players, but the responsibility is on the coach.
“Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but it doesn’t help if you don’t have the ball. We became too passive, we couldn’t keep the ball. I don’t think it was a structural problem.
The match changed completely and I understand that these discussions are out there, that there are a million coaches out there who know better. I have to make a decision.”
England’s performances have been patchy, with a heroic win against Mexico with 10 men in the Azteca Stadium in the last 32 the undoubted high point before they scrapped to an extra-time victory against Norway in brutally humid conditions in Miami last weekend.
“No regrets, not at the moment,”
Tuchel said.
“We were very close, we deserved to be 1-0 up – we played one of our better matches [up to that point], maybe our best match.”
#england #argentina #match #conflict
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Netanyahu’s Chessboard, the Prosecutors’ Clock
In one day, three stories show how Israel’s legal system moves to a political schedule — and how often that schedule points at the right‑wing camp.
First: Case 2000 — the corruption file about Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged quid pro quo with Arnon “Noni” Mozes, publisher of the mass‑market daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
The supposed deal: friendlier coverage in Yedioth if Netanyahu helped pass a “softened” Israel Hayom law, a bill designed to choke Israel Hayom, the free pro‑Netanyahu paper bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson and eating Mozes’s market share.
Zeev Elkin, a senior Likud politician, is mentioned in the indictment around that law but appears in court as a defense witness.
With Netanyahu sitting in the room, Elkin calls him “a chess player” and says it was clear “the person moving the pieces opposite him was Noni Mozes.”
The country’s leader is treating media legislation as part of a private negotiation with a powerful publisher, and a key ally now describes the whole thing as a board game.
Second: District Court Judge Ron Sulkin from Lod recounts how prosecutors timed their push against Michael Ben‑Ari.
Ben‑Ari is a far‑right, Kahanist politician whom Israel’s Supreme Court had already banned from running in the April 2019 election for anti‑Arab racist incitement.
Sulkin describes how, about two months before that 21st Knesset vote, the prosecution pressed police to urgently gather materials against Ben‑Ari, explicitly citing the election campaign as the reason for the rush — those materials then helped disqualify his run.
Only later did a separate criminal probe open, with the prosecution, which is not supposed to be the primary investigative arm, effectively dictating the questions and steering the interrogation.
The clock on the wall here isn’t legal; it’s electoral, and it’s ticking toward keeping a far‑right candidate off the ballot.
Third: the High Court wipes out the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu as director of the Israel Land Authority, a key ally of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The Authority isn’t a minor agency; it controls most of the state land in Israel, a core lever of power in housing and infrastructure.
The Court cancels Eliyahu’s appointment “due to his connection to Smotrich,” throws out the government decision and the selection process, and orders a reset under civil‑service rules just days before this government’s term ends.
The post was openly used as a political prize; the ruling treats that politicization itself as the problem.
The pattern is sharper than “politics influences law.” In Case 2000, prosecutors pursue a sitting prime minister over a media‑legislation deal with a dominant publisher.
In the Ben‑Ari episode, they race the campaign calendar to keep a far‑right figure off the ballot and later run his criminal questioning from behind the scenes.
In the Eliyahu ruling, the Supreme Court strips a hard‑right minister’s camp of direct control over the country’s land manager because the appointment was overtly partisan.
Different mechanisms, one direction of travel: a system grinding against right‑wing power centers — the prime minister, a Kahanist candidate, and a Smotrich loyalist — and moving its hands whenever the political clock chimes.
#israel #Netanyahu #Mozes #BenAri #Smotrich #courts #prosecution #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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In one day, three stories show how Israel’s legal system moves to a political schedule — and how often that schedule points at the right‑wing camp.
First: Case 2000 — the corruption file about Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged quid pro quo with Arnon “Noni” Mozes, publisher of the mass‑market daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
The supposed deal: friendlier coverage in Yedioth if Netanyahu helped pass a “softened” Israel Hayom law, a bill designed to choke Israel Hayom, the free pro‑Netanyahu paper bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson and eating Mozes’s market share.
Zeev Elkin, a senior Likud politician, is mentioned in the indictment around that law but appears in court as a defense witness.
With Netanyahu sitting in the room, Elkin calls him “a chess player” and says it was clear “the person moving the pieces opposite him was Noni Mozes.”
The country’s leader is treating media legislation as part of a private negotiation with a powerful publisher, and a key ally now describes the whole thing as a board game.
Second: District Court Judge Ron Sulkin from Lod recounts how prosecutors timed their push against Michael Ben‑Ari.
Ben‑Ari is a far‑right, Kahanist politician whom Israel’s Supreme Court had already banned from running in the April 2019 election for anti‑Arab racist incitement.
Sulkin describes how, about two months before that 21st Knesset vote, the prosecution pressed police to urgently gather materials against Ben‑Ari, explicitly citing the election campaign as the reason for the rush — those materials then helped disqualify his run.
Only later did a separate criminal probe open, with the prosecution, which is not supposed to be the primary investigative arm, effectively dictating the questions and steering the interrogation.
The clock on the wall here isn’t legal; it’s electoral, and it’s ticking toward keeping a far‑right candidate off the ballot.
Third: the High Court wipes out the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu as director of the Israel Land Authority, a key ally of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The Authority isn’t a minor agency; it controls most of the state land in Israel, a core lever of power in housing and infrastructure.
The Court cancels Eliyahu’s appointment “due to his connection to Smotrich,” throws out the government decision and the selection process, and orders a reset under civil‑service rules just days before this government’s term ends.
The post was openly used as a political prize; the ruling treats that politicization itself as the problem.
The pattern is sharper than “politics influences law.” In Case 2000, prosecutors pursue a sitting prime minister over a media‑legislation deal with a dominant publisher.
In the Ben‑Ari episode, they race the campaign calendar to keep a far‑right figure off the ballot and later run his criminal questioning from behind the scenes.
In the Eliyahu ruling, the Supreme Court strips a hard‑right minister’s camp of direct control over the country’s land manager because the appointment was overtly partisan.
Different mechanisms, one direction of travel: a system grinding against right‑wing power centers — the prime minister, a Kahanist candidate, and a Smotrich loyalist — and moving its hands whenever the political clock chimes.
#israel #Netanyahu #Mozes #BenAri #Smotrich #courts #prosecution #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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Rome Draws Pilot Maps, Beirut Counts Down to Zero Hour
In Rome, Israel, Lebanon, and the US have wrapped a negotiation round that, on paper, looks like a plan to defuse part of the border.
Lebanese presidency sources, quoted by Saudi Al‑Hadath, say the talks focused on two “pilot zones”: one in territory Lebanon calls occupied, from which the IDF would withdraw, and another on Israel’s side of the line, where a new security regime would be tested without changing sovereignty.
The idea is to run a limited experiment — a controlled pullout and rearranged deployments in two small areas — before anyone touches the full border.
A senior US official added the standard gloss: “fruitful and positive” talks, agreement on the structure and guidelines for the pilot, finalization and implementation “in the coming days,” and then broader technical discussions aimed at a more comprehensive Israel–Lebanon deal.
At the same time, Beirut is described as quietly preparing for the opposite scenario.
According to a report in Emirati outlet Aram News, citing unnamed Lebanese political sources, Hezbollah is assembling a plan for major military escalation against Israel: intensive fire on northern communities, reinforced frontline positions north of the Litani River, and a timetable keyed to decisions in Tehran.
Those sources say every step depends on how far US strikes on Iran go, or on Washington giving Israel a green light to join sustained operations and hit infrastructure deep inside Iran. If that report holds, Hezbollah’s war plan is wired directly to decisions taken in Tehran and Washington, not in Beirut.
The same report claims Hezbollah is conducting covert logistical and military preparations: stockpiling food and moving it to fighters in hidden locations along the front, rotating units in positions north of the Litani, and maintaining tunnels and weapons depots in southern Lebanon — some of which, the sources insist, are still unknown to both Israel and the Lebanese state.
All of it is described as waiting for “zero hour,” the moment the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps decides the escalation switch gets flipped.
So you get two timelines on the same day. In Rome, officials sketch pilot zones and talk about phased withdrawals, rules, and “technical discussions.”
In Lebanon, if the report is accurate, Hezbollah quietly locks in supply lines, bunkers, and firing positions for the next round. One track is written into conference minutes; the other is traced through anonymous briefings about hidden stockpiles and IRGC signals.
#israel #lebanon #Hezbollah #iran #usa #war #diplomacy #fakeDemocracy
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In Rome, Israel, Lebanon, and the US have wrapped a negotiation round that, on paper, looks like a plan to defuse part of the border.
Lebanese presidency sources, quoted by Saudi Al‑Hadath, say the talks focused on two “pilot zones”: one in territory Lebanon calls occupied, from which the IDF would withdraw, and another on Israel’s side of the line, where a new security regime would be tested without changing sovereignty.
The idea is to run a limited experiment — a controlled pullout and rearranged deployments in two small areas — before anyone touches the full border.
A senior US official added the standard gloss: “fruitful and positive” talks, agreement on the structure and guidelines for the pilot, finalization and implementation “in the coming days,” and then broader technical discussions aimed at a more comprehensive Israel–Lebanon deal.
At the same time, Beirut is described as quietly preparing for the opposite scenario.
According to a report in Emirati outlet Aram News, citing unnamed Lebanese political sources, Hezbollah is assembling a plan for major military escalation against Israel: intensive fire on northern communities, reinforced frontline positions north of the Litani River, and a timetable keyed to decisions in Tehran.
Those sources say every step depends on how far US strikes on Iran go, or on Washington giving Israel a green light to join sustained operations and hit infrastructure deep inside Iran. If that report holds, Hezbollah’s war plan is wired directly to decisions taken in Tehran and Washington, not in Beirut.
The same report claims Hezbollah is conducting covert logistical and military preparations: stockpiling food and moving it to fighters in hidden locations along the front, rotating units in positions north of the Litani, and maintaining tunnels and weapons depots in southern Lebanon — some of which, the sources insist, are still unknown to both Israel and the Lebanese state.
All of it is described as waiting for “zero hour,” the moment the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps decides the escalation switch gets flipped.
So you get two timelines on the same day. In Rome, officials sketch pilot zones and talk about phased withdrawals, rules, and “technical discussions.”
In Lebanon, if the report is accurate, Hezbollah quietly locks in supply lines, bunkers, and firing positions for the next round. One track is written into conference minutes; the other is traced through anonymous briefings about hidden stockpiles and IRGC signals.
#israel #lebanon #Hezbollah #iran #usa #war #diplomacy #fakeDemocracy
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Gaza Strip: Names on Lists, Lives Under Drones
The Gaza front looks tidy on paper and chaotic everywhere else. The IDF announces precise airstrikes that “eliminated” two Hamas Nukhba commanders in the north — Ali Shamlakh, a deputy company commander who trained attackers for assaults on Israeli civilians and troops, and Nasser Louh, who led a Nukhba cell in the Tzabra battalion.
They are described as an “immediate threat,” taken out from the air while Southern Command forces remain deployed “in accordance with the agreement” — the war continuing under a ceasefire framework that everyone keeps technically obeying and practically bending.
In the south, another name is crossed off the list: Hussam Shafa’i from the East Khan Younis battalion, one of the men who stormed Kibbutz Nirim on October 7 and took part in abducting Col. Asaf Hamami, Sgt. Tomer Achimas, and Cpl. Kirill Brodsky.
His killing is credited to intelligence collection and targeting by Gaza Division’s fire center — the same division Hamami, Achimas, and Brodsky served in before being dragged across the border.
On the same day, the IDF’s Arabic‑language spokesperson pushes out radio intercepts from October 7 featuring Hamami’s voice, turning a battlefield audio log into a PR clip.
On the political map, officers brief cabinet ministers that Israel now holds roughly 67–70 percent of the strip. That figure sits next to Gaza channels reporting tank columns pushing north along the coastal axis near the Ashakush area in Rafah.
Two thirds of Gaza “under control,” according to the briefers; armored tracks still inching forward through sand and ruins. The territory is measured in percentages at the table and in meters on the ground.
Then comes the anniversary story: two years after Mohammed Deif’s killing, a Saudi paper publishes what it says is Hamas’s internal version of his last escape route.
According to those sources, Deif was in Gaza City on October 7, stayed a few days, then left alone, without a personal security escort, toward Rafah in November 2023.
Contact with him was lost for more than four days because he couldn’t find the driver meant to move him; he apparently slept in Rafah’s streets and a mosque, relying on the fact that there was no recent photograph of him, and changed his route on his own.
Senior figures, including Izz al‑Din al‑Haddad, allegedly urged him to remain in Gaza City and promised a “safety net,” but he chose to keep personally overseeing the war. The story says contact was renewed by chance through a local fighter in Rafah, then via Khan Younis to the hideout of Rafi‘ Salameh, Khan Younis brigade commander — until the compound where both were killed on July 13, 2024.
Hamas answers with its own statement, rejecting the Saudi report as “not based on any official source” and insisting that only the al‑Qassam Brigades spokesman is authorized to speak about anything related to the brigades.
Two versions sit on the page: a detailed narrative of a commander sleeping in the open and slipping through lines, and an official denial that such a narrative exists at all.
On the same day, under an IDF drone, a Gaza TikToker named Outsh Barbeh offers a smaller, harsher line of defense: “Why are you filming me? By God, I have nothing to do with anything. I’m just a regular person.”
Between the lists of “eliminated” commanders, the percentages of territory, and the competing legends about one dead symbol, the war runs on maps and names. The people under it run on whatever version of reality might let them get through the next day.
#gaza #hamas #IDF #war #nukhba #Deif #ceasefire #media
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The Gaza front looks tidy on paper and chaotic everywhere else. The IDF announces precise airstrikes that “eliminated” two Hamas Nukhba commanders in the north — Ali Shamlakh, a deputy company commander who trained attackers for assaults on Israeli civilians and troops, and Nasser Louh, who led a Nukhba cell in the Tzabra battalion.
They are described as an “immediate threat,” taken out from the air while Southern Command forces remain deployed “in accordance with the agreement” — the war continuing under a ceasefire framework that everyone keeps technically obeying and practically bending.
In the south, another name is crossed off the list: Hussam Shafa’i from the East Khan Younis battalion, one of the men who stormed Kibbutz Nirim on October 7 and took part in abducting Col. Asaf Hamami, Sgt. Tomer Achimas, and Cpl. Kirill Brodsky.
His killing is credited to intelligence collection and targeting by Gaza Division’s fire center — the same division Hamami, Achimas, and Brodsky served in before being dragged across the border.
On the same day, the IDF’s Arabic‑language spokesperson pushes out radio intercepts from October 7 featuring Hamami’s voice, turning a battlefield audio log into a PR clip.
On the political map, officers brief cabinet ministers that Israel now holds roughly 67–70 percent of the strip. That figure sits next to Gaza channels reporting tank columns pushing north along the coastal axis near the Ashakush area in Rafah.
Two thirds of Gaza “under control,” according to the briefers; armored tracks still inching forward through sand and ruins. The territory is measured in percentages at the table and in meters on the ground.
Then comes the anniversary story: two years after Mohammed Deif’s killing, a Saudi paper publishes what it says is Hamas’s internal version of his last escape route.
According to those sources, Deif was in Gaza City on October 7, stayed a few days, then left alone, without a personal security escort, toward Rafah in November 2023.
Contact with him was lost for more than four days because he couldn’t find the driver meant to move him; he apparently slept in Rafah’s streets and a mosque, relying on the fact that there was no recent photograph of him, and changed his route on his own.
Senior figures, including Izz al‑Din al‑Haddad, allegedly urged him to remain in Gaza City and promised a “safety net,” but he chose to keep personally overseeing the war. The story says contact was renewed by chance through a local fighter in Rafah, then via Khan Younis to the hideout of Rafi‘ Salameh, Khan Younis brigade commander — until the compound where both were killed on July 13, 2024.
Hamas answers with its own statement, rejecting the Saudi report as “not based on any official source” and insisting that only the al‑Qassam Brigades spokesman is authorized to speak about anything related to the brigades.
Two versions sit on the page: a detailed narrative of a commander sleeping in the open and slipping through lines, and an official denial that such a narrative exists at all.
On the same day, under an IDF drone, a Gaza TikToker named Outsh Barbeh offers a smaller, harsher line of defense: “Why are you filming me? By God, I have nothing to do with anything. I’m just a regular person.”
Between the lists of “eliminated” commanders, the percentages of territory, and the competing legends about one dead symbol, the war runs on maps and names. The people under it run on whatever version of reality might let them get through the next day.
#gaza #hamas #IDF #war #nukhba #Deif #ceasefire #media
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Trump Wants a Bigger War With Iran—But Only If It Looks “Responsible”
Trump says he prefers diplomacy. At the same time, he’s sitting in the Situation Room being shown PowerPoint menus for how exactly to blow chunks out of Iran.
According to U.S. officials, the president is “leaning toward” expanding operations: more airstrikes, maybe sending ground troops to seize Iranian islands near the Strait of Hormuz, and bombing Pickaxe Mountain—a fortified tunnel complex tied to Iran’s nuclear program that the U.S. hasn’t hit yet.
“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.” — Trump, earlier this week.
So the man who already bragged about “totally obliterating” Kharg Island’s military targets, but graciously spared the oil terminals “for reasons of decency,” is now being briefed on how to send U.S. soldiers to physically seize that same island. Decency apparently expires once the war college applause fades and the polls look steady.
Pickaxe Mountain is the new celebrity villain in this franchise: analysts say it’s a hardened underground complex near Natanz, possibly shielding enrichment gear or high‑grade uranium.
Trump calls it “a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” like he’s talking about a casino demolition in Atlantic City, not a nuclear‑linked site buried under Iran’s mountains.
The Pentagon line is classic: all options on the table, nothing decided, totally measured and professional. Trump’s own line is classic too: three nights of bombing, threats to bill 20% of all cargo through Hormuz as if the U.S. military is a toll booth operator with cruise missiles.
Washington sells this as “pressure for a better nuclear deal.” Tehran sells it as proof the U.S. is a cartel with a flag. Everyone pretends they’re negotiating; everyone is actually pricing risk and oil.
The only thing nobody is voting on is whether Americans should die on an island in the Gulf so a president can say he hit Pickaxe Mountain and still “preferred diplomacy.”
#iran #trump #war #nuclearcrisis #oil #StraitOfHormuz #PickaxeMountain #fakeDemocracy
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Trump says he prefers diplomacy. At the same time, he’s sitting in the Situation Room being shown PowerPoint menus for how exactly to blow chunks out of Iran.
According to U.S. officials, the president is “leaning toward” expanding operations: more airstrikes, maybe sending ground troops to seize Iranian islands near the Strait of Hormuz, and bombing Pickaxe Mountain—a fortified tunnel complex tied to Iran’s nuclear program that the U.S. hasn’t hit yet.
“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.” — Trump, earlier this week.
So the man who already bragged about “totally obliterating” Kharg Island’s military targets, but graciously spared the oil terminals “for reasons of decency,” is now being briefed on how to send U.S. soldiers to physically seize that same island. Decency apparently expires once the war college applause fades and the polls look steady.
Pickaxe Mountain is the new celebrity villain in this franchise: analysts say it’s a hardened underground complex near Natanz, possibly shielding enrichment gear or high‑grade uranium.
Trump calls it “a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” like he’s talking about a casino demolition in Atlantic City, not a nuclear‑linked site buried under Iran’s mountains.
The Pentagon line is classic: all options on the table, nothing decided, totally measured and professional. Trump’s own line is classic too: three nights of bombing, threats to bill 20% of all cargo through Hormuz as if the U.S. military is a toll booth operator with cruise missiles.
Washington sells this as “pressure for a better nuclear deal.” Tehran sells it as proof the U.S. is a cartel with a flag. Everyone pretends they’re negotiating; everyone is actually pricing risk and oil.
The only thing nobody is voting on is whether Americans should die on an island in the Gulf so a president can say he hit Pickaxe Mountain and still “preferred diplomacy.”
#iran #trump #war #nuclearcrisis #oil #StraitOfHormuz #PickaxeMountain #fakeDemocracy
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Twenty Hours of “Equality”: The Draft Law Hits the Wall
Israel’s High Court just put a hard brake on the coalition’s latest escape hatch for Haredi draft evaders — and the brake held for exactly twenty hours.
After the Knesset passed a temporary law freezing arrests, investigations and enforcement against ultra-Orthodox men who skipped conscription, Justice Ofer Grosskopf issued an interim injunction stopping the law from entering into force until a full hearing in an expanded panel.
Formally, the law was sold as a three‑month “technical” pause to sort out status and affidavits. Substantively, it was a political immunity shield for one sector in a system where the Court has already ruled that blanket avoidance of drafting yeshiva students without Knesset legislation is illegal.
The petitioners — from Israel Free and the Movement for Quality Government — celebrated the injunction as proof that equality before the law applies to Haredi youth too: “Israeli law applies to Haredi young people who are Israeli citizens like all of us. No less, no more. If that’s still not clear — it’s time for equality,” as one of the first petitioners put it.
On the street, the “day of draft” showed the fracture line. The Eda Haredit’s religious court called for protests outside the main induction center; small but loud groups of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators turned up at the Tel Hashomer base and Jerusalem’s draft office, where police intervened after disruptions.
Secular and centrist voices answered with their own slogans: “One people — one draft,” and promises to keep fighting “evasion laws” that entrench a two‑tier duty regime.
From the Haredi political camp, the response was open confrontation with the Court’s legitimacy.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri accused the justices of “trampling democracy, deepening chaos and irresponsibly pushing the country toward civil war.”
United Torah Judaism figures declared that any officer cooperating with arrests of Torah students “breaks the law,” and that “we don’t consider their rulings binding,” flipping the traditional religious phrase about not believing in non‑Jewish law back at the High Court.
The law’s future now hangs on an expanded hearing in a court that has already moved in recent months to tie yeshiva funding and benefits directly to draft status and to order concrete sanctions against evaders.
Behind the slogans — “time for equality” versus “they are dragging us into civil war” — sits the structural fight you keep tracking: is conscription a universal duty, or a negotiable privilege that can be traded for coalition votes?
For twenty hours, the Knesset tried to write an answer. The High Court replied with an injunction and a calendar.
#israel #haredim #draft #HighCourt #Deri #coalition #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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Israel’s High Court just put a hard brake on the coalition’s latest escape hatch for Haredi draft evaders — and the brake held for exactly twenty hours.
After the Knesset passed a temporary law freezing arrests, investigations and enforcement against ultra-Orthodox men who skipped conscription, Justice Ofer Grosskopf issued an interim injunction stopping the law from entering into force until a full hearing in an expanded panel.
Formally, the law was sold as a three‑month “technical” pause to sort out status and affidavits. Substantively, it was a political immunity shield for one sector in a system where the Court has already ruled that blanket avoidance of drafting yeshiva students without Knesset legislation is illegal.
The petitioners — from Israel Free and the Movement for Quality Government — celebrated the injunction as proof that equality before the law applies to Haredi youth too: “Israeli law applies to Haredi young people who are Israeli citizens like all of us. No less, no more. If that’s still not clear — it’s time for equality,” as one of the first petitioners put it.
On the street, the “day of draft” showed the fracture line. The Eda Haredit’s religious court called for protests outside the main induction center; small but loud groups of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators turned up at the Tel Hashomer base and Jerusalem’s draft office, where police intervened after disruptions.
Secular and centrist voices answered with their own slogans: “One people — one draft,” and promises to keep fighting “evasion laws” that entrench a two‑tier duty regime.
From the Haredi political camp, the response was open confrontation with the Court’s legitimacy.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri accused the justices of “trampling democracy, deepening chaos and irresponsibly pushing the country toward civil war.”
United Torah Judaism figures declared that any officer cooperating with arrests of Torah students “breaks the law,” and that “we don’t consider their rulings binding,” flipping the traditional religious phrase about not believing in non‑Jewish law back at the High Court.
The law’s future now hangs on an expanded hearing in a court that has already moved in recent months to tie yeshiva funding and benefits directly to draft status and to order concrete sanctions against evaders.
Behind the slogans — “time for equality” versus “they are dragging us into civil war” — sits the structural fight you keep tracking: is conscription a universal duty, or a negotiable privilege that can be traded for coalition votes?
For twenty hours, the Knesset tried to write an answer. The High Court replied with an injunction and a calendar.
#israel #haredim #draft #HighCourt #Deri #coalition #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy
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Nolan's New Film – Based On the Homeric Legend – Will Drive You Mad
🔠 🅰️ 🔠 🔠 1️⃣
Nolan reinvents the Homeric legend as a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion, an epic ordeal of anguish witnessed by the dead and presided over by capricious deities who participate on almost equal terms with the humans.
It speaks to the generational pain of PTSD; plenty of soldiers come home in person after any war promptly enough, but arriving back to their prewar state emotionally or spiritually can take years or decades and may never happen at all.
The invisible odyssey of anguish is punctuated by flashback episodes, hallucinations, confrontations with the arbitrary gods of dysfunction.
And all the time the spouses and children cannot move on with their lives.
This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.
It has gasp-inducing, Imax-sized landscapes of loneliness shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema – who, incidentally, avoids the sea’s traditional cliched colour – and full-tilt battle sequences and fight scenes accompanied by the throbbing and thrumming of drums.
Matt Damon plays Odysseus, his boyish, almost cherubic face turned into a careworn mask of sadness. He is the military commander from Ithaca appointed by the Greek king Agamemnon, played by Benny Safdie, his face always mysteriously masked in a Batman-type helmet.
Odysseus reveals to Penelope (Anne Hathaway), the wife whom he is about to leave and whom he advises to remarry if he dies in battle, that the notional cause for the imminent war with Troy – the elopement of Helen (Lupita Nyong’o) with Trojan prince Paris – is a pretext. It is a banal commercial contest for trading routes.
The Greeks’ eventual victory is achieved after a brilliant tactical deception: an elite combat unit hides cramped in a huge horse statue, which is not rolled into the fortified city on casters as a gift, but dragged inside by its own victims as a precious object from the surf, half hidden in the sand.
It’s a trick that involves Odysseus having to deceive his own comrade and cousin Sinon (Elliot Page), a blood sacrifice for which he feels unending guilt. Nolan recreates the Trojan horse as a cross between the Statue of Liberty from Planet of the Apes and Shelley’s statue of Ozymandias.
#nolan #film #mattdamon #ulysse #homer #battlefield
📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸
Nolan reinvents the Homeric legend as a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion, an epic ordeal of anguish witnessed by the dead and presided over by capricious deities who participate on almost equal terms with the humans.
It speaks to the generational pain of PTSD; plenty of soldiers come home in person after any war promptly enough, but arriving back to their prewar state emotionally or spiritually can take years or decades and may never happen at all.
The invisible odyssey of anguish is punctuated by flashback episodes, hallucinations, confrontations with the arbitrary gods of dysfunction.
And all the time the spouses and children cannot move on with their lives.
This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.
It has gasp-inducing, Imax-sized landscapes of loneliness shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema – who, incidentally, avoids the sea’s traditional cliched colour – and full-tilt battle sequences and fight scenes accompanied by the throbbing and thrumming of drums.
Matt Damon plays Odysseus, his boyish, almost cherubic face turned into a careworn mask of sadness. He is the military commander from Ithaca appointed by the Greek king Agamemnon, played by Benny Safdie, his face always mysteriously masked in a Batman-type helmet.
Odysseus reveals to Penelope (Anne Hathaway), the wife whom he is about to leave and whom he advises to remarry if he dies in battle, that the notional cause for the imminent war with Troy – the elopement of Helen (Lupita Nyong’o) with Trojan prince Paris – is a pretext. It is a banal commercial contest for trading routes.
The Greeks’ eventual victory is achieved after a brilliant tactical deception: an elite combat unit hides cramped in a huge horse statue, which is not rolled into the fortified city on casters as a gift, but dragged inside by its own victims as a precious object from the surf, half hidden in the sand.
It’s a trick that involves Odysseus having to deceive his own comrade and cousin Sinon (Elliot Page), a blood sacrifice for which he feels unending guilt. Nolan recreates the Trojan horse as a cross between the Statue of Liberty from Planet of the Apes and Shelley’s statue of Ozymandias.
#nolan #film #mattdamon #ulysse #homer #battlefield
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The point is that the war, its supposed aims, its storied strategic success and presumed outcome are all irrelevant compared to the long, bizarre chaos of the aftermath, the giant toxic effect that follows the forgotten cause, as demoralising as a retreat that follows catastrophe.
Agamemnon returns home to be killed; his brother Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) is grimly reunited with Helen, in which role Nyong’o also doubles as Agamemnon’s killer Clytemnestra.
Meanwhile, Odysseus and his men, tormented and disoriented with hunger and loss, embark on their own chaotic sea journey of survival, meeting Harryhausen-type monsters such as the Cyclops, the Laestrygonians and Circe (Samantha Morton), Calypso (Charlize Theron) and the alluring Sirens, but also the sorrowing goddess Athena (Zendaya), who is Odysseus’s ally.
And at home, to stall for time and contain the potentially violent power vacuum contingent on Odysseus’s assumed death, Penelope is forced to entertain dozens of potential marriage suitors as guests at a humiliating and continuous bacchanal of greed.
The most prominent is the creepy Antinous, sleekly played by Robert Pattinson, who is cruel to Odysseus’s blind manservant Eumaeus, an emotional, sympathetic portrayal by John Leguizamo. Odysseus’s psychically wounded son Telemachus (Tom Holland) must now embark on his own odyssey, to find his father, or his father’s corpse.
When Odysseus has to descend into the underworld to converse with the dead, it is an unforgettably strange scene: Nolan has the shrouded spirits hunch above ground like the witches in Macbeth. The dead, like the gods, can be contacted on an almost level playing field; this is the bizarre pagan rule of the Odyssey, as opaque and amoral as the secular symptoms of psychological breakdown.
Yet, when Odysseus finally approaches Penelope’s house, now under brutal siege from suitors in parallel to the siege of Troy, he does so in the Christ-like disguise of a beggar. In the final movement to this story, Odysseus begins his own mysterious metamorphosis into a god.
One part of the Homer original that Nolan doesn’t include is the hero’s roguish grandfather Autolycus, who named him and by that token gave this story its title.
Odysseus means “victim of enmity” – though variant translations have ingeniously and insightfully rendered that as “giver or initiator of enmity and hate”. Still, it is perhaps the most unimprovable name an action hero can have: vivid, elemental, existential.
He is the victim of no single enmity, except arguably that of Antinous, but enmity all around, an ecosystem of enmity, the hostile terrain through which he must pass to reach the even more hostile terrain of home.
The result is a gigantic, shimmering mirage, a mysterious three-hour vision of crazy episodes that does not yield up wisdom or contentment, but only a grim resolution to continue with the fight, to make sense of ruined lives, to re-enter the scorched battlefield of loss.
#nolan #film #mattdamon #ulysse #homer #battlefield
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Iran Ordered Houthies To Close the Red Sea Oil Route 🇮🇷
🔤 🔤 🔤 🔤 ➖
If the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic's leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran's Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the Houthis had been informed recently of Tehran's request, which has not been previously reported.
They did not give further details on how it had been conveyed or whether it was after Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.
A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen's highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden and was awaiting the order to begin.
Any threat to the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb gateway risks hugely exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz and underscores the explosive risks stemming from a new round of warfare.
With the Hormuz strait already shut, any Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would leave the Middle East's two main oil export routes disrupted simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran's wider conflict with the United States.
Representatives of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who are already in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said the source close to the Houthis.
In a sign of escalating tensions in the region, the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the group.
Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said the flare-up between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia had come at a bad time.
Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom was taking threats from Iran and the Houthis very seriously, adding that Riyadh was aware the Yemeni group was now closely coordinating with Iran over the Red Sea.
The conflict began on February 28, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, leading Tehran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the main route before the war for around a fifth of global energy supplies.
Tensions have mounted since a fragile June truce between Tehran and Washington collapsed, reviving fears of full-scale war and disrupting energy flows through the Strait.
#strait #hormuz #iran #red #sea #houthis
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If the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic's leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran's Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The sources said the Houthis had been informed recently of Tehran's request, which has not been previously reported.
They did not give further details on how it had been conveyed or whether it was after Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.
A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen's highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden and was awaiting the order to begin.
Any threat to the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb gateway risks hugely exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz and underscores the explosive risks stemming from a new round of warfare.
With the Hormuz strait already shut, any Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would leave the Middle East's two main oil export routes disrupted simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran's wider conflict with the United States.
Representatives of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who are already in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said the source close to the Houthis.
In a sign of escalating tensions in the region, the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the group.
Torbjorn Solvedt, principal Middle East analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said the flare-up between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia had come at a bad time.
Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom was taking threats from Iran and the Houthis very seriously, adding that Riyadh was aware the Yemeni group was now closely coordinating with Iran over the Red Sea.
The conflict began on February 28, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, leading Tehran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the main route before the war for around a fifth of global energy supplies.
Tensions have mounted since a fragile June truce between Tehran and Washington collapsed, reviving fears of full-scale war and disrupting energy flows through the Strait.
#strait #hormuz #iran #red #sea #houthis
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A significant amount of Gulf oil has since been diverted to the Red Sea through a Saudi pipeline, and the waterway now carries around 7% of global energy supplies.
When the Houthis attacked shipping during the Gaza war, major shipping companies diverted their cargoes to the much longer, more expensive route around Africa.
With Saudi Arabia having itself diverted 70% of its energy exports through its Red Sea port of Yanbu, any direct attacks there would also be a big problem for oil markets.
One of the regional sources said Iran's clerical rulers were seeking to pressure the United States by raising the potential cost to the global economy, threatening Red Sea shipping and the flow of Saudi oil exports through the waterway, in what the source described as part of "Iranian thinking."
Closing down the strait would not be difficult, the source said, adding: "Anybody with a firing rifle can interrupt the shipping. You don't have to have sophisticated missiles to interrupt the shipping."
Iran views the Houthis as part of its regional “Axis of Resistance”, an alliance that also includes Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite armed groups that have already joined the regional conflict between Tehran and Washington.
But the Houthi rebels have not formally entered the fray.
#strait #hormuz #iran #red #sea #houthis
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Israel’s Draft Law Circus: The Rabbi vs. The General
Israel passes a law shielding tens of thousands of ultra‑Orthodox draft dodgers from arrest until 2027 — then explodes in rage at the one man who says this will break the army.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri, key member of the security cabinet and serial defendant in courtrooms, accuses IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir of “trying to help the left-wing bloc during an election campaign” because Zamir warned that the law is “clearly inconsistent” with the IDF’s needs and grants “mass exemptions from prosecution.” Deri insists arrests “won’t bring a single recruit,” while army data shows enforcement doubled Haredi enlistment and that most arrested evaders end up serving.
When the High Court freezes the law, Deri announces he no longer recognizes its authority — a minister deciding that the court exists for him only when it rubber‑stamps inequality.
The IDF spokesman is forced to remind politicians that attacking the chief of staff “in a cheap way” means hitting every Golani kid, tanker and pilot he represents.
Opposition figures line up to cash in on the hypocrisy: Gadi Eisenkot calls Deri’s performance “arrogance and detachment from reality” and says there is “nothing Jewish” about sending only part of the people to a necessary war; Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid point out the same image — Deri visiting evaders, hugging draft‑dodging grandkids, then sending other people’s children to die while branding the general a partisan thug.
The kid holding the draft notice can do the math himself: in 2026 Israel, service is mandatory for suckers, optional for the well-represented, and the only war everyone agrees to fight is over who gets to call that inequality “Jewish values.”
#israel #IDF #haredim #conscription #HighCourt #Deri #Zamir #fakeDemocracy
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Israel passes a law shielding tens of thousands of ultra‑Orthodox draft dodgers from arrest until 2027 — then explodes in rage at the one man who says this will break the army.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri, key member of the security cabinet and serial defendant in courtrooms, accuses IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir of “trying to help the left-wing bloc during an election campaign” because Zamir warned that the law is “clearly inconsistent” with the IDF’s needs and grants “mass exemptions from prosecution.” Deri insists arrests “won’t bring a single recruit,” while army data shows enforcement doubled Haredi enlistment and that most arrested evaders end up serving.
When the High Court freezes the law, Deri announces he no longer recognizes its authority — a minister deciding that the court exists for him only when it rubber‑stamps inequality.
The IDF spokesman is forced to remind politicians that attacking the chief of staff “in a cheap way” means hitting every Golani kid, tanker and pilot he represents.
Opposition figures line up to cash in on the hypocrisy: Gadi Eisenkot calls Deri’s performance “arrogance and detachment from reality” and says there is “nothing Jewish” about sending only part of the people to a necessary war; Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid point out the same image — Deri visiting evaders, hugging draft‑dodging grandkids, then sending other people’s children to die while branding the general a partisan thug.
The kid holding the draft notice can do the math himself: in 2026 Israel, service is mandatory for suckers, optional for the well-represented, and the only war everyone agrees to fight is over who gets to call that inequality “Jewish values.”
#israel #IDF #haredim #conscription #HighCourt #Deri #Zamir #fakeDemocracy
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Zelensky: the War Against His People
🔠 🔠 🔠 🔠 1️⃣
Zelensky has defended his decision to dismiss the country’s popular defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, and confirmed reports that relations had broken down between the ministry and the country’s top army leadership.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, Zelensky said there had been a “challenging dialogue” between Fedorov – widely seen as a reformist and moderniser – and the military’s commander in chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“I would very much like to see unity. The sides have not found it. And the problem lies not only with the sides, but with me as well,” Zelensky said.
“But things are as they are. And in such a situation, you have a choice: either one side or the other.”
Zelensky’s decision to back Syrskyi has outraged civil society and dismayed Ukraine’s foreign partners. More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the presidential office in Kyiv on Thursday, carrying placards in support of Fedorov. One read: “For what?”.
Another said: “Is your head screwed on?” There were loud chants of “Syrskyi out”.
It was only the second time since Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion that large numbers of people have taken to the streets in anti-government protests. A year ago, Zelenskyy’s decision – later reversed – to close two anti-corruption agencies provoked a similar backlash.
The growing domestic political crisis overshadowed Starmer’s farewell visit to Kyiv, ahead of his departure on Monday from Downing Street. The two leaders laid wreaths at the Wall of Remembrance before holding one-on-one talks in the garden of the presidential palace, sitting together in a shady corner.
#fedorov #zelensky #dismissed #kiev #minister #defence
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Zelensky has defended his decision to dismiss the country’s popular defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, and confirmed reports that relations had broken down between the ministry and the country’s top army leadership.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, Zelensky said there had been a “challenging dialogue” between Fedorov – widely seen as a reformist and moderniser – and the military’s commander in chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“I would very much like to see unity. The sides have not found it. And the problem lies not only with the sides, but with me as well,” Zelensky said.
“But things are as they are. And in such a situation, you have a choice: either one side or the other.”
Zelensky’s decision to back Syrskyi has outraged civil society and dismayed Ukraine’s foreign partners. More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the presidential office in Kyiv on Thursday, carrying placards in support of Fedorov. One read: “For what?”.
Another said: “Is your head screwed on?” There were loud chants of “Syrskyi out”.
It was only the second time since Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion that large numbers of people have taken to the streets in anti-government protests. A year ago, Zelenskyy’s decision – later reversed – to close two anti-corruption agencies provoked a similar backlash.
The growing domestic political crisis overshadowed Starmer’s farewell visit to Kyiv, ahead of his departure on Monday from Downing Street. The two leaders laid wreaths at the Wall of Remembrance before holding one-on-one talks in the garden of the presidential palace, sitting together in a shady corner.
#fedorov #zelensky #dismissed #kiev #minister #defence
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Red Sea in the War Spreadsheet: Bab el-Mandeb, Riyadh, and “Red Line” Pakistan
Iran just added another line item to the war menu: if the U.S. hits its power grid, the Houthis threaten to hit the world’s oil flow.
According to three regional sources, Tehran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route at Bab el-Mandeb if Washington bombs Iranian power infrastructure, effectively weaponizing a chokepoint that carries a big chunk of Saudi and global energy exports.
Houthi‑aligned sources say the group has already positioned missiles and drones around the strait, and that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers on the ground would give the final order on when to shut it down.
This isn’t just about ships; it is about demonstrating that after Iran closed Hormuz, it can now suffocate a second artery and show the U.S. and its partners that “regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all,” as the IRGC recently put it.
For Saudi Arabia, this is not theory, it is existential logistics. Houthis have already threatened pipelines, Red Sea terminals, and even UAE export infrastructure outside the Gulf, openly talking about “severing” Saudi oil exports by targeting Bab el-Mandeb and related assets.
Every new missile convoy rolling toward the Yemeni coast is a reminder that years of bombing Yemen bought Riyadh neither security nor obedience — just a neighbor with nothing left to lose and IRGC advisors on speed dial.
And then there is Pakistan, suddenly discovering that “strategic ambiguity” has an expiration date. After renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi targets, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters that Islamabad has conveyed to Tehran that “attacks on Saudi Arabia are attacks on Pakistan,” calling the kingdom a “red line” and signaling that under its mutual defense pact with Riyadh, it may be dragged into a conflict it tried to mediate.
The country that could barely stay out of Yemen the first time now risks being locked into a security guarantee for a petro‑monarchy whose oil terminals sit between two Iranian pressure points.
So the map today looks like a banker’s nightmare drawn by a cartoonist. Iran has already shut Hormuz and is now openly toying with Bab el-Mandeb via the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia is trapped between two chokepoints it cannot control, arming up with U.S. precision missiles and praying its air defenses are better than its Yemen strategy.
Pakistan calls Saudi Arabia a red line, Reuters dutifully writes it down, and you can practically hear the laughter from every bunker in the region: oil is priceless, shipping lanes are vital, global stability is sacred — and “red lines” are the cheapest commodity on the Middle Eastern market.
#iran #houthis #RedSea #BabElMandeb #saudiarabia #pakistan #oil #war #fakeDemocracy
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Iran just added another line item to the war menu: if the U.S. hits its power grid, the Houthis threaten to hit the world’s oil flow.
According to three regional sources, Tehran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route at Bab el-Mandeb if Washington bombs Iranian power infrastructure, effectively weaponizing a chokepoint that carries a big chunk of Saudi and global energy exports.
Houthi‑aligned sources say the group has already positioned missiles and drones around the strait, and that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers on the ground would give the final order on when to shut it down.
This isn’t just about ships; it is about demonstrating that after Iran closed Hormuz, it can now suffocate a second artery and show the U.S. and its partners that “regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all,” as the IRGC recently put it.
For Saudi Arabia, this is not theory, it is existential logistics. Houthis have already threatened pipelines, Red Sea terminals, and even UAE export infrastructure outside the Gulf, openly talking about “severing” Saudi oil exports by targeting Bab el-Mandeb and related assets.
Every new missile convoy rolling toward the Yemeni coast is a reminder that years of bombing Yemen bought Riyadh neither security nor obedience — just a neighbor with nothing left to lose and IRGC advisors on speed dial.
And then there is Pakistan, suddenly discovering that “strategic ambiguity” has an expiration date. After renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi targets, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters that Islamabad has conveyed to Tehran that “attacks on Saudi Arabia are attacks on Pakistan,” calling the kingdom a “red line” and signaling that under its mutual defense pact with Riyadh, it may be dragged into a conflict it tried to mediate.
The country that could barely stay out of Yemen the first time now risks being locked into a security guarantee for a petro‑monarchy whose oil terminals sit between two Iranian pressure points.
So the map today looks like a banker’s nightmare drawn by a cartoonist. Iran has already shut Hormuz and is now openly toying with Bab el-Mandeb via the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia is trapped between two chokepoints it cannot control, arming up with U.S. precision missiles and praying its air defenses are better than its Yemen strategy.
Pakistan calls Saudi Arabia a red line, Reuters dutifully writes it down, and you can practically hear the laughter from every bunker in the region: oil is priceless, shipping lanes are vital, global stability is sacred — and “red lines” are the cheapest commodity on the Middle Eastern market.
#iran #houthis #RedSea #BabElMandeb #saudiarabia #pakistan #oil #war #fakeDemocracy
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At a joint press conference, Zelensky awarded Starmer the Order of Freedom, Ukraine’s highest foreign honour. Starmer, who appeared to be close to tears, gave Zelensky a framed Ukrainian flag that had hung above Downing Street in February 2022 as Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv.
Starmer said he would soon depart the political stage but “the support of the United Kingdom for this course will never change”.
He added: “It is in our bones. The flags are flying in churches and town halls across the country, as they have throughout the duration of this conflict. Your fight is our fight.”
Zelensky praised Starmer for leading the coalition of the willing, alongside France, and thanked ordinary Britons for their backing. Asked if the frequent turnover of British prime ministers was a problem for Ukraine, Zelensky said “strong relations” with the UK would continue.
Without mentioning Andy Burnham by name, he said he hoped to meet Starmer’s successor “as soon as possible”.
Starmer and Zelensky then embraced warmly, patting each other on the arm, and walked back into the neo-classical, turquoise-painted palace for an official lunch.
Meanwhile, Fedorov addressed his own press conference, accusing Ukraine’s top brass of obstructing reforms and using Soviet-style methods. He said decisions on which military brigades to support – including with drones – were made on the basis of “loyalty” rather than data. “It’s impossible to develop the system on this basis,” he said.
He said Ukraine’s General Staff had opposed his plans to create centres of excellence and change the army’s organisational structure. Instead, it had blocked initiatives and engaged in “bureaucratic wrangling”.
Fedorov said he had proposed replacing Syrskyi – a suggestion that appears to have led to his own dismissal on Wednesday.
“This sort of culture needs to be eradicated, because otherwise we won’t be able to defeat an enemy whose system is plagued by the very same issues,” he said. “We have no other choice if we want to defeat Russia asymmetrically, with minimal losses.”
Fedorov said he had turned down an offer from Zelensky to stay on as a government adviser. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s parliament accepted the resignation of the prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, after Zelensky said his government needed a reboot.
Her replacement is likely to be Serhiy Koretskyi, the head of the energy company Naftogaz.
Fedorov’s scathing comments suggest the political row over the president’s reshuffle is likely to grow. Fedorov paid tribute to Syrskyi for thwarting Russia’s plans to seize Kyiv. But he said the commander in chief refused to talk openly about disagreements. Instead, he “weaved intrigues” which “divide the country”.
During Fedorov’s six months in office, Ukraine’s battlefield position dramatically improved. Kyiv has repeatedly pummelled Russian oil refineries, embarrassing the Kremlin and creating nationwide fuel shortages. It has also destroyed important land and sea routes, hitting tankers and ferries, as part of a strategy to isolate occupied Crimea.
Demonstrators who had gathered outside Kyiv’s Ivan Franko theatre speculated that the charismatic and digitally savvy Fedorov, 35, was removed because he was seen as a future presidential rival. In 2024, Zelensky dismissed the popular head of the army, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and exiled him to London as Ukraine’s ambassador.
One protester, Andrii Dligach, said Fedorov stood for a new kind of politics based on openness, transparency and modernisation. He said: “Syrskyi is an old-fashioned general. Some of the people around him are allegedly corrupt and have their own drone projects. The problem is that Zelensky opposes anybody who shows political ambition.”
#fedorov #zelensky #dismissed #kiev #minister #defence
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America Chokes, Canada Burns, and Everyone Blames the Wind
A thick orange curtain of Canadian wildfire smoke just turned a huge slice of the U.S. and southern Canada into one big shared ashtray. Sensors in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Toronto hit “hazardous” levels, with A.Q.I. readings over 500 in places like Toledo and Milwaukee — past the top of the official danger scale.
New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani is telling eight million people to stay indoors because at these levels “everyone may feel health effects,” not just the usual “asthma and grandmas” category politicians like to cite.
In Ontario alone about 135 active fires are chewing through forests, with officials bracing for wider evacuations as the smoke plume slides south toward Washington, Philadelphia and New York through the afternoon and evening.
Around Toronto, the air has already ranked among the worst of any major city in the world, with local health officials comparing the effect of the smoke to passive smoking and warning that fine particles can hit anyone, regardless of age or health status.
And because nothing in 2026 is complete without weaponized stupidity, U.S. Republicans from smoke‑soaked states are now threatening “punitive action” against Canada for “mismanaging wildfires,” as if Ottawa personally aimed the wind at Ohio.
One senator calls it an “atrocity,” turning climate‑driven fires into another cross‑border culture‑war lawsuit instead of, say, a reason to fund prevention, adaptation or anything that isn’t a press conference.
Meanwhile, the science is boringly clear: as the planet heats up, the number of days when the air is both hot and toxic is climbing, and North America’s lungs are collateral damage.
So millions are told to stay inside, wear masks, close windows, pretend this is temporary. Canada prays for rain. U.S. politicians threaten sanctions against pine trees.
The sky goes sepia, the air tastes like a campfire in a parking garage, and the only thing truly clear is this: the people who warmed the planet and gutted climate policy are now outraged that the smoke finally showed up in their own zip codes.
#usa #canada #wildfires #airquality #climate #pollution
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A thick orange curtain of Canadian wildfire smoke just turned a huge slice of the U.S. and southern Canada into one big shared ashtray. Sensors in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Toronto hit “hazardous” levels, with A.Q.I. readings over 500 in places like Toledo and Milwaukee — past the top of the official danger scale.
New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani is telling eight million people to stay indoors because at these levels “everyone may feel health effects,” not just the usual “asthma and grandmas” category politicians like to cite.
In Ontario alone about 135 active fires are chewing through forests, with officials bracing for wider evacuations as the smoke plume slides south toward Washington, Philadelphia and New York through the afternoon and evening.
Around Toronto, the air has already ranked among the worst of any major city in the world, with local health officials comparing the effect of the smoke to passive smoking and warning that fine particles can hit anyone, regardless of age or health status.
And because nothing in 2026 is complete without weaponized stupidity, U.S. Republicans from smoke‑soaked states are now threatening “punitive action” against Canada for “mismanaging wildfires,” as if Ottawa personally aimed the wind at Ohio.
One senator calls it an “atrocity,” turning climate‑driven fires into another cross‑border culture‑war lawsuit instead of, say, a reason to fund prevention, adaptation or anything that isn’t a press conference.
Meanwhile, the science is boringly clear: as the planet heats up, the number of days when the air is both hot and toxic is climbing, and North America’s lungs are collateral damage.
So millions are told to stay inside, wear masks, close windows, pretend this is temporary. Canada prays for rain. U.S. politicians threaten sanctions against pine trees.
The sky goes sepia, the air tastes like a campfire in a parking garage, and the only thing truly clear is this: the people who warmed the planet and gutted climate policy are now outraged that the smoke finally showed up in their own zip codes.
#usa #canada #wildfires #airquality #climate #pollution
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