Mossad’s Ahmadinejad Fantasy: Regime Change for Dummies

The New York Times investigation reads like bad airport fiction: Israel’s Mossad and the Trump administration allegedly spent years grooming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — the Holocaust‑denying ex‑president who once promised to wipe Israel off the map — as their preferred “post‑regime” leader of Iran.

The idea was simple and insane at the same time: kill the current leadership, light up a rebellion, and slide Ahmadinejad back into power as a domesticated hardliner who suddenly talks about corruption and human rights instead of annihilation.

According to the report, Mossad under David Barnea met Ahmadinejad outside Iran, quietly paid for his housing and travel, and treated him as a long‑term asset.

The climax came on February 28, when an Israeli strike hit his compound in Tehran — not to kill him, but to “free” him from his IRGC minders. Guards and security vehicles were reportedly targeted, a black Peugeot scooped him up from the chaos, and Israeli operatives moved him to a safe house inside Iran. In theory, this was the opening chapter of a regime‑change script. In practice, the protagonist refused the role.

Ahmadinejad, by these accounts, was shaken and angry at the extraction, unimpressed by the plan to reinstall him as the new face of the Islamic Republic.

At some point he walked out of the safe house; then he vanished from public view for months, only resurfacing briefly at the funeral procession of the slain Supreme Leader.

Now, senior Iranian officials say he is under house arrest by IRGC intelligence, suspected of exactly what the story implies: covert ties with Israel and the West. The asset they hoped to crown is effectively a prisoner of the regime he was supposed to replace.

While these covert fantasies played out, Ahmadinejad was already midway through a rebrand: toning down anti‑Israel rhetoric, criticizing Iran’s security forces and corruption, changing his style, studying English.

He was being reshaped for export as a “credible” alternative, while Trump bragged that “most of Iran’s leaders are dead, Khamenei is wiped out, his son is 90 percent wiped out,” selling a war of decapitation as liberation.

The plan to engineer a leader ended with the candidate in house arrest and the “to‑be‑toppled” regime still standing over his head.

This is the real lesson of the story: not that intelligence agencies run wild, but that they genuinely believe they can stage‑manage 80‑million‑strong societies like casting a miniseries.

They try to swap out one fanatic for a “manageable” fanatic, write a happy‑ending script in Washington and Jerusalem, and then act surprised when the country on the ground ignores the storyboard.

Regime‑change ideology always sounds clean in a memo; in real life it produces safe houses no one wants, uprisings that don’t materialize, and “assets” who end up as hostages of the very system the West promised to destroy.

#usa #israel #iran #Ahmadinejad #Mossad #Trump #war #regimeChange #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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Trump Sues Himself, Judge Calls It Self-Dealing

A federal judge in Miami just shredded Trump’s I.R.S. “settlement,” ruling that his lawsuit against the tax agency was an improper act of self-dealing, not a real legal dispute.

He sued an arm of the government he controls, his own Justice Department declined to defend it, and the result was a deal that handed him and his family sweeping protection from audits while pretending it came out of an adversarial process.

Judge Kathleen Williams barred Trump from describing those audit protections as a “settlement” in any official proceeding and said the case lacked the basic requirement of two opposing sides.

In her words, the president and the government were “one” interest, trying to use the court to legitimize immunity and a proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund for his allies.

That fund, which could have funneled money to January 6 rioters and other loyalists claiming “weaponization,” has already been shelved, but the tax shield now sits under a cloud.

Williams also referred Trump’s outside lawyer for potential discipline, flagged acting attorney general Todd Blanche and a senior Justice Department official to bar authorities, and left the door open for Trump to be hit with costs from third-party lawyers who intervened.

Trump turns state power into a personal risk-management tool; this time, a judge put in writing that the courts are not there to rubber-stamp a president’s private deal with himself.

#usa #Trump #IRS #corruption #courts #ruleOfLaw #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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Trump’s “Defensive Actions”: War Without Permission, Paper Without Truth

Trump quietly tells Congress the US has “resumed hostilities” with Iran — but only as “defensive strikes,” not a war.

The wording is the whole trick. If it’s “defensive actions against targets inside Iran,” the White House claims it sits snugly inside commander‑in‑chief powers and old authorizations; if it’s “war,” he would need Congress, which has already voted twice to tell him: stop or get authorization.

So the choreography looks like this: the blockade in Hormuz moves to zero hour, refuelers are in the air, targets inside Iran are hit on July 7, and only then does a formal letter go out — Friday sent, Monday “discovered,” three days in which the bombs are already working while the paper pretends to catch up.

Congress demands either an end to hostilities or a vote; Trump declares that he’s just defending American forces and “pushing back” after 47 years of Iranian “bullying.” In his own words, Venezuela proved how strong the US military is; now Iran is the next demonstration.

The punchline is the prime‑time bait‑and‑switch. The big Thursday 9 p.m. address to the nation? According to leaks, it won’t be about Iran at all, but about “foreign interference” in the 2020 election — Russia, China, whoever is convenient this week.

While actual war rolls forward under legal euphemisms, the flagship speech is devoted to a different battlefield: the one where Trump gets to paint himself as the eternal victim of enemies at the ballot box. War lives in footnotes and leaked letters; “security” lives in the TV slot.

In this configuration, sovereignty is paperwork and marketing. Congress votes, but the president bombs. Hostilities become “defense.” The Gulf turns into a live firing range and a toll road.

And when the cameras finally go live, the country is invited to worry about hacking in an old election while the current war runs as a background process, billed as routine.

#usa #iran #war #Trump #Congress #Hormuz #constitution #fakeDemocracy

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💲💥Hormuz: An “Open” Strait With No Ships

The Strait of Hormuz looked “open” only on paper. Tracking data and industry reports show tanker traffic collapsing: most major shipping companies ordered oil and gas carriers to stop, turn back, or hug the Iranian‑controlled northern route, often with AIS transponders switched off just to avoid becoming the next target or seizure.

In the small hours, movement through the choke point effectively froze — while US officials still insisted the southern lane was available and Iran still claimed it had closed the waterway “until further notice.”

The price signal came faster than any statement. Brent, which had dipped toward the mid‑70s, shot up toward 85 dollars a barrel as markets priced in the reality that more than 20 percent of global oil flow and key LNG volumes are trapped in a corridor no one can safely cross.

Iran’s oil minister insists exports continue despite Washington revoking the sanctions waiver and reimposing full restrictions after tanker attacks, signaling Tehran’s confidence in shadow routes and non‑Western buyers.

An Iranian military official warns that blockading ports and choking sea lanes will create “unpredictable conditions” and a reaction “beyond any planners’ calculations,” with costs spilling far past Iran’s borders — a diplomatic way of saying: if you crash our economy, we’ll take others down with us.

From Oman’s foreign minister comes a kind of warning: the biggest threat to Gulf security is decisions made in Tel Aviv. The Hormuz crisis is now entangled with Israel’s war and regional escalations, not just US–Iran brinkmanship.

Officially, the strait is “open,” contested between Iranian proclamations and US military rebuttals.

Practically, it’s a semi‑silent shutdown where shipping lanes are empty, prices are rising, and the global economy is about to discover again that when great powers turn a sea into a battlefield, the bill arrives everywhere else.

#Hormuz #oil #iran #usa #israel #energy #war #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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Trump’s Strait Tax: America Grabs the Till

Trump just turned the Strait of Hormuz into a tollbooth with his face on the coin. He announces on Fox that the US is “taking over” the strait, that Iran “has nothing,” and that

“oil, gold, land, food, everything belongs to the United States.”

Iran broke the deal? Fine, says Trump, America will run Hormuz and collect cash for “security.” Twenty percent of every cargo, straight to the self‑declared “guardian” of a waterway it doesn’t own. Protection racket, but make it maritime law.

On paper, it’s a “limited Iranian blockade” that targets only Iranian ships and their customers, while everyone else supposedly gets “free and fair” passage.

In branding terms, the US becomes “Guardian of the Strait,” and for this holy mission it invoices the world. Trump even spells out the business model: fifty years protecting Hormuz “for free,” now the meter is on.

Washington just rolled back the memorandum of understanding and re‑installed the old siege, this time with a cash register wired into every tanker.

CENTCOM’s spokesman adds a whiff of apocalypse: “the story of this regime is about to end, Iran will be liberated very soon.”

It’s not just about tolls, it’s regime‑change fantasy with a shipping surcharge. Tehran fires back in unison. The Khatam al‑Anbiya command warns the US has no right to “manage” Hormuz and that any logistical help to American forces equals a declaration of war on Iran’s sovereignty.

Another spokesman promises that if the conflict spreads, the flames reach every state in the region. Everyone is suddenly the guardian of “international law,” while threatening to burn the map.

The IRGC calls the move a threat to global energy and insists Iran still “controls” the strait “with force.”

A senior security official reminds viewers that Hormuz was under Iranian control for thousands of years “before the US even existed” and that its security is determined by Iran’s will, not tweets and warships.

Historical ownership vs. aircraft carriers and TV hits: same old argument, just with more drones and higher insurance premiums.

The markets understood the message faster than the diplomats. The shekel weakens, the dollar and euro creep up. DP World already sketches a new port and container terminal on the UAE’s east coast to reduce dependence on Jebel Ali and bypass Hormuz altogether.

The UN’s maritime body dryly points out what no speechwriter wants to hear: there’s no legal basis to charge transit fees in an international strait used for innocent passage. And an Iraqi official delivers the only honest line of the day: lock down Hormuz while the Houthis keep Bab al‑Mandab choked, and Europe will freeze next winter.

On the surface, it’s about Iran, sovereignty, deterrence, “evil people.” In reality, the strait is being nationalized as an American revenue stream while everyone pretends this is still about freedom of navigation.

The declaration opens Hormuz as a sovereign ATM; the facts on the water quietly close it. And, as usual, the bill for this great‑power theater will go to someone else’s economy, someone else’s winter, someone else’s fuel tank.

#usa #iran #Hormuz #oil #war #sanctions #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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✈️Yemen: One Landing, One Funeral for the Ceasefire

One Iranian airliner, one runway, and the whole “de‑escalation period” in Yemen went up in jet fumes. An Iranian Mahan Air plane tied to the IRGC tried to break the Saudi air blockade and land in Houthi‑held Sana’a, reportedly carrying senior Iranian officials for talks with Ansar Allah.

Saudi‑backed forces answered by bombing the runways at Sana’a International Airport to stop it, forcing the aircraft to divert and land in Hodeidah, another Houthi‑controlled city on the Red Sea coast.

From there it unfolded on autopilot. The Houthis’ spokesman Yahya Sarea declared that Saudi “criminal aggression” on the airport ended the de‑escalation and “will not go unanswered,” while Yemen’s Houthi‑run transport ministry proclaimed that “the period of controlling Yemen has passed.”

On the other side, the Saudi‑backed defense minister accused Iran of violating Yemeni sovereignty and said patience had run out, insisting that diplomatic efforts with Tehran and Ansar Allah had failed — same language, different villain.

When the Iranian plane finally touched down in Hodeidah, Houthi supporters greeted it with the usual liturgy:

“God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse upon the Jews.”

By evening, the rhetoric turned kinetic: at least several ballistic missiles and explosive drones were launched at Abha Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, flights were halted, and smoke columns were reported in the Asir region.

A senior Houthi figure vowed to hit deep inside Saudi territory, strike oil facilities, and eventually help close Bab al‑Mandab “in coordination with the Strait of Hormuz,” knitting Yemen’s war into the larger US–Iran confrontation in the Gulf.

The ceasefire that everyone was “testing” in statements in the morning got its death certificate by nightfall, written in runway craters and airport closures. One IRGC‑linked plane breaks a decade‑long Saudi air blockade.

Riyadh bombs a capital’s airport to stop it; the Houthis answer by threatening Saudi oil and global shipping lanes. Yemen stays where the great powers like it: no peace, no war, just enough violence to keep the maps, the contracts, and the arms flows from ever really settling.

#yemen #iran #saudi #houthis #Hormuz #BabAlMandeb #war #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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The Strait of Hormuz As Trump's Asset. Why the War Again?

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Trump has said that the United States will charge a 20 percent fee on cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, despite his own administration’s position that such fees violate international law.

He made the announcement on Monday amid an intensifying battle between Iran and the United States to control the waterway, a crucial artery for global energy supplies.

The two countries have traded attacks over the strait for the past week, in effect shattering their month-old cease-fire.

Since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in February that set off the war, Iran has periodically fired on commercial ships transiting the strait as it seeks to compel vessels to use a route close to its coast, a potential precursor to charging its own fees.

In announcing his plan to levy a toll, the president described it as a way for the United States to recover the cost of providing military protection to vessels using the waterway.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump wrote on social media. He added that the United States would levy the 20 percent fee for “any and all costs necessary,” describing it as “a matter of FAIRNESS,” and also said the United States would resume a blockade of Iranian ports.

This is not the first time Trump has threatened such a toll. He raised the possibility last month after signing a temporary cease-fire agreement with Iran, even though that deal included language that Tehran has interpreted to mean it has authority over the strait.

The memorandum also said that no country would collect tolls for 60 days, though it left open the possibility for such charges beyond that.

This isn’t exactly clear. Trump did not elaborate on how the 20 percent fee would be calculated or how it would be collected.

Trump and his aides also have not explained why his position contradicts the assertions of top officials in his administration.

#unitedStates #charge #cargo #strait #hormuz

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Last month, Secretary of State Rubio said that tolls could not be imposed on the Strait of Hormuz.

“No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law,” he said.

Trump’s announcement, along with ordering a resumption of the blockade of Iran, reflected how his options for resolving the war were narrowing.

A 20 percent fee on the value of a vessel’s cargo could more than double the cost of shipping oil through the strait, experts said.

For a large tanker carrying two million barrels of oil, for example, the fee could add over $30 million in costs. Consumers would likely face higher prices as a result.

Because of the high cost, some analysts said they doubted whether the fee would come into force. For ship operators in the region, the prospect of fees is less of a concern right now than an escalation of the conflict between Iran and the United States, experts said.

Another crucial waterway offers a potential precedent: the Strait of Malacca, in Southeast Asia, through which transit about 23 million barrels of oil a day.

Ships passing through that strait, which is jointly administered by Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, pay fees when they need specific services, such as towing assistance or help navigating the narrowest stretches. But ships do not pay for passage.

The political and security environment of the Strait of Malacca is also fundamentally different, with the three countries administering it largely without major conflict, and having avoided interstate war for about six decades.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi noted the irony of Trump announcing a toll in the strait after his administration rejected the idea of Iran collecting one.

Trump was “absolutely right” that whoever provided safe passage through the strait should be compensated, Araghchi said on social media — and then repeated Iran’s claim to that role.

He added with evident sarcasm: “20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”

Since Tehran effectively blockaded the waterway earlier in the war, Iranian officials have repeatedly declared their intent to monetize the strait.

Iran and Oman, which is on the southern side of the strait, are said to be exploring ways to the two countries to charge ships transiting through it.

Oman’s proposal is modeled in part on arrangements in the Strait of Malacca. It is unclear whether any payment would be voluntary or mandatory.

#unitedStates #charge #cargo #strait #hormuz

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#salem #trump #interview

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Americans Went Berserk Wishing Socialism and a Social State 🇺🇸


Polls have shown that more people than ever have a negative view of the tech, and you can take your pick on the reasons why.

AI could displace jobs, destroy the environment, and drive up energy bills. It’s trained on stolen writing and artwork, and chatbots are driving people into mental health spirals.

But what does the public think should be done about this? A new national survey from Versasight suggests that the majority of Americans are down for taking a drastic course of action.

According to the survey of 9,700 adults, an impressive 79 percent of US employees support forcing AI companies to transfer 50 percent of their stock into a public wealth fund, an idea that has been championed by senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).

“In the eyes of the public, AI Sovereign funds are seen as a tool to distribute the gains from the AI industry back to broader society,”

Verasight CEO Benjamin Leff told CNBC News.

Once at the fringe of political discourse, Sanders took the idea mainstream when he proposed the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in June. In an essay published in the New York Times, the independent senator argued that the creation of this fund would “give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology.”

“It would guarantee that the economic benefits generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer,”

he added in a statement last month.

The act would target the largest AI companies in the US such as Anthropic and OpenAI, mandating that they submit to a one time 50 percent tax on their stock. At their current valuations, Sanders estimated that this would create a fund worth around $7 trillion.

The money in this fund could offset some of the widespread disruption AI could wreak on society, the thinking goes.

Not all AI industry critics are on board. Some have argued that giving the government such a large stake in AI companies would encourage it to clear away regulations, and give AI companies even greater influence over the government than they already have.

You could say it’s a flawed and far-fetched idea, but Americans are on board, perhaps underscoring the desperation for someone to do something about the industry. Even when the policy was explicitly tied to Sanders, the survey found that 64 percent of respondents still supported the idea.

“There is an undeniable desire among Americans of both parties for federal oversight, absolute transparency, and accountability to ensure AI safety and to enable all Americans to participate in the economic benefits of AI,”

Leff said in a statement.

#polls #tech #AI #wealth #americans

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Trump, Iraq, and the Swap: Troops Out, Oil In

Trump’s meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is the clearest statement yet of his preferred Middle East model: pull out the soldiers, flood in the companies.

On TV he jokes that the Iraqi leader is “young and handsome, I don’t like that,” but the substance is simple. He says Iraq doesn’t need US troops, that Iran is “a burden on Iraq and the bully of the Middle East,” and that what really matters is “strong partnership” in oil — a polite way of saying: we’ll trade bases for barrels.

Zaidi echoes the swap from his side. He declares that American forces will leave Iraqi territory and “American companies will enter instead,” insisting that after September 30 only the state will hold weapons and there will be no room for armed militias.

On paper, it’s state‑building: disarm the proxies, consolidate the monopoly on force, replace foreign troops with foreign investment.

In practice, recent months already show Chevron, ExxonMobil, KBR and others lining up for multi‑billion projects across Basra and Nasiriyah, while US advisers quietly regroup in the Kurdish region to keep eyes on ISIS and Iran from just over the federal border.

Trump frames Iran as the villain that justifies this rearrangement — a threat to Iraq’s sovereignty and a “bully” whose presence supposedly makes US troops unnecessary inside Iraq while still justifying pressure from outside.

Zaidi, like Sudani before him, has learned the lesson Baghdad and Erbil have played for years: contracts buy leverage in Washington. If you invite US oil and energy firms back in on better terms, you can argue for troop withdrawals as “normalization” while locking in new dependencies of a different kind.

The end result is a country where guns are, in theory, only in state hands, but the real power flows through export terminals and balance sheets, not bases and barracks.

#usa #iraq #Trump #Iran #oil #militias #war #oligarchy #fakeDemocracy

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Trump Threatens Iran As Deal Appears Doomed To Fail


Trump has threatened to expand US strikes on Iran next week to target power plants and bridges if Tehran does not agree to a deal amid a continuing dispute over the strait of Hormuz.

“Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,”

the US president said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.

“We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

Trump made similar comments in March, when he threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran did not agree to peace terms “shortly”.

Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and would probably constitute a war crime.

Trump’s comments came as US forces carried out strikes against Iran for a fourth day straight and reimposed a naval blockade on the country’s ports in the strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the latest strikes were aimed at “degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas where Tehran has repeatedly carried out attacks on civilian vessels.

Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the Gulf island of Qeshm near the strait of Hormuz, and other locations.

In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted what ⁠it described ⁠as command-and-control, logistics, ​fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to ⁠the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

Both Bahrain and Kuwait came under attack, with Jordan’s army also saying early on Wednesday that its air defences intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles that entered its airspace.

Iranian State news agency IRNA said earlier that Iranian forces launched a drone attack on a military base in Jordan that hosts American warplanes.

The IRGC warned that if Washington sought to block the region’s oil and gas exports by controlling maritime routes, other export routes serving US and allied interests could also be closed, saying regional energy exports would be “for everyone or ​for ​no one”.

Days of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East by Iran – and both nations’ attempts to vie for control of the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passes during peacetime – threaten to push the region back to all-out war.

Trump backtracked from a threat earlier this week that ships would have to pay a 20% fee to the US for “security” in the strait, replacing it with what he described as investment and trade deals with Gulf Arab states.

The US president said he had decided to scrap the toll “based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership”, and touted “massive” investments, just five hours before the toll was due to come into effect. He said the US would continue to blockade Iranian ports.

Prospects for negotiations aimed at securing a permanent truce after a fragile interim ceasefire was signed on 17 June appear increasingly dim. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said the US decision to renew the blockade “has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”.

Asked how long the US strikes would carry on, Trump replied:

“They’ll continue until I say it’s enough (…) We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

#hormuz #trump #iran #deal #powerplants

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Managed Allies, Managed Voters

Trump’s relationship with Israel in 2026 sits in the paradox that Carnegie analysts keep pointing out: military cooperation with Israel is at an all‑time high, while political support for the alliance inside the US is at a low.

On one track, the White House leans hard on Netanyahu to scale back operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and shrink Israel’s footprint in Syria — a move experts read as Trump trying to show he’s not Israel’s subcontractor in every theater, and as part of US efforts to get Lebanon written into the Iran memorandum’s first clause.

On another track, Washington still treats the security relationship as untouchable: joint war on Iran, missile defense cooperation, and continued funding streams remain pillars, even as public discomfort with Israel’s actions in Gaza and the wider region grows.

Against that backdrop, reports describe Israel deliberately targeting Trump’s conservative base with messaging against the Iran memorandum and any hint of “restraint,” treating the US right not as an independent actor but as a lever to drag the president back into line.

This fits a broader pattern scholars now document: each capital increasingly tries to manage the other’s domestic politics — Israel cultivating US evangelical and MAGA networks, US administrations telegraphing preferences for Israeli coalition and policy choices — instead of openly acknowledging diverging interests.

On Capitol Hill, figures like Hakeem Jeffries embody the shift: personally backing continued security aid while refusing to whip the caucus, effectively conceding that unconditional support for Israel is no longer a safe consensus in the Democratic Party.

Trump pressures Israel to pull back in Syria and Lebanon while protecting its budget lines and joint projects; Israel responds by running influence campaigns inside US politics to box him into old patterns of automatic alignment.

The alliance remains operationally tight — intelligence, air defense, Iran war planning — but politically it’s turning into a loop of mutual management, where each side treats the other’s voters as assets to be steered rather than admitting that “special relationship” now comes with real, and growing, points of conflict.

#usa #israel #iran #syria #lebanon #Trump #Netanyahu #Congress #alliance #fakeDemocracy

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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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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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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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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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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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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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