Houthis opened a Saudi front.

Yemen’s Iran‑backed Houthis say they fired missiles and drones at facilities linked to Saudi Aramco in the Red Sea ports of Jizan and Yanbu, right as Riyadh briefly pushed emergency alerts telling residents in Jazan and Yanbu to seek shelter.

Yanbu is now the key outlet for Saudi crude since Hormuz is effectively shut by the US‑Iran war, and Jizan hosts both a port and an Aramco refinery.

A Saudi‑led coalition hit back with strikes on Houthi positions and Hodeida, the Red Sea port that’s been the launchpad for years of maritime attacks.

At sea, the blockade stops being theory. A Hong Kong‑flagged supertanker, New Champion, chartered by a Chinese buyer to load crude in Yanbu, reached the edge of Bab el‑Mandeb — and U‑turned at near top speed, heading back east rather than risk the strait under Houthi threat.

That one pivot shows what happens when Hormuz is choked and Bab el‑Mandeb starts to look lethal: Saudi oil can “still get out,” but only through more expensive, more fragile routes, and some buyers decide they’d rather not try.

Brent is already up almost 27% in two weeks, closing near $97 as skirmishes between the US and Iran continue and the Houthis turn their blockade of Saudi ports into real damaged tankers.

Trump, visibly angry that Iran won’t reopen Hormuz on his timeline, spends the day talking about being “locked and loaded” for major strikes and mulling a “massive attack,” then tells the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that “Iran would love to make a deal” but “it’s not time yet.”

The US is protecting shipping, Saudi Arabia is defending its ports, and Iran is “only” using proxies.

Hormuz is semi‑closed, Bab el‑Mandeb is becoming a shooting gallery, and a single drone faction in Yemen is now helping set the global oil price.

#SaudiArabia #Houthis #Iran #Trump #Hormuz #RedSea #oil #shipping #war #geopolitics #fakeDemocracy #oligarchy

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Trump Holds Off Strikes On Iran Due to Dwindling Munitions Stockpiles


The US has paused strikes on Iran for a second night as diplomatic negotiations to avoid a return to full-out war continued on Sunday.

Trump is said to be weighing up diplomatic and military options in the nearly five-month-old conflict, with Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Tuesday.

The Israeli prime minister is a vocal critic of Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders.

Netanyahu is under considerable political pressure to show that his military campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have yielded results before elections scheduled for October.

Tehran said on Sunday it would pause what it called “retaliatory” attacks against US allies in the region.

“These [US] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks,”

said army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia.

“Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations.”

Senior officials in the Trump administration are reported to have warned the president about dwindling munitions stockpiles that could hamper a sustained military campaign in the region.

The lull in fighting, which began on Friday evening, follows nearly two weeks of strikes against Iran and the collapse of a ceasefire brokered by Trump. Washington blamed Iran for strikes on US forces and allies in the region and its closure of the strait of Hormuz, a conduit for an estimated 20% of the world’s oil and gas.

Senior diplomats from Iran and Oman were said to be holding negotiations on Sunday on reopening the vital waterway and an official in Tehran confirmed colleagues had been in touch with US negotiators to prevent a return to war. Iran has demanded payment and control over which ships pass through the strait.

“Mediators are working and trying to prevent tension from escalating,”

the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, told a press conference on Sunday.

Vance and Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, warned Trump of the risks of a renewed military campaign against Iran at an Oval Office meeting on Friday, according to media outlets. The president then ordered the military to call off new strikes, which he had warned could “knock out everything they have”.

“We’re talking to [the Iranians] right now,”

Trump told reporters on Friday.

“I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by. We’re locked and loaded and ready to go, but we’re talking to them.”

At a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that evening he said he did not think Iran was ready to make a deal but he was ready to listen.

Caine warned Trump about dwindling munitions stockpiles, which include Patriot missile interceptors and offensive weapons like Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Vance campaigned on his opposition to US military interventions in the Middle East and has grown more vocal in his opposition to the war in Iran.

Netanyahu’s office announced on Sunday that he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet before leaving for Washington on Monday.

He played a crucial role in lobbying Trump to launch joint strikes against Iran in February and has said that US negotiators must take a strong line on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme. US negotiators have instead prioritised opening the strait of Hormuz.

#trump #holdsOff #strikes #iran #munitions

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🪳 The Cockroach Revolution Is Gaining Momentum

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India's Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi's government.

In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his resignation letter to the Prime Minister in response to mounting pressure from students.

"Considering the situation that has arisen at Jantar Mantar and across the country, so that anti-national forces do not take advantage of this situation (...) I have submitted my resignation letter to the Prime Minister," Pradhan wrote in a social media post.

He said he had been "deeply saddened by what has unfolded over the past 10 days," adding: "I deeply respect the aspirations, feelings, and legitimate expectations of the country's youth."

During his 12 years in power, Modi has cultivated a strongman image and consistently maintained that his ministers are not accountable to public pressure. This marks the first time that a mass protest movement has forced one of his closest allies to resign.

The protests were organized by the newly formed youth political movement, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which has grown into a nationwide youth uprising this week.

The movement's central demand was Pradhan's resignation over an exam leak scandal that has affected millions of students and reportedly contributed to more than a dozen student suicides.

Modi's refusal to dismiss his minister over the scandal was widely viewed as a symbol of the alleged lack of accountability within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its repeated failure to address the challenges facing young people, particularly within India's troubled education system.

CJP organizers confirmed they had called off their demonstration following Pradhan's resignation and a meeting with senior BJP ministers on Saturday afternoon.

Addressing crowds gathered at the Jantar Mantar protest site in Delhi, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke praised the "courage" of students who turned out in huge numbers despite facing police violence.

#cockroach #india #pradhan #demonstrations #modi

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"We have done it," he declared to chants of "Victory to India!" and "Long live the revolution!" However, Dipke emphasized that Pradhan's resignation was "just the beginning" of the movement's campaign for systemic education reform and democratic rights.

He also warned supporters against turning him into a hero.

"Do not make this mistake," Dipke said. "The country has already suffered from making one person a hero."

Faria Asif, 26, a lawyer attending the protest, said: "I am overjoyed. This is a huge victory—not just for students, but for the Constitution and for the entire nation. Being part of this movement has been incredibly empowering for all of us. I believe this is the beginning of real change."

News of Pradhan's resignation was met with jubilant celebrations from tens of thousands of CJP supporters gathered in Delhi, who had been demanding government accountability.

"This is one of the most historic days for our country," said 27-year-old Rochelle Cope. "For the first time in 12 years, someone in the government has been held accountable for wrongdoing. And it wasn't political parties that achieved this—it was the people.

"This is a movement of unity, love, solidarity, peace, justice, and strength. Being here has made me proud to be an Indian citizen. This is only the beginning—the government will no longer be able to rule as it did before."

For many participants, this was their first political protest, and the movement has been described as a "Gen Z political awakening" in India.

Public anger intensified following the police's violent response, prompting even more people to join the movement. Throughout the week, thousands gathered at the CJP's sit-in in Delhi, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding Pradhan's resignation.

Demonstrations also spread across the country, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in Kolkata and Mumbai.

Modi had agreed to fast-track investigations into the exam leak scandal but made no mention of the CJP's primary demand: Pradhan's resignation, despite him being regarded as one of the Prime Minister's most influential and loyal ministers.

However, the CJP leadership made it clear that Pradhan's resignation was a non-negotiable demand. As more protests erupted over the weekend and negotiations reached a stalemate, the BJP government appeared to be increasingly cornered.

#cockroach #india #pradhan #demonstrations #modi

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🛢 The Coalition That Swears It Isn’t a Coalition

The war around Hormuz is being sold as a united front. The statements from America’s “partners” say the opposite.

London quietly tells Washington it plans to join the military effort to “secure shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz. Within hours, Tehran answers: if Britain stands with the US, Britain becomes a legitimate target.

The price of alliance is spelled out in one sentence, and suddenly “freedom of navigation” looks a lot more like “sign here to get on the target list.”

Rome’s case is even more absurd. NATO secretary general Mark Rutte says out loud that US jets have flown against Iran from bases in Italy.

The Italian government rushes to deny it, insisting it never authorized strikes from its soil and that it has assured Tehran Italy did not green‑light any combat operations.

Politically, the message is naked: the man who represents the alliance has just publicly incriminated one of its members, and that member is now scrambling to prove to Iran it’s innocent.

Kuwait goes further and puts it in legal language. Its ambassador in Washington declares that allegations of Kuwaiti involvement in operations against Iran are “completely false in every respect,” and that Kuwait has not joined any military action, has not allowed its territory, airspace or territorial waters to be used for offensive operations.

She even demands that publications “correct the record” to reflect Kuwait’s real stance.

At the same time, the Saudi foreign minister works the phones with Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt about “regional tensions” — everyone is in the conversation, no one wants to be listed in the coalition.

On paper, there is a “coalition” protecting trade and confronting Iran. In public, every supposed partner is busy explaining why it is not really part of it, did not authorize anything, and would very much like Tehran to know that.

The war is being run as if there were a united front. The front itself sounds like a group of states trying to prove they are only spectators.

#iran #usa #uk #italy #kuwait #saudiarabia #nato #war #hormuz #fakeDemocracy #oligarchy

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Oregon, a key producer of timber in the United States, may cease to be one 🌲🔥

The reason for this is the large-scale forest fires that have engulfed the state of Oregon in the northwestern United States, which are currently spreading at a speed of more than 40 square kilometers per hour.

Approximately 60% of the territory of Oregon in the beginning of 2026 is occupied by forests.

#oregon #producer #timber #unitedStates

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⚔️The fires in France and Spain now look like Europe’s own drone war.

In southwest France and central Spain, massive wildfires have forced hundreds of thousands to flee homes, holiday rentals and campsites, with evacuations around Bordeaux, Gironde and the Madrid region described as “historic” in scale.

French authorities say well over 140,000 people have been evacuated from Gironde and Landes, while Spanish officials report tens of thousands pushed out of towns near Madrid as the government declares a national emergency.

The footage — black smoke columns, fire fronts eating through suburbs, helicopters dropping water over highways — visually rhymes with the missile‑and‑drone fires Russians have been living with for two years.

Politically, it lands on the same EU bloc that treated war and destruction as something to be managed “out there,” east of the border, while it funded and armed the Russia–Ukraine front.

Now the sirens, evacuation orders and collapsed local economies are at home, branded as climate emergency rather than artillery, but the grammar is identical: skies turned dark, people hustled out with minutes’ notice, logistics chains and vineyards becoming collateral for a system that runs on permanent crisis.

Europe asked to keep war away and accepted a model where distant fire was the cost of policy. Climate has just delivered a version of that fire to Bordeaux and central Spain, with no enemy to blame and no front line to point to — only the same images of burning infrastructure and displaced civilians the continent thought it had outsourced.

#France #Spain #wildfires #climate #EU #war #energy #fakeDemocracy

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New York: Will Human Teachers Be Replaced By Robots?

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The humanoid robot is being introduced as part of a pilot program, along with an AI teaching assistant, at Salamanca high school in Salamanca, New York, located on the Allegany territory of the Seneca nation.

Teachers have criticized the program, deeming it “inappropriate” and claiming it dehumanizes the profession with the introduction of human-like robots. Some local Native American residents have also criticized the pilot program, citing its implementation as “culturally tone deaf”.

The robot, named Sally, was purchased by the Cattaraugus county school district – which includes Salamanca high school – for $57,590.

According to a presentation on the program, Sally will be a closed-loop system, but available virtually to students 24/7 for those with access, and offers personalized learning options.

The district will be the first in the US to deploy a humanoid robot and AI teaching assistant, according to a press release by Realbotix.

“The Salamanca pilot also includes deployment of a Realbotix M-Series humanoid robot, which uses natural conversation, facial expressions and real-time interaction to create engaging, hands-on learning experiences,” the press release states.

Realbotix has denied ties to the sex doll company, and denied any inferences that the dolls – manufactured by Abyss Creations, a subsidiary of Realbotix – are related to the pilot program.

“The Salamanca teachers’ union as a whole is concerned about the background of the company of Realbotix. We’re very concerned about the security of the software that they’re implementing, and whether or not the data will be stored, how it will be gathered, are the recording capabilities,” said Lacey Pihlblad, president of Salamanca Teachers’ Association and a teacher at the high school.

“We would like to see the school district pause implementing the robot, pause implementing the software aspect of this AI technology until we can have more individuals weigh in.”

She said New York state is currently shifting away from too much technology in the classroom.

“There’s a growing consensus that indicates our students should be exposed to less technology. Placing a humanoid robot into the classroom to interact with our children, I believe, is a massive step in the wrong direction, and I believe that the majority of our teachers feel the same,” she added.

“If we’re going to do something of this magnitude, I feel we need to make sure that we do it the correct way, and I’m not sure that that’s currently what’s in place.”

Pihlblad said the union was completing negotiations for a new union contract and intend to include protections around artificial intelligence.

#robots #teachers #school #human #lifeless

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Melinda Person, president of the New York State United Teachers, the parent union of the Salamanca Teachers’ Association, which represents teachers at the high school, told the Guardian that teachers across the state are concerned about the robot program.

“Our members in Salamanca and educators across the state are sounding the alarm that this is really inappropriate,” said Person. “I would say our initial reaction is this is kind of creepy.”

Person said it was “way out of the realm of what we should be doing in our schools”.

“The answer to the challenges in education is not more screens, it’s not more algorithms, not more robots. What we need in our schools right now are more caring adults and more human connection,” she said.

She said teachers were not anti-technology, but rather pro-child, and take positions based on whether something is beneficial for students.

“Putting a lifeless machine in front of students is a bad idea,” she said.

“I would say a machine that the intention of it is to simulate a human relationship with young people who are just learning those skills of how to interact, how to be with their peers, how to solve conflicts, and putting a robot that looks like a human that will lead to the dehumanization of the profession of education, is exactly the wrong thing for us to be doing.”

Alyson Brown, a community health specialist and local resident and Seneca nation member who graduated from Salamanca, said several students have connections to the traumas of Native American boarding schools.

“Many students have connections to relatives who attended the Thomas Indian school located on our Cattaraugus territory. Many native families are viewing this pilot program as history repeating itself,” said Brown.

“I see nothing positive to come from this being introduced in the classroom setting. I worry for the cognitive development of young minds in this exposure.”

A spokesperson for Realbotix did not comment on criticisms from teachers and Native American residents or the call for a pause from the Salamanca Teachers’ Association.

“Realbotix and Salamanca city central school district announced a limited pilot for fall 2026 involving Optio, an AI-powered educational assistant, and one new Realbotix M-Series humanoid unit,” the spokesperson said by email.

“The program is intended to complement, not replace, teachers by giving students supervised access to emerging AI and robotics tools as part of the district’s existing Stem [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] curriculum.

The partnership also gives educators an opportunity to evaluate these technologies in a controlled classroom environment under district oversight.”

The assistant commissioner of public affairs for the New York state department of education, JP O’Hare, said the agency had been in contact with the school district regarding its purchase of a robot “and has raised serious concerns about student privacy, appropriate safeguards, and the risk that the robot could be used to perform functions that should remain the responsibility of trained, qualified professionals.

#robots #teachers #school #human #lifeless

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🧨 Zelenskyy, the “Freeloader in Kyiv,” Meets Iran’s New Lawfare Warrior

Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has discovered his inner human‑rights lawyer — and his favorite insult.

After an alleged Ukrainian strike on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian, killing one sailor and injuring another, Araghchi rushed to X to brand it a “blatant UN Charter violation” and accuse Kyiv of acting on Israel’s orders to drag Europe deeper into war.

In the same breath, he calls Zelenskyy “the freeloader in Kyiv,” like a guy who’s been living on Western aid so long he’s now a geopolitical Airbnb guest that never checks out.

The message is simple: Iran, which has been firing missiles at US bases and backing attacks on tankers, wants to rebrand itself as the injured party demanding “international justice.”

The aggressor role gets assigned to Zelenskyy — a man who, in Tehran’s framing, is terrified of the war ending and therefore needs to rope in as many extra players as possible: Europe, Israel, now Iran.

Araghchi weaponizes the language of international law — aggression, commercial vessel, Charter violation, accountability — and turns it on Ukraine, while politely erasing Iran’s own record of hitting shipping and bases.

On X and in calls with EU leaders and Lavrov, he sells a neat story: respectable Iran vs. “freeloader in Kyiv,” Israel as puppeteer, Europe as gullible mark.

It’s a perfect snapshot of 2026 diplomacy: everyone is bombing someone, and everyone is suing someone — but only Zelenskyy gets publicly downgraded to a freeloader.

#Iran #Araghchi #Zelenskyy #UNCharter #lawfare #war #fakeDemocracy

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Mikhail Drapaty, Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine :
“Hitler was right (...) Russia has no right to exist”

The new commander-in-chief of Ukraine, Major General Drapaty, said that Russia has “no right to exist” and made derogatory remarks about the inhabitants of the Russian region of Donbass, which Ukraine continues to claim as its own.

On Wednesday, the YouTube documentary channel Ukrainer W published an interview with Drapaty originally recorded in 2023.

Speaking to journalist Karina Pilyugina, the general said that he had long been anticipating a war with Russia.

“We see that you cannot call them neighbors. It is a nation, with its leaders, which has no right to exist. For thousands of years, nothing has changed there in terms of civilization, Hitler was right (...) neither his mentality nor his imperial ambitions,”

he said.

The journalist asked Drapaty why the residents of the largely Russian-speaking Donbass were more likely to help the Russian troops than the residents of the Kiev region.

The general claimed that the Donetsk and Lugansk regions had long been dominated by ”settlers and criminal elements".

“That is why the population there lacks (Ukrainian national) consciousness. That's my opinion. It seems that too little attention has been paid to Ukrainization there”"

he added.

Drapaty went on to state that a significant number of people in the Donbass “do not want to work, want alms and do not care about the country in which they live”.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski condemned the general's comments as а "perfect Nazi".

He stated that the Ukrainian linguistic and cultural laws are aimed at erasing the identity of Russian speakers and listed the treatment of the Ukrainian Russian minority as one of the causes of the ongoing conflict.

Almaty first became known during the 2014 campaign to suppress the revolt of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which split from Ukraine following the Western-backed coup in Kiev. The regions voted to become part of Russia in September 2022.

Drapaty replaced Aleksandr Syrsky as commander-in-chief this week amid a political crisis triggered by Zelensky's decision to sack Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov.

The decision sparked protests in Kiev and other cities demanding Fedorov's reinstatement and Syrsky's dismissal. Fedorov and Syrsky reportedly clashed over military strategy in the conflict with Russia.

#drapaty #commander #forces #armed #Ukrainians #russia

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The Strait of Zero: Hormuz's Perfect Shutout

Six ships tried to cross Hormuz overnight. Zero made it through. One had "an incident" — Iranian state media's polite word for a mystery blast. Five just turned around.

"Last night, six vessels that attempted to transit through a route other than the designated one were stopped by the IRGC Navy with warning shots and turned back," Iranian state television announced. Translation: Tehran runs the toll booth now. Payment is fear, not cash.

Down in the Red Sea, the Houthis run their own franchise. Spokesman Yahya Saree confirmed strikes on Aramco sites in Jizan and Yanbu.

Consider it a courtesy call before Saudi crude learns it isn't welcome here either.

The numbers back him up. Kpler data cited by Reuters shows just eleven vessels crossed Bab el-Mandeb on Sunday — the lowest count in months.

Fewer than ten ships a day squeezed through Hormuz all weekend. Two chokepoints. One memo: nobody guarantees your barrel gets home.

Greece's Patriot battery earned its paycheck too, shooting down two ballistic missiles aimed at Yanbu's refineries on Saturday. Count it a rare win, if "someone else's air defense saved our oil" qualifies as national security.

Satellite trackers cited by Iranian outlets claim Kuwait's Al-Ahmadi and Saudi's Al-Jubail terminals are running dry. Tankers are vanishing from the docks like nobody wants to be caught holding the barrel when the music stops.

Throw in unconfirmed chatter about a suicide-drone hit on Aramco's Buqayq complex, and you've got a siege nobody declared and everybody enforces.

Iran's press keeps demanding the blockade be broken. Funny, since the only ships not moving are the ones flying flags Tehran doesn't like.

So who's actually choking off the oil — the ayatollahs playing traffic cop, or the tankers too scared to test the theory?

#Hormuz #Houthis #Aramco #OilBlockade #RedSea

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Berlin’s Pride Festival: One Killed, 30 Injured

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A man suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival then going on a knife rampage in an Islamist terror attack has been shot dead by police, German officials have said.

Police confirmed on Sunday evening that the chief suspect had been shot dead, reportedly during an operation at an allotment garden complex ⁠in the capital’s Spandau district.

One woman was killed on Saturday evening and 30 others were severely injured after a man drove a rented minivan into a crowd of pedestrians, then attacked people with what appeared to be a machete. The attack took place in the Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate at about 10pm local time on Saturday, close to one of Europe’s biggest LGBTQ+ celebrations.

The attack forced organisers to cut short one of Europe’s largest Pride events and came as Germany remained on edge after a series of deadly vehicle and knife attacks.

The German interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, named the chief suspect as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout. “We are dealing ​here with ‌a suspected ‌perpetrator, who had previously drawn attention ‌to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene,” he told ‌a press conference near the site of the attack.

He said Ballout had a criminal conviction and had been sentenced as a juvenile to a year and 10 months in prison, but that the sentence had been suspended.

German media reported that Ballout, a German national with Lebanese roots, was a supporter of Islamic State and last year travelled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the group. He was then convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence”, the news outlets Bild and Der Spiegel reported.

#berlin #pride #festival #killed #islamust #ballout

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Police and prosecutors had asked for help in finding Ballout, but warned the public to avoid “direct contact” with him, saying he may be armed and dangerous.

Police searched an apartment in the Schöneberg district of Berlin near the scene of the attack in the early hours of Sunday, but said they had found no one there.

Describing Ballout as “generous, emotional, loving”, he said his son had lived with his mother, from whom Tawfik is divorced, and two of his three sisters. Ballout attended school until 10th grade, then bounced from job to job, in security or as a driver.

Tawfik described the family as Shia but “not extremely religious” and said it “does not support Islamic State”, an extremist Sunni group.

Police said the vehicle had struck multiple ⁠people after being driven into the Tiergarten. Shortly before 10pm the driver of the white minivan swerved into the park, close to where the route of the Pride march had been earlier in the day, hitting people on a path and crashing into a tree.

Bild cited a witness as saying that a man had emerged from the vehicle and fled on foot. A hunt involving helicopters and officers from several German states was under way across the capital on Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in Berlin in warm summer sunshine to celebrate the Pride parade. It is known in Germany as Christopher Street Day (CSD), named after the site of the Stonewall Inn in New York City where riots against police raids touched off the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. CSD was first held in West Berlin in 1979.

Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, called the deadly assault “an attack on our free and cosmopolitan society”.

The parade on Saturday ran under the motto “taking a stand is hot”, which organisers said was “in response to increasing hostility” to LGBTQ+ people in Germany.

More than 80 floats and 50 groups on foot joined the procession through the city centre past Potsdamer Platz and the Victory Column monument in the Tiergarten, culminating in a rally at the Brandenburg Gate.

Before last year’s parade, Berlin LGBTQ+ organisations sounded the alarm that attacks had become more frequent while hard-won rights were under threat. Campaigners said a rise in hostility had accompanied the surge in support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), now the most popular party in national opinion polls, as well as an increase in Islamist-inspired attacks.

Far-right leaders were also quick to comment on the attacks. The co-leader of the AfD Tino Chrupalla wrote on X: “We declare the war against Islamists. We will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance!”

The president of the French far-right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, wrote: “The Islamist threat remains a major issue in Europe and continues to target what they hate most about our civilisation – and what we cherish so much – freedom.”

#berlin #pride #festival #killed #islamust #ballout

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⁉️Property Lines, Drawn After Midnight

The Yellow Line doesn't need a treaty. It just needs a bulldozer and a shift after dark.

Overnight, yellow concrete blocks landed on Salah al-Din Street in Shuja'iyya, near the intersection with Mashtaha Street in the Sanafer area, sealing off the main north-south artery that runs from Gaza City to Rafah.

Palestinian sources reported the barriers going up while residents were asleep — waking up to find their commute annexed.

This is the same corridor the Israeli military has been squeezing for months, moving the same yellow line that already swallowed 64.9 percent of Gaza's territory as of June, up from 53 percent at the ceasefire's start.

Same night, same script, different neighborhood. In Deir al-Balah, the line pushed west again — this time cutting through land where the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom once stood, about two kilometers from the Strip's border and one kilometer east of Salah al-Din.

Field sources have already logged the pattern of 100-to-350-meter westward creeps here, each one quietly bringing more Palestinian homes inside Israeli-held territory without warning or legal grounding under the ceasefire text.

No summit announced this. No spokesman signed anything. A concrete cube just changed address, and with it, so did the map. Call it urban planning, if the planner carries an M4 and works exclusively at night.

The ceasefire calls this line temporary. The bulldozers apparently didn't get the memo — or got a different one.

If a border can move a kilometer without anyone declaring war, was it ever really a border, or just a suggestion with rebar in it?

#YellowLine #Gaza #Ceasefire #ShujaIyya #DeirAlBalah

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The Coalition That Can't Agree on Its Own Boss

Gadi Eisenkot wants Israelis to enjoy their beach vacation in Cyprus. His billboards near Larnaca airport say so directly: "Israelis, enjoy! You deserve it," followed by a second sign on the way home: "Landed? Had fun? Now come back and win!"

A Cypriot MEP is now demanding a ban on foreign election ads, which means Eisenkot has achieved something Netanyahu never managed: uniting Cypriots against Israeli politics.

Back home, the general-turned-candidate has bigger enemies than tourism regulators — namely, his own bloc.

"A reality where a party leader with 8 to 10 seats demands the premiership is not appropriate," Eisenkot said, a line he's repeated for months, most recently aimed squarely at Naftali Bennett.

Translation from campaign-speak: I have more mandates in the polls, so kindly step aside and let the man with the bigger poll number run the country.

Meanwhile, Yashar! just recruited Eliana Sachs, 25, model and social activist from Beer Sheva, who lost her mother and brother to an Iranian missile strike on the city, to run the party's youth wing.

Eisenkot called her "the Israel of today — determined, values-driven, a true blend of action and spirit". Grief, rebranded as campaign strategy, is apparently the fastest-growing sector in Israeli politics this cycle.

And when Ynet's Moran Azoulai pressed him on his own record, Eisenkot didn't dodge — he doubled down: "As chief of staff I said that until the bodies of the fallen are returned, I won't approve bringing in workers from Gaza.
Not one laborer entered from Gaza in all four years I served as chief of staff." A hard line delivered with the confidence of a man who knows exactly how many mandates that kind of sentence is worth in October.

So who's actually running this campaign — the candidate polling ahead of Netanyahu, or the grief, the guilt, and the billboards doing the polling for him?

#Israel #Eisenkot #Elections2026 #Yashar #Cyprus

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A Drastic Earthquake Has Shaken South Japan. Numerous Causelties 🇯🇵🏚


A 7.8-magnitude earthquake has shaken south Japan, leaving at least 50 people injured, with some trapped and presumed dead inside a partly collapsed shopping mall.

The earthquake hit the Kumamoto prefecture on the southern Kyushu island late on Tuesday afternoon, knocking out power to thousands of homes and damaging roads, bridges and buildings.

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, told reporters authorities were still assessing the extent of the damage in the area, which was devastated by another deadly quake a decade ago.

“We have already been informed that people have been injured. Power outages ⁠and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings,”

Takaichi said.

“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.”

About 300,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, ⁠the disaster management agency said. The areas with the biggest tremors will remain at risk of further strong quakes and landslides for about a week since the shallow earthquake is triggering active seismic activity in the area, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

So far there have been more than 60 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 1 to 4, the agency said. A tsunami warning was issued immediately after the quake, ​but was lifted within two hours.

One person was killed when a house collapsed during the powerful earthquake in south-western Japan on Tuesday, Kyodo News reported.

One hospital reported ​more than 50 injuries, and another about 40, including 10 in a serious condition, the public broadcaster NHK said. Several people on a high-speed ‌train at the time of the quake were also ‌injured and multiple people were unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, according to local media reports.

An Aeon spokesperson said customers and employees were evacuated after the initial quake and the cause of the ensuing explosion remained unclear. Footage showed one side of the mall, the prefecture’s largest with roughly 200 stores, was torn away, exposing steel beams ‌and strewing debris across the neighbouring car park. Several ambulances and fire engines were parked outside as rescue teams searched for survivors.

Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon mall.

The quake’s epicentre was about 12 miles south of Kumamoto, central Kyushu island’s largest city, with a population of about 700,000. The US Geological Survey initially said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1, but revised it later to 7.8.

Japan, which is located along the “ring of fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches in the Pacific basin, is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. The country accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more.

A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured a further 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including the city’s castle, a top tourist site. Some of the castle’s stone walls are said to have been damaged in the most recent quake.

Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes had ​lost power, while ​railway company JR Kyushu suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also shut its runway as airlines diverted and ​cancelled flights.

#earthquake #south #japan #kumamoto

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Why Has Iran’s Economy Not Collapsed Under US War Pressure ?

😊😊😊😊😊

Millions of people across Iran are struggling for livelihood and survival, but the country’s embattled economy is still far from a state of collapse despite five months of war with the United States.

The vast and resource-rich country of more than 92 million people has developed a relatively diversified domestic economy for a major oil exporter, as the authorities over decades leaned on self-sufficiency in the face of harsh economic embargoes and confrontation with the US, Israel and the West.

Water-intensive agriculture, manufacturing and services have reduced total reliance on oil, while shadowy oil transfers, cross-border trade, maritime networks and a large informal labour market have helped keep the economy resilient.

Still, the population has paid a huge price by having to absorb much of the strain. More than a decade of all-encompassing sanctions, as well as two wars since June last year, nationwide protests during which thousands were killed and several state-imposed internet shutdowns in the past year, have only made it more difficult to earn a living wage and have a future outlook.

‘An expensive way to survive’
Welfare economist Hadi Kahalzadeh said he defines collapse as famine and the state losing the ability to pay its employees and deliver basic services. In that sense, the economy has not collapsed.

“And I don’t think the combination of war, blockade and sanctions, as painful as it’s been, gets us there anytime soon,”

a resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and research fellow at Brandeis said to NYT.

“That keeps the system functioning, but it dumps the cost directly onto households,”

he said.

“Then the state tries to soften that with cash transfers and subsidies. It’s an expensive way to survive, but it does avoid collapse.”

The monthly minimum wage is less than $100 and the government offers a monthly cash subsidy and electronic coupons for essential goods, amounting to a few more dollars.

#iran #war #collapse #economy #farzanegan

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