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Pope Leo rejects Trump invitation to join Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ 

The Vatican flatly rejected a U.S. invitation to join the Trump-led “Board of Peace” for Gaza. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem previously described the project as “a colonialist operation” focused on “others deciding for the Palestinians.”

Mondoweiss, By Jeff Wright  February 20, 2026 

Pope Leo XIV, the U.S.-born Pontiff, has formally declined U.S. President Trump’s invitation for the Vatican to join his so-called Peace Board for Gaza.

According to Trump, the board—which he will head—will oversee Gaza’s governance and reconstruction. Trump has said that the board may later address other global conflicts under his leadership. 

But in delivering the Pope’s firm “no,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, insisted that “at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations,” not a U.S.-led board.

Responding to the Pope’s decision, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the decision “deeply unfortunate.” In spite of the fact that not a single Palestinian has been invited to serve on the board, Leavitt said, “I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial.”

Earlier this month, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was asked what he thought of Trump’s board. He said, “I think it is a colonialist operation: others deciding for the Palestinians.” Noting that Trump has said that permanent membership on the board carries a $1 billion price tag, Pizzaballa said, “I’ve never had a billion, but above all this is not the Church’s task: It is the sacraments, the dignity of the person.”

Asked by Mondoweiss to comment, Rifat Kassis, General Coordinator of Kairos Palestine—the broadest ecumenical movement of Palestinian Christians—echoed Pizzaballa’s charge. Kassis said, “The Pope’s rejection of the proposed council signals a clear principle: neither global powers nor global foreign institutions can claim to build peace while silencing the Palestinians whose land and future are at stake.”………………………………………………………………………………………….

As Trump prepared to host the Peace Board’s inaugural meeting in D.C. this week, Priests Against Genocide USA—an international network that includes 2,200 priests from 58 countries, along with 22 bishops and archbishops and two cardinals—penned an open letter to Paul Coakley, Catholic Archbishop of Oklahoma City, who is serving as the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Citing the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, the network’s Steering Committee writes, “We humbly appeal to the Catholic leadership in the United State to speak with moral clarity and to bear courageous witness to peace and justice.”

The letter continues, “[T]he convening of President Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace’… underscores the urgent need for our Church’s prophetic witness.” They ask Archbishop Coakley “to help form the conscience of our nation regarding this so-called Board of Peace and to inspire all people of goodwill to become instruments of authentic peace. The Gospels teach that peace is the fruit of truth and justice. Yet any claim to peace becomes hollow when Palestinian voices are excluded from decision-making, when systemic injustice is normalized, and when fundamental rights of the oppressed are subordinated to profit-driven interests.” https://mondoweiss.net/2026/02/pope-leo-rejects-trump-invitation-to-join-gaza-board-of-peace/

February 25, 2026 Posted by | Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Iran will not bow down to US pressure in nuclear talks, Pezeshkian says

Iranian president vows to stand firm as Trump threatens strikes and the US bolsters its military presence in the Gulf.

By Al Jazeera Staff and News Agencies, 22 Feb 2026

Iran’s ⁠President ⁠Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged not to fold to pressure from the United States after his American counterpart, Donald Trump, said he was considering limited strikes to force a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Pezeshkian’s comments on Saturday came amid high tensions in the Gulf, with the US continuing to grow its military presence  with the deployment of two aircraft carriers and dozens of jets.

“We will not bow down in the face of any of these difficulties,” Pezeshkian said at a ceremony to honour members of the Iranian Paralympics team.

“World powers are lining up with cowardice to force us to bow our heads. Just as you did not bow down in the face of difficulties, we will not bow down in the face of these problems,” he said.

Iran and the US resumed indirect talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme in Oman earlier this month, and held a second round in Switzerland last week.

Although Washington and Tehran described the talks in overall positive terms, they failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that a diplomatic solution appeared within “our reach” and that his country was planning to finalise a draft deal in “the next two to three days” to send to Washington.

Crossroads

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the two countries appear to be at a “crossroads once again” and that residents of the Iranian capital were watching closely for signs of diplomatic progress.

“How can anyone not worry about war?” one woman told Al Jazeera. “Even if we don’t worry about ourselves, we worry about our children’s future.”

A businessman said he believed military confrontation was eventually inevitable “because what the Americans want is surrender, and the Iranian state won’t accept that”………………………………………………………….

Trump issued new threats of military action in January following a deadly Iranian crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Tehran responded by threatening to strike US military bases in the region and warning that it could close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil exports for the Gulf Arab states.

Greatest air power since 2003

According to the US media, the airpower Washington is amassing in the region is the greatest since its invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the past few days, Washington has deployed more than 120 aircraft to the Middle East, while the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, is on its way to join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group already positioned in the Arabian Sea…………………………………………………………………. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/22/iran-will-not-bow-down-to-us-pressure-in-nuclear-talks-pezeshkian-says

February 25, 2026 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

British submarine arrives for ‘extraordinary’ AUKUS visit

Retired rear admiral Philip Mathias, a former director of nuclear policy with the UK Ministry of Defence, told this masthead last month he feared Australians were not adequately informed about how the troubles plaguing the British navy could scuttle the SSN-AUKUS plan.

“ there is a high probability that the UK element of AUKUS will fail,”

“Australia has shown a great deal of naivety and did not conduct sufficient due diligence on the parlous state of the UK’s nuclear submarine program before signing up to AUKUS – and parting with billions of dollars,”

Matthew Knott, SMH, February 22, 2026 —

A British nuclear-powered submarine has arrived in Australia for an unprecedented month-long visit despite the well-chronicled problems plaguing the British navy’s ability to send its vessels to sea.

The British and Australian governments are holding up the visit as a sign of the countries’ commitment to the AUKUS pact, even as the United Kingdom views Russia as its most pressing security threat.

HMS Anson, an Astute-class nuclear-powered submarine, arrived on Sunday at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Perth for a month-long maintenance visit.

described the first such visit by a UK nuclear‑powered submarine in Australia as a “historic step in our nation’s readiness to operate and maintain conventionally armed, nuclear‑powered submarines”.

HMS Anson, which was commissioned in 2022, is reportedly the only available submarine in the British navy’s fleet of five Astute-class boats, highlighting the significance of the extended deployment to Australia.

British defence publication Navy Lookout has written that the “timing of the deployment seems extraordinary” as the British navy does not have any other Astute-class submarines available.

“The UK must continue to play its part in AUKUS, but in the short term, perhaps more local concerns should be the priority,” the publication argued this month.

“Placing the sole attack submarine on the other side of the globe appears to be at odds with vigorous official warnings to Russia that ‘any threat will be met with strength and resolve’.”

Navy Lookout said the British navy’s other four Astute-class submarines were “all at low or very low readiness”…………………………………………………………………………………

The plan involves the US selling Australia at least three Virginia-class submarines while the UK and Australia partner on the development of a new class of submarine known as the SSN-AUKUS………….

Retired rear admiral Philip Mathias, a former director of nuclear policy with the UK Ministry of Defence, told this masthead last month he feared Australians were not adequately informed about how the troubles plaguing the British navy could scuttle the SSN-AUKUS plan.

“Whilst the United States may sell some [nuclear-powered submarines] to Australia, there is a high probability that the UK element of AUKUS will fail,” he said

Mathias, who led a 2010 review of the UK Trident nuclear-weapons system, said: “It is clear that Australia has shown a great deal of naivety and did not conduct sufficient due diligence on the parlous state of the UK’s nuclear submarine program before signing up to AUKUS – and parting with billions of dollars, which it has already started to do.”

The head of the British navy, First Sea Lord Gwyn Jenkins, ordered an urgent 100-day drive to tackle systemic delays in the UK submarine program in October.

UK publication Defence Eye reported that the British navy “has struggled to put more than one of its five Astute boats to sea at a time” and that “for a number of months over the past two years, no Astute boats have been at sea”. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/british-submarine-arrives-for-extraordinary-aukus-visit-20260222-p5o4d8.html

February 25, 2026 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international | Leave a comment

Lies Of Omission As Fresh American War Crimes Loom

The US has been at war for 222 out of 239 years since 1776. The country is hardly going to stop now, especially not with the stars aligning for a project the US-Israel-Zionist axis has been desperate to undertake for nearly 50 years.

And despite the fact that a nation at almost constant war is going to attack a country that last initiated a war nearly 300 years ago, the US and Israel are going to pose as the saviours and pacifiers.

 Do not panic, February 22, 2026 , Nate Bear

The US has amassed the largest military force in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq almost 23 years ago and is poised once again to commit mass murder and gleefully perpetrate an astonishing amount of war crimes.

Yesterday a huge number of planes, from fighter jets to air-to-air refuelling tankers to command and control planes, left the US en route to the Middle East. The planes had stop-overs on US military bases in England and Germany, because no imperial war crime is ever complete without the involvement of Europe.

A US attack on Iran, a flagrant violation of international law, if such a thing is even worth mentioning any more, appears imminent.

Why? For Israel, for oil, for power projection, for Trump’s legacy. Because the logic of the military-industrial complex demands that $1 trillion dollars a year and an astonishing array of killing machinery doesn’t just sit idle.

Because this is what empires do.

Because the US is violence.

And there is no more stunning display of American violence than a big war.

The US has been at war for 222 out of 239 years since 1776. The country is hardly going to stop now, especially not with the stars aligning for a project the US-Israel-Zionist axis has been desperate to undertake for nearly 50 years.

And despite the fact that a nation at almost constant war is going to attack a country that last initiated a war nearly 300 years ago, the US and Israel are going to pose as the saviours and pacifiers.

The leaders of these countries will self-anoint themselves as such, while western media will subject their readers and viewers to a dizzying display of propaganda to enable the murders and wash the crimes.

The groundwork

But the propaganda won’t start from the day of the attack.

The truth is, we wouldn’t be in this situation without the groundwork laid by the media over the years.

We wouldn’t be on the verge of another major US war without the often subtle lies of omission that have characterised western reporting on Iran for decades, and have been especially evident in recent months.

Let’s go through some of them.

Shifting narratives

Firstly, and importantly, the premise for an attack.

Last June Trump said the US had ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear sites.

But now, eight months later, the US apparently needs to do a much bigger war to take out Iran’s nuclear programme.

No one will ask the obvious question.

The premise, that Iran’s nuclear programme is a threat, will stand tall and uninterrogated in the mind of the propagandised western media consumer who just eight months ago was told it had all been destroyed.

Loaded terms

“Iran’s nuclear programme.”

The words themselves are loaded with an intent that is rarely examined or explained.

They never come with any context and are purposefully designed to shut down any critical thinking, as I’ve written about before.

Western media never explains that Iran is one of the world’s biggest producers of radiopharmaceuticals used for cancer diagnostics and treatments. And to diagnose cancer and make cancer drugs, you need medical isotopes. And you can’t make medical isotopes without enriching uranium. Iran is in the top five global exporters of radioactive drugs, supplying fifteen countries, including European countries, with nuclear medicines. And sanctions on Iran prohibit the import of radiopharmaceuticals.

So without its deliberately misrepresented “nuclear programme” Iran would find it hard, if not impossible, to diagnose and treat people with cancer and other illnesses.

The nuclear deal

Media never explains this and also never explains the background to US threats towards Iran over this programme. Amid all the coverage of talks and possible deals, Western media never mentions the fact that in 2018 Trump himself ripped up a deal, signed in 2016, that was working just fine.

That agreement, ratified by the UN Security Council, facilitated regular site inspections and allowed Iran to manufacture nuclear material for medicine and energy. The media will never remind us of this, nor that the last inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to be in full compliance with their obligations.

We are never told that Trump, under pressure from his Zionist backers to manufacture a crisis which could move the US and Israel towards war, and eager to undo a rare Obama success, deliberately created a problem to solve.

And as we’re about to find out, there was never any intention of solving it peacefully.

But media will keep up the pretence that these were good faith negotiations that broke down because of Iran’s demands. And they won’t tell us those demands included being able to diagnose and treat cancer.

Unilateralism

The fact of the US unilaterally withdrawing from the previous deal is also a key omission in the coverage……………………………………………………..


Israel’s nukes

Talking of rogue states, the media will never examine the foundational premise underlying the whole issue of Iranian nuclear capability.

They’ll never question why Israel is allowed to have a nuclear weapon but Iran isn’t. They’ll never lead readers or viewers to question why the region’s preeminent aggressor, a perpetrator of genocide and a constant violator of laws and norms, is the one trusted with the most destructive weapon in human history.

Because then they’d have to frame Israel as the aggressor.

Then they’d have to explain how empire works.

Then they’d have to examine glaring double standards and hypocrisies and introduce people to critical thinking which doesn’t lead to reflexive cheerleading for empire.

And that is a big no-no.

It is, after all, much easier to manufacture consent for war if a large chunk of the population thinks you’re the good guys doing freedom and peace things.

New pretexts

If you’ve been following the news, you might be aware that the latest talks go beyond the nuclear programme and introduce new pretexts for war, one of which is Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Israel, having been shocked at Iran’s ability to strike its territory last June, wants the new deal to include the elimination of all Iran’s long-range missiles.

When the US and Israel attack, we’ll be told that it’s Iran’s fault. We’ll be told that wanting to retain defensive capability in the face of an expansionist, genocidal enemy loudly committed to your destruction is an irrational position.

The Guardian among others have already started pushing this line.

By contrast, we won’t be asked to think about why Israel can have any weapon it likes.

We won’t be asked to think about why the US would go to war to stop a country being able to defend itself from Israel.

This will just be presented as the natural order of things.

American violence

The coming war on Iran will be a completely illegal war of unprovoked aggression committed by the US against a country 4500 miles away which poses zero threat………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.donotpanic.news/p/lies-of-omission-as-fresh-american

February 25, 2026 Posted by | Iran, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Proposed Saudi-U.S. deal could allow uranium enrichment, arms control experts warn

PBS News, Jon Gambrell, Associated Press, Feb 20, 2026 


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues.

U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology. Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive crown prince has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact last year after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

“Nuclear cooperation can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency, but the devil is in the details,” wrote Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

The documents raise “concerns that the Trump administration has not carefully considered the proliferation risks posed by its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia or the precedent this agreement may set.”

Saudi Arabia did not respond to questions Friday from The Associated Press.

Congressional report outlines possible deal

The congressional document, also seen by the AP, shows the Trump administration aims to reach 20 nuclear business deals with nations around the world, including Saudi Arabia. The deal with Saudi Arabia could be worth billions of dollars, it adds.

The document contends that reaching a deal with the kingdom “will advance the national security interests of the United States, breaking with the failed policies of inaction and indecision that our competitors have capitalized on to disadvantage American industry and diminish the United States standing globally in this critical sector.” China, France, Russia and South Korea are among the leading nations that sell nuclear power plant technology abroad.

The draft deal would see America and Saudi Arabia enter safeguard agreements with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA. That would include oversight of the “most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation,” it added. It listed enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing as potential areas………………………………………………………………………………..

Saudi-U.S. proposal comes amid Iran tensions

The push for a Saudi-U.S. deal comes as Trump threatens military action against Iran if it doesn’t reach a deal over its nuclear program. The Trump military push follows nationwide protests in Iran that saw its theocratic government launch a bloody crackdown on dissent that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands more reportedly detained.

In Iran’s case, it long has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful. However, the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003. Tehran also had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — making it the only country in the world to do so without a weapons program.

Iranian diplomats long have pointed to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran won’t build an atomic bomb. However, Iranian officials increasingly have made the threat they could seek the bomb as tensions have risen with the U.S.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, has said if Iran obtains the bomb, “we will have to get one.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/proposed-saudi-u-s-deal-could-allow-uranium-enrichment-arms-control-experts-warn

February 25, 2026 Posted by | Saudi Arabia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel and American Hawks are pushing US to Iran War with Catastrophic Consequences.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, observes in an on-line interview, that “to be hated means that one does hateful things” and Israel’s leaders are behaving badly”.He noted that what Netanyahu means by peace is pacification [of Arab nations]. It is delusional and [shows] a complete lack of understanding of one’s enemies”. 

Hugh J. Curran, INFORMED COMMENT, 02/22/2026

Orono, Maine – It seems clear that Israeli proponents of conflict in the Middle East, as well as supporters in the US media and politics, are determined to take America to war with Iran. This observation was forcefully stated by the global affairs analyst, Patrick Henningsen, who has recently returned from Iran. 

The causes of the protests have not so much to do with the regime itself but with economic conditions, including an inflation rate of 42% in December, 2025 while food prices rose by 72% and medical costs increased by 50%. The Iranian Rial has suffered sharp depreciation with poor fiscal policies and mismanagement being causes, although numerous sanctions have been taking a serious toll on Iran’s economy and its people.

Israel and the U.S. claim that Iran “poses an existential threat and therefore must give up its ballistic missile program, which is its primary deterrent”. In addition, Trump has renewed a claim that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon although they are not planning such a program according to Iran sources and U.S. intelligence assessments.

An additional justification for war is that thousands of protestors were injured or killed in recent demonstrations in Iran. Mai Sato, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Iran has cited “around 5000 deaths” while the “Human Rights Activists News Agency” states that there were 7,015 deaths. The Iran state media reports that 3117 died, including over 100 officers. Others report a “spiral of disinformation”, promoted by supporters of the former Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, who have grossly inflated the numbers.

Former CIA director, Mike Pompeo was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying that “every Mossad agent walks beside them [Iranian demonstrators] Mossad encouraged the anti-regime protestors: “Go out together into the streets. The time has come, “Mossad operatives are with the protestors “not only from a distance.  We are with [them] in the field.”

Other extreme conservative views that have gained recent attention include those of Sen. Lindsey Graham: “The best answer to all the problems created by Iran is regime change ………………………

Israel’s Netanyahu has been, for some time, promoting conflict with Iran and is once again attempting to persuade American leaders to engage in an attack in order to bring about regime change in the Islamic Republic.

A writer for Israel’s Haaretz News has warned that the U.S. ”is approaching the precipice without articulating a vision as to what will follow …[and is] plunging toward a large-scale war against the Islamic Republic of Iran”

Iran is receiving support from China which has become dependent upon the 1.5 million barrels of oil being shipped daily. Henningsen noted that “Iran possesses advanced missile technology, including newer hypersonic generations not yet deployed, improved targeting systems capable of hitting moving naval targets, proprietary guidance systems, and Chinese-assisted navigation technology”. Despite these defenses, “it’s… clear that the Neocons and Israeli operatives in US media and politics seem determined to take America,…to war.” And this, in spite of the dire consequences, which are likely to be devastating, not only to Iran but also to Israel itself.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, observes in an on-line interview, that “to be hated means that one does hateful things” and Israel’s leaders are behaving badly”.He noted that what Netanyahu means by peace is pacification [of Arab nations]. It is delusional and [shows] a complete lack of understanding of one’s enemies”. Ambassador Freeman observes that: “Israel is an apartheid state and is enabling dictatorial decisions that are not the “will of the people”. The leaders believe in their own propaganda, but they are not hated because they are Jews but because of their behavior in the destruction of Gaza as well as their targeted assassinations. https://www.juancole.com/2026/02/american-catastrophic-consequences.html

February 25, 2026 Posted by | Iran, Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Dumping Radioactive Wastewater into the Hudson River”

A U.S. District Court judge has allowed Holtec International to move forward with plans to dump more than a million gallons of radioactive wastewater from the closed Indian Point nuclear plants into the Hudson River, ruling that federal authority over nuclear discharges overrides New York State’s “Save the Hudson” Act.

Guests Deborah Porder, Michel Lee, and S.D. Smith (“Owl”), all attorneys involved in the issue, explore the environmental, legal, economic, and health implications of the radioactive wastewater dumping.

Owl, attorney general to the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation, underscores the Hudson’s tidal, fjord-like dynamics, explaining how contamination can spread widely and persist over long timescales, cycling through ecosystems and into human bodies. He frames the issue as part of a broader pattern of industrial decision-making that prioritizes short-term gain over long-term environmental integrity.

Michel Lee of United for Clean Energy explains that a key component of the radioactive wastewater—tritium—combines into water and, inside a body, distributes to cells and incorporates into tissues causing prolonged internal radiation exposure.

Deborah Porder of the Stop Holtec Coalition focuses on public health impacts, including elevated cancer risks and adverse pregnancy outcomes near nuclear facilities, noting that tritium can cross the placenta and enter breast milk.

The panel also raises concerns about halted federal cancer studies, the economic viability of nuclear power compared to renewables, and the risk caused by Holtec to the public. Together, they call for strong regulatory oversight, public engagement, and a move away from nuclear power to safe, green, clean energy sources.

February 25, 2026 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment