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Israel targets southern Lebanon with internationally banned phosphorus shells

May 5, 2026 , https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260505-israel-targets-southern-lebanon-with-internationally-banned-phosphorus-shells/

The Israeli army shelled towns in southern Lebanon with phosphorus munitions Tuesday, according to the National News Agency NNA.

The agency reported that the towns of Kounine and Beit Yahoun in the Bint Jbeil district were targeted with artillery shells containing phosphorus, which are banned internationally.

Israeli warplanes separately carried out airstrikes on the towns of Kafra, Braachit and Safad al-Battikh in the Tyre district, said the report.

Additional strikes hit Beit al-Sayyad and Mansouri, where three raids targeted residential homes, according to the agency.

No casualties were reported.

Despite a ceasefire that was announced April 17 and extended until May 17, the Israeli army continues daily strikes in Lebanon and widespread demolition of homes in dozens of villages.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that the death toll from Israeli attacks since March 2 has reached 2,702, with 8,311 injured.

May 12, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

War Dividends: Potential U.S. Arms Sales to the Middle East Surge in Q1 2026

On March 19, the U.S. approved $8.5 billion in potential sales to the UAE, split across four potential deals. These approvals included a $4.5 billion sale of a Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) for integration with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air-defense system, a $2.1 billion sale of counter-UAS equipment, a $1.2 billion deal for 400 AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, and a $644 million sale of F-16 munitions. Kuwait was approved to purchase eight Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) radars on the same day, at a cost of $8 billion. The U.S. also signed off on $70.5 million in aircraft and munitions support for Jordan

April 23, 2026 – by Jon Hemler and Derek Bisaccio, https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2026/04/23/us-foreign-military-sales-q1-2026-middle-east-iran-war/

During the first quarter of 2026, the U.S. government approved over $45 billion in potential Foreign Military Sales (FMS) with the overwhelming majority supporting Middle Eastern allies. Of total global approvals, the region garnered 81 percent, or over $36.6 billion in estimated sales value for defense equipment.

Direct comparisons between first-quarter FMS approvals and the combat systems currently being used by the United States, Israel, and allied Arab states are imperfect. Approved agreements do not automatically translate into deliveries. Follow-on contracts, payments and shipments might not materialize for months or years, if at all. Even so, FMS activity can be a meaningful indicator of geopolitical and industrial trends. This is increasingly true given the scale of combat, stakeholders involved, and weapons consumption driven by the Iranian War.

Middle East
Countries in the Middle East spend heavily on defense, devoting some $177.5 billion to military expenditure in their FY26 budgets by conservative estimates. Many of the region’s governments, moreover, possess immense reserve assets that can be leveraged to support procurement when needed.

Over 81 percent of FMS approvals in the first quarter of 2026 covered potential sales to American partners in the Middle East, corresponding with the deterioration in the regional security environment during this timeframe. These approvals can be generally grouped into two tranches, with the first set announced around the end of January. On January 30, the U.S. approved a Saudi request for 730 Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles, which, together with support equipment, carry an estimated price tag of $9.0 billion. That same day, the U.S. also approved four sales to Israel worth a combined $6.6 billion, with the largest being a potential $3.8 billion sale of 30 AH-64E attack helicopters.

The U.S. and Israel began military operations against Iran on February 28, beginning a weeks-long air campaign in retaliation for the country’s brutal crackdown on protesters the month before and aiming to dismantle Iran’s offensive military capabilities and nuclear program. Iran retaliated with missile and drone salvoes targeting Israel, regional U.S. military bases, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to some estimates, Iran fired as many as 6,400 missiles and drones at the GCC countries and Jordan across 41 days of operations. The majority of these attacks were intercepted, but Iranian attacks did manage to penetrate Gulf air defenses and hit sensitive sites. Amid these barrages, the GCC countries made a series of requests for ammunition and radar systems from the U.S., leading to a group of FMS approvals in mid-March.

All six of the deals announced on March 19 were approved under an emergency exception to Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, waiving the typical Congressional review requirement. That process would normally take roughly 30 to 40 days, during which the sides would be unable to move forward with contract negotiations.

Europe

Around $3.8 billion in FMS approvals in the first quarter of 2026 – 8.5 percent of the overall total – target European requirements. A sizable chunk of this total comes from Spain’s $1.7 billion request for mid-life upgrades to its Álvaro de Bazán-class frigates. The upgrade program will principally include integrating the AEGIS weapon system to expand the warships’ air-defense capabilities.

On March 10, the State Department approved the sale of 20 M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Sweden, with a price tag of $930 million. Should Stockholm move forward with a purchase agreement, it would become the eighth or ninth European customer for the multiple rocket launcher, joining Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. (Hungary, another potential customer, announced plans to acquire HIMARS on April 9, ahead of the incumbent government’s loss in general elections several days later.)

The U.S. also approved an FMS deal with Denmark, blessing the sale of 100 AGM-114R HELLFIRE air-to-surface missiles at a possible cost of $45 million. Relations between Washington and Copenhagen have become turbulent in the second Trump administration over Greenland’s political future, but beneath the headlines, the two countries remain strong defense partners.

Only one FMS approval for Ukraine (which Forecast International groups in the Eurasia region) was announced in the first quarter of 2026, on February 6. Kyiv requested to buy spare parts for its U.S. Army-supplied vehicles and weapons, at an expected cost of $185 million.

Over time, European countries are aiming to reduce their dependency on the U.S. for military equipment, pursuing various national and intra-European projects to improve the continent’s own defense industry. This process was jump-started in 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has accelerated over the past year as European capitals increasingly worry that the U.S. may withdraw from the NATO Alliance.

Europe (not including Ukraine and Russia) is expected to spend $508.9 billion on defense in FY26, up from around $300 billion on the eve of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Five years ago, only a handful of NATO countries met the Alliance’s 2 percent of GDP target, but most are now at least at that threshold, if not well exceeding it.

Industry Trends

From a weapons systems standpoint, missiles and related equipment represent the largest category of approved potential sales from the quarter at nearly $16.0 billion and 35 percent of the total. Relatedly, the three highest-cost possible deals involve various offensive and defensive missile and networked electronic systems that have featured prominently in military operations during the war in Iran.

Of these, American defense giants Lockheed Martin and RTX are well-positioned to capitalize on a prospective windfall of over $21 billion in the aforementioned FMS to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE. Domestically, Lockheed Martin and RTX both emerged as beneficiaries of several historic multi-year framework agreements with the Pentagon during Q1 2026, to boost precision munitions and interceptor production for the U.S

Like FMS approvals, these agreements do not indicate signed contracts or solid revenue. However, subsequent large-scale contacts are likely to follow in the coming years as the U.S. moves to surge critical munitions production. Some related contracts are already unfolding. In early April, Lockheed Martin received a $4.76 billion award supported by U.S. Army and FMS allocations for PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missiles.

Raytheon, an RTX company, also won a handful of LTAMDS contracts from the U.S. government during the first quarter, including a $905 million production contract on April 16 that contributes to an overall $5.36 billion cumulative framework.

Strategic pivot

The awards to Lockheed Martin and RTX, alongside FMS approvals for key systems emerging from the Iranian War, underscore a broader shift in Washington’s approach to weapons deals. On February 6, 2026, the White House issued an Executive Order entitled “America First Arms Transfer Strategy” to reshape priorities for foreign military equipment sale policy.

Though the Trump Administration’s order references arms transfers as a foreign policy tool, the text primarily focuses on strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base. Indeed, the order states that the strategy “will ensure that future arms sales prioritize American interests by using foreign purchases and capital to build American production and capacity.” A deeper read of the subsections signals a reprioritization of strategy – one that emphasizes utilizing arms sales to bolster domestic industry over foreign policy objectives.

May 11, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | MIDDLE EAST, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people, and AI

Even today’s accelerated pace strains decades-old launch facilities.

Defense One Thomas Novelly, Senior Reporter, May 7, 2026

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida—The guardians manning screens in the mission-ops center here oversaw the launch of five types of rockets in April, a new record that involved NASA’s Artemis II, the first reused New Glenn booster, and a Falcon 9 lofting the final GPS III satellite. But tomorrow’s Space Force may have no time to mark even epochal missions. Within a decade, service leaders say, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will be launching hundreds of rockets a year.

To facilitate the Pentagon’s fast-growing demand for orbital capability, the Space Force is looking for more launch sites, more money, more troops, and more AI.

“In 2025, the Space Force saw a drastic increase in mission requirements across space access, global mission operations, and space control. This trend shows no signs of slowing,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s top uniformed leader, told House lawmakers last week. “The Space Force we have today is not the Space Force we will need in the future.”

Nestled on a thin stretch of land just miles from nature preserves and cruise-ship ports, the historic Cape Canaveral facility launched 36 rockets in 2021, its first year as a Space Force facility. Last year, it sent 110 into the heavens, while its California counterpart, Vandenberg Space Force Base, launched another 65.

This year, Space Force leaders intend to launch more than 200 rockets from their two main launch sites. And by 2036, they project, the pair will launch as many as 3,000 annually, according to a service document released last month.

That’s going to take more launchpads…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Pushing policy

The Space Force’s top brass has been making that pitch as well.

Last month at the Space Symposium in Colorado, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman unveiled “Objective Force 2040,” an ambitious vision with a section on expanding the service’s launch capabilities.

“As the space domain becomes increasingly linked both to national security and to economic prosperity, the importance of space access grows commensurately,” the document said. “This is a significant challenge because the Space Force has supported exponential growth in launch cadence over the past few years using the same physical infrastructure first built decades ago. The future operating environment will only exacerbate this strain, with booming government and commercial demand as well as new mission requirements for responsive and scalable space access.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

People problems

Increasing the number of launches will require more than money. Top Space Force officers have recently called for doubling the service’s end-strength over the next decade.

But even that won’t be enough, they say. Guardians will need to lean on AI to help. ………………………….. The Objective Force document calls for a service that can “operate at machine speed, leveraging artificial intelligence and autonomous systems while maintaining the primacy of human judgment for critical decisions.”……………………. https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2026/05/launches-slated-grow-hundredfold-space-force-seeks-more-sites-money-people-and-ai/413403/?oref=defense_one_breaking_nl&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Defense%20One:%20Breaking%20%285/7%29%20launches&utm_term=newsletter_d1_alert

May 11, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | space travel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Russia’s Threat Of A Massive Retaliatory Strike On Kiev Likely Isn’t A Bluff

Andrew Korybko, May 07, 2026, https://korybko.substack.com/p/russias-threat-of-a-massive-retaliatory

Russia can’t afford to discredit itself abroad, nor can Putin’s ruling United Russia party afford to discredit itself at home four months before the next polls, by threatening overwhelming retaliation against Ukraine if it attacks Moscow’s Victory Day parade only to symbolically retaliate or do nothing at all.

The Russian Defense Ministry warned local civilians and the staff of diplomatic missions in Kiev of their country’s plans to launch a massive retaliatory strike on the city center if Ukraine goes through with Zelensky’s threat to attack Moscow’s Victory Day parade on 9 May. This was followed by Russia announcing ballistic missile tests from Kamchatka from 6-10 May. Shortly afterwards, the Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated the Defense Ministry’s warning, thus ensuring that the world is aware of it.

This threat likely isn’t a bluff for three sequential reasons. The first is that Russia wants to deter Ukraine from attacking Moscow’s Victory Day parade for self-evident reasons, both relating to optics and the security of its VIPs, to which end it threatened overwhelming retaliation if this happens. The second reason is that Russia cannot threaten such a response without actually going through with it if provoked, otherwise it would irredeemably discredit itself, and more audacious attacks would then likely follow.

And third, Russia is finally signaling its willingness to overwhelmingly retaliate against decision-making centers in Kiev per the Foreign Ministry’s additionally specified threat in the event of Ukraine carrying out this high-profile provocation due to its hardline Kremlin faction partially superceding its moderate one. To explain, Putin hitherto restrained his military due his belief in “The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” as well as his concerns about an uncontrollable escalation spiral sparking World War III.

Once Trump returned and responded positively to Putin’s offer of dialogue for resolving the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine, which Biden rejected, Putin and his fellow moderates dangled a resource-centric strategic partnership for incentivizing compromises. The US was receptive to such a partnership, but Russia rejected its demanded compromises that were presented as a precondition, while the US rejected Russia’s own such demands and didn’t coerce compliance from Ukraine or NATO either.

While Trump declined to escalate the Ukrainian Conflict amid this impasse, he still greenlit the rolling back of Russian influence across the world in a bid to coerce Putin into the US’ demanded compromise, namely freezing the conflict in exchange for sanctions relief without resolving the root issues. Informally known as the “Neo-Reagan Doctrine”, it’s placed Russia under pressure in at least 15 different countries, thus discrediting the moderate faction and prompting some among it like Putin to rethink their views.

The Third Gulf War, in which Iran attacked regional US bases without triggering an uncontrollable escalation spiral, then convinced Putin to finally listen to the hardliners who’ve been urging massive strikes on Ukrainian decision-making centers in Kiev since the get-go. Public opinion, which is important ahead of September’s next Duma elections, has long aligned with the hardliners on this issue. Putin now seems to have assented but only in retaliation to Ukrainian attacks against Moscow’s Victory Day parade.

These factors make it unlikely that Russia is bluffing, in which case the country itself wouldn’t just be discredited abroad, but so too would the ruling United Russia party be discredited in voters’ eyes four months before the next polls. There’s already speculation of a protest vote in support of the communist and nationalist opposition parties, which might prompt various reforms if it happens, but a large-scale one driven by any hypothetical bluff could herald an era of uncertainty that Putin would prefer to avoid.

May 11, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

FIFA-Backed “Board of Peace” Plan for Gaza Stadium Ignores Needs of Palestinians

By Dalia Abu Ramadan, May 7, 2026, https://scheerpost.com/2026/05/07/fifa-backed-board-of-peace-plan-for-gaza-stadium-ignores-needs-of-palestinians/

How can recreational projects be proposed when even the most basic foundations of life have not yet been rebuilt?

In February, Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” struck a $50 million agreement with the football-governing body FIFA, with grand promises to build a national stadium, sports academy, and over 50 “mini-pitches.” The initiative seeks to redirect global attention away from Gaza through so-called “peace agreements” that do not exist on the ground — mere labels placed over unremoved ruins.

How can more than 50 football fields be planned while no real effort is made to establish peace first? How can sports projects be discussed in a place still under daily bombardment, where infrastructure has collapsed and conditions continue to worsen with every passing season?

The only change is that the intensity of the fighting has slightly decreased, but life has not become any easier. It is not simple to live while constantly expecting death — your own or that of your loved ones — at any moment.

On April 28, I went out with my mother to shop when we suddenly heard a heavy bombardment. I called my father, who was also outside, and the sound was very close to us. He told us he had heard the same intense bombardment. Minutes later, people in the street began saying that a car had been targeted and completely burned, killing civilians nearby. Among the victims were four people, including Khaled Naeem Abu Nahl, a child who was killed at the door of his home.

This is one of many stories that followed the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza.

On April 29, we had an appointment with a seamstress, but we found her shop closed. My mother called her to ask where she was. The answer came as a shock: Her husband, from the Al-Shawa family in the Al-Saha area, had been killed the day before. “Didn’t you hear?” she asked. My mother hung up in disbelief. How can a simple seamstress, trying to earn a living, suddenly become a widow responsible for an entire family?

In March, a story spread that caused widespread fear, revealing a part of the tragedy we are living through in Gaza away from the rest of the world’s eyes: A father said the screams of his newborn son woke him up one night, and he found the 28-day-old baby’s face covered in blood after a large rat had bitten him on the cheek.

Since the beginning of 2026, some of the most severe crises we have been facing are the spread of rodents amid the continued failure to remove rubble, and the fact that many people are still trapped beneath the debris. Imagine life in a city reduced to ruins — a place turned into a dumping ground for waste and destroyed homes, where we struggle to survive. Rats consume whatever little furniture remains, while we live in tents surrounded by destruction, with sewage seeping from beneath them.

The World Health Organization has reported more than 17,000 cases of disease among displaced people in Gaza linked to rodents and external parasites since the beginning of this year, amid a severe deterioration in health and humanitarian conditions as a result of Israel’s ongoing aggression.

How can a life that resembles hell, deprived of the most basic necessities, be reduced to discussions about building football stadiums, while Gaza’s entire infrastructure has been destroyed? How can recreational projects be proposed in a place where even the most basic foundations of life have not yet been rebuilt?

Trump, together with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, promote projects presented as symbols of peace and prosperity, while the basic needs of people are being ignored.

Imagine building stadiums amid rubble, disease, and a toxic and dangerous environment, while this is being framed as a vision of peace and development.

“It is strange how everything has been set aside in favor of building stadiums. What about stopping the bombardment first? What about the basics?” my friend Lama said.

She points out that some things have slightly improved, such as the entry of food compared to before, yet daily shortages remain — basic items like eggs are still not consistently available. She says the image presented to the world suggests that famine has ended, while the reality on the ground is different.

Lama asks: Do they believe that building stadiums will give the world the impression that Gaza has been rebuilt and is now living in peace?

One day, I was speaking with my friend Ahed, who is about to graduate, and asked her about Trump’s idea. She laughed sarcastically and said, “Instead of building stadiums, focus on securing students in schools and universities — and provide them with transportation first.”

For a moment, and through Ahed’s words, I realized how much we have lost the true meaning of life. I was speaking about the diseases we are facing — dehydration, severe diarrhea, hepatitis, and meningitis — caused by the spread of rodents and the weakened immunity resulting from famine, effects that we are still suffering from today.

Suddenly, Ahed brought me back to another reality that is no less harsh: the destruction of universities, schools, and transportation — as if we are living between two layers of suffering at the same time.

We have forgotten the meaning of luxury; it no longer even crosses our minds. We ask for nothing more than a warm home and genuine safety. But who can truly understand how we feel, if they have not lived our reality?

This article was originally published by Truthout and is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

May 10, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza | Leave a comment

Trump claims his mass murder in the Caribbean saved a million American lives…real number 0

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL, 6 May 26

President Trump sure loves committing mass murder worldwide. Gaza, Iran, Somalia, Niger, Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela are among nations he’s victimized with violent murder. Add in countries like Cuba where he’s essentially murdering innocents with life suffocating sanctions, he’s racked up tens if not over a hundred thousand deaths in 6 years exercising his presidential License To Kill.

While bombing innocents worldwide was practiced by all presidents since at least Bill Clinton, Trump is unique in ordering mass murder bombing of small boats in the Caribbean. He ghoulishly lunched Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean last September. In the past 8 months Trump, playing Long John Silver instead of a decent world leader, has blasted 54 little boats to smithereens, sending 185 innocents to Davy Jones Locker.

His justification? ‘Oh they’re certainly running fentanyl and cocaine to the Homeland killing millions of Americans.’ Trump claims the boats were all part of 24 narco terrorist cartels but couldn’t name a single one. When a couple of Trump’s targets survived the bombing, Trump’s military polished them off with another murderous salvo. ‘Can’t let these stinkin’ narco terrorists floating around gathering up the drug packages floating nearby’ was the justification for instant execution.

Trump lies shamelessly about everything. But his Whoppers about the bombings dwarf anything Burger King could cook up. Trump claims “Drugs entering our country by sea are down 97 percent.” More absurd, Trump calculates each boat he obliterates saves 25,000 American lives. Both figures are so preposterous one must ponder where he pulls them from.

Funny, if drugs arrivals are down 97%, one might conclude that border drug seizures would be similarly down. Yet, Customs and Border Protection note that seizures at U.S. borders and along coasts have increased from 38,000 lbs. to 44,000 lbs. (16%) in the 7 months following Trump’s mass murder spree compared to the 7 months before it began. In drug crazed America, usage is up, prices are stable and supply is plentiful.

But with Trump steering the Ship of State, state sponsored murder is up, prices of everything legal are escalating, and display of decency, morality and common sense nowhere to be found.

May 9, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | spinbuster, weapons and war | Leave a comment

DAYS 53-65: World on the Brink in the Hands of a Madman

Netanyahu is his own case. He’s a very, very dark pathological figure. … This is what we have. We do not have either rational leadership or a rational process in I think either country, the U.S. or Israel. …Actually both countries add a strain of religious zealotry which is also pretty strange.”

One crazed man holds the fate of the world in his hands and his name is Donald Trump. Can his administration, the Deep State, the War Powers Act, Russia or anybody else stop him? asks Joe Lauria

By Joe Lauria, Consortium News, May 4, 2026, https://consortiumnews.com/2026/05/04/days-53-65-world-on-the-brink-in-the-hands-of-a-madman/

Donald Trump “indefinitely” extended the ceasefire with Iran on April 21 and over the last 12 days the certifiable man in the White House has vacillated between words of peace and threats of all out war as he stands alone on the brink of a decision that could end the world as we know it for the foreseeable future.

Under unrelenting pressure from Israel to restart the war with with Tehran, Trump holds almost unprecedented individual power to unleash a series of events that could bring the world economic system to a crashing halt.

To those armchair warriors who think they are smarter than everyone else and ridicule anyone who thinks the American president sometimes actually runs the show and isn’t always subject to the wiles of the Deep State, consider what economist Jeffrey Sachs has to say about it.

Former British MP and TV host George Galloway asked him on Sunday: “If there is a war, it seems to rest on the tortured, fevered speculation and social media ramblings and so on of one individual. How can that be?”

Sachs responded:

“Do individuals make a difference? Well, when there are systems, the answer is no, not so much. But we have completely broken all rational systems in the United States. And by that I mean the actual processes of decision are quite exposed right now and they rest with Trump. It’s weird. But it’s not an exaggeration.”

At a White House meeting on Feb. 11, Israeli Prime Minister and Mossad Director David Barnea on video hook-up sold Trump on attacking Iran. Netanyahu later admitted he had been trying to convince American presidents for 40 years to do that. They had all disagreed because their advisors explained what would happen: Iran would fight back, striking Israel, U.S. bases and its allies in the Gulf and closing the Strait of Hormuz — exactly what has now happened.

“Trump was fool enough to to buy it or to go along with it given his range of pressure points and interests and delusions,” said Sachs. “Everyone else in this small room basically thought it was nuts except for [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth who’s an absolute blooming idiot right alongside Trump.”

The New York Times reported that none of Trump’s aides in the room spoke up at the time, but afterward told the newspaper they thought the Israelis were selling the delusion that the Iranian government would collapse in days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quoted as saying the Israeli pitch was “bullshit.”

“We’re not talking about an interagency process,” said Sachs. “We’re not talking about intelligence estimates. We’re not talking about a plan. We’re not talking about the president of the United States consulting with congressional leaders. We’re not talking about American public opinion, which runs overwhelmingly against everything that is happening.”

He said:

“We’re talking about a few people led by a delusional old man who never was very good at anything but is very bad at this. … So there’s no process. This is a case where an individual can make decisions. Netanyahu is his own case. He’s a very, very dark pathological figure. … This is what we have. We do not have either rational leadership or a rational process in I think either country, the U.S. or Israel. …Actually both countries add a strain of religious zealotry which is also pretty strange.”

Deep State Efforts

After the Deep State tried to destroy Trump’s first presidency by interfering illegally in domestic U.S. politics in the scandal known as Russiagate, Trump put together for the second term an administration of sycophants who won’t oppose him like John Bolton, Jim Mattis and Gen. Mark Miley, did in the first. (Bolton would certainly be on board for regime change in Iran.)

So this most consequential decision is up to one, very unstable man. Relaunching the war would invite vowed Iranian retaliation against energy installations throughout the Gulf, plunging the world into an economic dark age.

In trying to decide what to do, Trump may very well be calculating whether he will personally make a profit as he acts the part of the quintessential American businessman: profits über alles … (as I discussed today in my interview with Regis Tremblay.)

Trump is under considerable Israeli pressure to resume the bombing and risk catastrophe.

Miriam Adelson, Trump’s billionaire Israeli donor, was rumored to have been back at the White House to push war on Trump. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz last week said in a chilling video that Israel is “waiting for a green light from the U.S.” because “Israel is ready to renew the war against Iran … to return Iran to the dark and stone age by blowing up the central electric power facilities and crushing the national infrastructure.”

Katz complained: “We did not ask for a ceasefire, we were never looking for a ceasefire. … I want to emphasize that we will not abandon this field until the aggressor is seriously punished and until he finally repents.” Extraordinary that he called Iran the aggressor and in religious terms.

Afterward, Trump posted a picture of himself holding a machine gun in front of an exploding battlefield with the words, “No more mr nice guy….”

Can He Be Stopped?

A couple of weeks ago Galloway said that if a British prime minister had posted images of himself as Jesus Christ and in the next moment threatened a genocidal destruction of Iran’s civilization, men in white coats would be at No. 10 the next morning to remove him. Why is this not happening in America?

In a parliamentary system a British prime minister’s own party would in this case agree with a vote of no-confidence, the government would collapse, a new party leader and prime minister would be chosen and that would be the end of it.

In the American system, removing the leader, who is both head of government and head of state, is exceedingly difficult. The only options are impeachment and conviction, or an invocation of the 25th Amendment. Perhaps that’s what motivated Cole Allen, given the stakes and the unusual power in the hands of an unstable president.

The War Powers Act

The 1973 War Powers Act, which gives a U.S. president 60 days to start a war before Congress can end it, can’t seem to stop Trump either. Hegseth and Trump tried to deceive Congress into believing Trump “terminated” the war and that he’s waging only an economic blockade in order to beat the 60-day deadline in the War Powers Act.

Trump told Congress in a letter on the deadline day last Friday that “there has been no exchange in fire between United States forces and Iran” since April 7, meaning that the hostilities he began on Feb. 28 “have terminated.”

Regarding the need for Congress to either authorize the war, or he must end it, Trump said: “I don’t think that it’s constitutional, what they are asking for.” He said the U.S. is on its way to “a big victory” in Iran. “These are not patriotic people that are asking.”

If he restarts hostilities he may argue he’s started a new war with a fresh 60 days. Does Congress have the guts to call him out?

A Grand Bargain?

Russia is making its bid to prevent Trump from restarting the war. In a 90-minute call to Trump last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that resumed military action by the U.S. and Israel would have “inevitable and extremely damaging consequences.”

Trump told reporters that Putin “likes to be involved” and that he offered to take Iran’s 60 percent enriched uranium. Trump said he told Putin to focus on ending the war in Ukraine first. Trump said the two wars in Ukraine and Iran could potentially end on a “similar timetable.”

On Consortium News’s Saturday evening program The World This Week, analyst Scott Ritter suggested that Putin may be offering Trump a grand bargain to solve both wars. Russia would save Trump from the Iran trap by taking the uranium and in exchange Trump would accede to Russian terms to end the war in Ukraine.

Presuming such an offer was made, it would not resolve the issue of the hold Netanyahu has over Trump, very possibly because Israel in all likelihood owns a copy of the unredacted Epstein files and videos, which could well incriminate Trump.

There would also be the matter of getting the fiercely Russophobic Europeans, chief among them Britain, to go along with a deal in Ukraine that would favor Russia. While Trump ridicules Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he reveres the king. He looks into the king’s eyes and appears to see another one.

Charles Butts In

On the same day Trump spoke to Putin, King Charles III was at the U.S. Capitol addressing a joint session of Congress. At one point the king essentially spoke about preparing for war against Russia.

He said Britain was “committed to the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War.” He spoke of the U.S. and Britain standing “shoulder to shoulder, through two World Wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan and moments that have defined our shared security. … that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people.”

He praised NATO for keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from “our common adversaries.” And then he praised the two most important of the Five Eyes. “Our defense, intelligence and security ties are hard-wired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades,” he said.

Despite being mesmerized by the crown, Trump apparently didn’t get the message about keeping the pressure on Russia. Two days later he pulled 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany in a fit of pique after German Chancellor Frederic Merz accurately said Iran had “humiliated” the United States.

It is that humiliation of having lost the first phase of this war that could indeed be a chief factor in Trump being reckless enough to restart it.

May 8, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine drone attacks hit nuclear power plant, Baltic port

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hails ‘successful destruction’ of the port, as Russia warns of oil price rises.

By AFP and Reuters 3 May 20263 May 2026

Ukrainian drone attacks have targeted the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine and a Russian Baltic Sea port, as Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of killing civilians in overnight air raids.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said a drone had targeted the external radiation control laboratory, a part of the plant located outside the nuclear power plant’s perimeter, on Sunday. It said it was not yet clear if there had been injuries.

“IAEA team at the site has requested access to the lab,” agency chief Rafael Grossi said. He reiterated that attacks near nuclear sites pose nuclear safety risks – both sides have repeatedly targeted nuclear infrastructure

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian forces also launched an attack on the Russian Baltic Sea ⁠⁠port of Primorsk, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said,

The attack on Primorsk, a major oil-exporting outlet, did not result in an oil spill but it caused a fire in the town that was extinguished, Leningrad Governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

More than 60 drones were downed overnight over the northwestern region, he added.

Ukraine confirmed the attack on the port, with Ukrainian ⁠⁠President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claiming it as a “successful destruction of the facilities of the port of Primorsk”.“The missile ship ‘Karakurt’ was hit, as well as a patrol boat and another tanker of the shadow oil fleet,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on Telegram.

“Significant damage was also done to the infrastructure of the oil loading port,” Zelenskyy also claimed………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/3/ukraine-drone-attack-hits-russian-baltic-port-governor-says

May 7, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel is making Palestinians disappear in more ways than one.

At least 2,842 Palestinians had ‘evaporated’ … [which] civil defence teams attribute to Israel’s use of thermal and thermobaric weapons, which effectively ‘vaporise’ human bodies

Belen Fernandez 4 May 2026 , https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-making-palestinians-disappear-more-ways-one

Reports of missing children and ‘evaporated’ bodies reveal a widening pattern of erasure in Gaza, where entire families are killed, lost under rubble or reduced to biological traces

n 23 April, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that “dozens of children go missing each week” in the Gaza Strip “against the backdrop of the postwar chaos” – a curious euphemism, no doubt, for the ongoing US-backed genocide in the Palestinian territory, which proceeds apace despite the ceasefire that was ostensibly implemented last year.

The article begins with four-year-old Mohammed Ghaban, who disappeared in early April in northern Gaza: “[H]e had been playing with his brother in front of his displaced family’s tent. He went inside, asked for a hug, put on his sandals and went out.” And then he was gone.

The author cites an estimate from the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared that 2,900 children “disappeared during the war”, with 2,700 bodies thought to be trapped under the rubble and the remaining 200 simply missing.

Such statistics are in keeping with the modus operandi of the Israeli military, which, according to the official fatality count, has killed more than 72,500 Palestinians in Gaza since the launch of the genocide in 2023, with thousands more still missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned back in September that the true death toll might already have been more in the vicinity of 680,000.

Speaking of disappearances, an Al Jazeera Arabic investigation revealed in February that at least 2,842 Palestinians had “evaporated” in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war – a phenomenon Gaza’s civil defence teams attribute to Israel’s use of US-manufactured thermal and thermobaric weapons, which effectively “vaporise” human bodies.

The gruesome tally was quickly eclipsed by the deranged US-Israeli war on Iran and wider regional catastrophe, which has monopolised the news for the past two months. But the topic remains as sinisterly relevant as ever.

In remarks to Al Jazeera at the time, civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal outlined the process for determining the number of vaporised victims at homes targeted by Israeli strikes: “If a family tells us there were five people inside, and we only recover three intact bodies, we treat the remaining two as ‘evaporated’ only after an exhaustive search yields nothing but biological traces – blood spray on walls or small fragments like scalps.”

Vaporised bodies

Upon publication of these macabre findings, the Israeli military got its panties into a genocidal bunch and issued a huffy communique to allegedly set the record straight.

Rejecting Al Jazeera’s “false claim of the evaporation of Gazan bodies”, the army insisted that it “uses only lawful munitions” and that it “strikes military targets and objectives in accordance with international law and takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian property to the extent possible.”

It’s not clear, of course, why a military that has been accused of potentially killing nearly 700,000 people – and that wipes out entire families and neighbourhoods without so much as batting an eye – took such particular offence at the whole “evaporation” matter.

Granted, disappearing bodies into thin air is a pretty good way of hiding the true extent of mass slaughter.

And while the vaporisation of Palestinian bodies may not fit the official legal definition of enforced disappearance, it is quite literally exactly that.

According to the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “an enforced disappearance is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law”.

In light of Israel’s explicit disappearing act in Gaza, however, a considerable expansion of that definition would seem to be in order.

And yet Israel is guilty of the traditional variety of enforced disappearance, as well. Last August, UN experts denounced reports that starving Palestinian civilians – including a child – were being forcibly disappeared from aid distribution sites run by the notorious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Backed by Israel and the US, the foundation also specialised in massacring desperate folks who had gathered in search of food and other necessary items for survival.

Meanwhile, in both Gaza and the West Bank, Israel’s enforced disappearances of medical personnel, journalists and all manner of other humans have flourished since the onset of the genocide – not that this hasn’t always been par for the course.

Global pattern

For its part, the US has had a hand in enforced disappearances in a whole lot of places around the world, including by aiding and abetting bloodthirsty right-wing regimes throughout Latin America during the Cold War.

Tens of thousands were disappeared in Argentina, Guatemala and beyond as the US and its buddies nobly went about making the hemisphere safe for capitalism.

In Mexico, more than 130,000 persons have been disappeared, the vast majority of them following the launch in 2006 of the US-backed “war on drugs”, which would be more aptly characterised as a war on the poor.

But from Mexico to the Middle East, the number of disappeared hardly conveys the extent of victimisation. The families of the missing are victims, too, condemned as they are to indefinite psychological limbo in the absence of concrete information regarding the fate of their loved ones – without which it is impossible to commence the grieving process or obtain the emotional closure that is necessary to move on with one’s life.

In the case of Israel’s “evaporation” of Palestinians in Gaza, it’s hard to say whether the knowledge that your loved one has been vaporised is concrete enough to enable eventual closure. After all, there’s nothing very concrete about being forcibly vanished without a trace.

Indeed, Al Jazeera quotes Palestinian father Rafiq Badran on the almost inconceivable psychological torment that attends Israel’s sinister new spin on the theme of enforced disappearance: “Four of my children just evaporated,” Badran said, holding back tears. “I looked for them a million times. Not a piece was left. Where did they go?”

Now, with regional war raging as the arms industry rakes in big bucks, it has become even easier for global audiences to tune out the unique plight of the Palestinians – which means that the genocide is effectively being disappeared from the spotlight, as well.

In the end, of course, the Israeli goal is nothing less than to forcibly disappear the very idea of a Palestinian people. But unfortunately for Israel, its blood-drenched legacy will not be so easily concealed.

May 7, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Not so quiet death – the US orders to kill the Iranian Navy’s Dena and its crew

The deliberate killing of survivors at sea represents one of the most clearly defined war crimes in international humanitarian law, with prohibitions stretching back more than a century and codified in multiple treaties and military manuals. The fundamental principle underlying these prohibitions is that individuals who are hors de combat � out of combat due to shipwreck, wounds, surrender, or other incapacitation � must not be made the object of attack. This principle applies universally in armed conflicts and represents a core tenet of the laws of war that balances military necessity with humanitarian considerations.

John Helmer, Dance with Bears, Sat, 02 May 2026 , https://www.sott.net/article/506075-Not-so-quiet-death-the-US-orders-to-kill-the-Iranian-Navys-Dena-and-its-crew

In the early morning of March 4, Sri Lanka time, the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (IRIS) Dena was attacked by the US submarine USS Charlotte with two torpedoes.

The first destroyed the Dena’s propeller shaft and stopped her dead in the water. Her position was at coordinates 6.0073 degrees North, 79.8654 degrees East: that was nine nautical miles (nm) outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters; 19 nm (35 km) west of the harbour of Galle, a port on the southwestern coast of the island.

At the 30-knot speed the Dena had been moving, she was 18 minutes from the safety of Sri Lankan territory. Immobilized, however, the Dena captain, Abuzar Zarri, gave the crew the order to assemble on the aft deck in full visibility of the Charlotte, and prepare to abandon ship. As the crew mustered, a second torpedo was fired by the Charlotte to sink the Dena and kill the crew.

The torpedo warhead explosion broke the keel; the Dena sank in less than five minutes.

Of the crew’s 180-man complement, 32 were rescued from the water by the Sri Lankan coast guard, including Zarri and the first officer; 87 bodies were recovered; 61 were lost. Altogether, 148 were killed.

On the Charlotte, submerged at a distance from the Dena of less than 10 nm (18 km), there was an interval of approximately ninety minutes between the first fire order and the second, the kill order. A close-range film of the second torpedo strike, recorded by the Charlotte, was released to the press by the Pentagon.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DkUkQ5pzSlc?wmode=opaque
Four men participated in the chain of command through which these two strike orders were requested; decided; transmitted; executed.

They are CommanderThomas Futch (lead, left), commander of the USS Charlotte; CaptainJeffrey Fassbinder (second left), chief of the Submarine Squadron 7 of the US Pacific Fleet; AdmiralStephen Koehler (centre), Commander of the US Pacific Fleet; and Peter Hegseth (right), the US Secretary of War (Defense).

Hegseth announced in a Pentagon briefing on March 4 what he wanted the public to believe he had done. “Yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we’ll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk [sic] an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”

Hegseth was deceiving. He knew two torpedoes had been fired; it was the second which sank theDena. He knew theDenadid not “[think] it was safe in international waters”. This was because US intelligence had been reporting to the Pentagon and the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet command that the Iranian Navy had been requesting safe haven for theDenaand its two escorts,IRIS LavanandIRIS Bushehr, in Sri Lanka, then India, for more than seven days before the March 4 attack.

Admiral Koehler knew because he had met with Sri Lankan officials in Colombo between February 19 and 21 to deter them from taking Iran’s side. “We stand with Sri Lanka in facing shared security challenges — from maritime domain awareness to countering transnational threats”, the US Embassy announced. On March 4, the Sri Lankan newspaper Tamil Guardian editorialized: “Did Washington’s Sri Lanka visit precede a secret naval strike? Questions grow after Iranian frigate sunk.”

In the new article just published in the Tehran Times, the evidence of the Dena attack has been summarized and the political implications weighed – for the US and for the governments of Sri Lanka and India, which joined the US in the preliminaries, before the attack of March 4, and in the aftermath.

Click to read: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/525994/IRIS-Dena-sinking-Survivors-testimony-diplomatic-delays-and

Comment: From the link:

What happened off the coast of Sri Lanka, Iranian officials argue, was not simply an attack on a warship. It was the deliberate destruction of a disarmed and disabled vessel and its evacuating crew prevented from reaching safety — and a test of who in the region chose neutrality, and who did not.

War on the high seas have strict rules. There are rules of engagement and even in French, there is the rule of being hors de combat (out of combat).

In the case of the Dena being torpedoed twice and her crew of 148 lost, there seems to be a Naval case to be made for when there are Orders to Kill Survivors at Sea:

The codes of war come with Article 60 (and 71) that state:

Article 60 of the Lieber Code states unequivocally that “it is against the usage of modern war to resolve, in hatred and revenge, to give no quarter.” Article 71 went further, prescribing the death penalty for anyone who “intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy already wholly disabled, or kills such an enemy.” These principles were subsequently incorporated into the 1899 Hague Regulations, which prohibited killing or wounding “an enemy who, having laid down arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion.”

Does Peter Hegseth need to answer for this, and what of the Commander, Admiral and Captain?

May 7, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | 1 Comment

NewsReal: Energy Wars on the High Seas – Trump Admits “US Navy Like Pirates!”

Sott.net Sun, 03 May 2026 https://www.sott.net/article/506082-NewsReal-Energy-Wars-on-the-High-Seas-Trump-Admits-US-Navy-Like-Pirates

Typically, the American president has blurted out ‘the plain truth’ about what his government is doing around the world – from the Caribbean to the Arctic to the Black Sea and Indian Ocean: behaving like pirates. This week we review, taking into account Richard Medhurst’s excellent dot-connecting in his documentary ‘The Petrogas-Dollar: The Secret US Strategy Behind the Iran War’, the string of US and Israeli government moves this year to effectively ‘ring-fence’ the global flow of oil and gas.

As we’ve been warning for over a decade, the US was never going to just roll over in the face of Russian defiance regarding Crimea, Iranian resistance against Israeli expansionism, and Chinese ‘win-win’ geoeconomic strategy towards a multipolar world. They hatched a ‘counter-attack’, and Trump is playing his part to ‘make America great again’, which is really just to do whatever the US can to forestall or prevent the end of its currency’s status as ‘global reserve currency’.

May 7, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Pentagon strikes deals with top AI companies

Anthropic, which the US Department of War designated a “supply-chain risk” earlier this year, was not part of the agreement

2 May, 2026, https://www.rt.com/news/639359-pentagon-ai-spacex-anthropic/

The Pentagon has said that it has reached deals with major artificial intelligence firms to integrate their advanced AI capabilities into the agency’s classified networks.

The US Department of War has been actively negotiating with the industry’s leaders since the start of the year as it is trying to expand the application of AI in military operations and diversify the range of companies that provide the technology.

It is going ahead with the push despite concerns among experts regarding the ability of the AI to reliably operate within the existing laws of war and its possible use to invade the privacy of civilians in peacetime.

Agreements have been struck with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Oracle to deploy their AI systems for “lawful operational use,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday.

Artificial intelligence will be integrated into the Department of War’s Impact Level 6 and Impact Level 7 networks to “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the statement read.

The US Department of War’s official AI platform, GenAI.mil, has been used by over 1.3 million personnel in the last five months, “generating tens of millions of prompts and deploying hundreds of thousands of agents,” it said. According to the Pentagon, the technology has allowed the execution of certain tasks to be sped up “from months to days.”

Separately, the US Navy has awarded San Francisco-based AI company Domino Data Lab a $100 million contract to aid in combating Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked since the early days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“The Navy is paying for the platform that lets it train, govern, and field that AI at a speed required for contested waters,” Domino CEO Thomas Robinson told Reuters in an interview on Friday. Washington is betting on the speed of AI in analyzing a wealth of data from multiple sensor types to rapidly improve mine detection in US underwater drones, the outlet said.

The Pentagon’s recent deals with AI companies conspicuously excluded Anthropic, which had a falling out with the Pentagon earlier this year after it refused to loosen safeguards for its technology. The company argued that its AI could be used for domestic surveillance or the deployment of automatic weapons without human oversight.

The Department of War responded by designated Anthropic a “supply-chain risk,” a rare label typically reserved for entities linked to Washington’s foreign adversaries, effectively sidelining the firm from any future contracts.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth branded Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei an “ideological lunatic” during a US Senate hearing earlier this week. Hegseth compared the company’s reluctance to agree to Pentagon’s terms to “Boeing giving us airplanes and telling us who we can shoot at.”

Anthropic is currently challenging the Pentagon in court to have the “supply-chain risk” label dropped.

May 6, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Oil, Empire, and the Price of War: How Energy Became the Ultimate Weapon

May 2, 2026 , Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/05/02/oil-empire-and-the-price-of-war-how-energy-became-the-ultimate-weapon/

This war isn’t just being fought with missiles—it’s being waged through oil markets, currencies, and corporate balance sheets. And while the world watches bombs fall, something quieter—and far more consequential—is happening: a global energy system is being weaponized in real time.

This on The Geopolitical Economy Report with Ben Norton. Ben digs into the role oil plays at the center of the war on Iran—and how the United States turned itself into the world’s top oil producer to weaponize that power globally. He breaks down the push to sideline OPEC, the UAE’s dramatic exit, and the political fiction of American “energy independence.”

Oil Was Never Just Fuel — It Was Always the Weapon

One of the clearest lessons of the war on Iran isn’t merely military. It’s structural. Oil is not just a commodity. It is power. It is leverage. It is the bloodstream of the global economy—and increasingly, the preferred instrument of empire.

For decades, the global system has revolved around the petrodollar, a quiet but foundational arrangement ensuring that most of the world’s oil is bought and sold in U.S. dollars. Even today, an estimated 80% of global oil transactions still run through that system. But the architecture is showing cracks. Sanctioned nations such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have begun trading outside the dollar, challenging the financial scaffolding that has long underpinned U.S. dominance.

Yet the story is not simply one of decline. Because while the dollar faces pressure, the United States has quietly secured something arguably more consequential: control over production itself.

In just over a decade, the U.S. transformed from a major importer into the largest oil producer on Earth, responsible for roughly 14–15% of global output. The shale boom didn’t just reshape domestic energy markets—it rewired the geopolitical landscape. Washington no longer merely polices the system; it helps shape it directly. And in wartime, that shift becomes decisive.

Crisis for the World, Windfall for Big Oil

As the conflict with Iran escalated, global oil prices surged—nearly doubling in 2026. For billions of people, that spike translates into inflation, food insecurity, and economic instability. For poorer nations, it is nothing short of devastating.

But for U.S. and Western oil corporations, the crisis has been a windfall. Profits have soared, with some companies reporting earnings double those of the previous year. As supply chains fracture and traditional exporters are destabilized or cut off, American firms have stepped in—expanding exports to Europe and Asia and filling the void left by war.

The pattern is unmistakable: global pain, concentrated gain.

The Strait That Can Shake the World

At the center of this crisis sits one of the most strategically vital chokepoints on Earth: the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, roughly 20% of the world’s traded oil passed through this narrow corridor each day. When Iran moved to disrupt it, the message was not subtle—it was existential.

Shut the strait, and the global economy trembles.

This is what modern warfare looks like: not just territory and airspace, but shipping lanes, pipelines, and market flows. Control the flow of oil, and you control the tempo of the world economy.

Breaking OPEC, Rewriting Power

Another quiet earthquake has reshaped the landscape: the United Arab Emirates’ withdrawal from OPEC. On paper, it looks bureaucratic. But historically, OPEC represented something radical—a collective attempt by Global South nations to control their own resources and wrest power from Western oil giants.

Weakening OPEC weakens that collective leverage. And it strengthens something else.

Washington has never opposed cartels in principle—it has opposed cartels it doesn’t control. The long‑term objective has been consistent: ensure that corporations aligned with U.S. power, not sovereign states, set the terms of the global energy market.

The Myth of “Energy Independence”

The familiar talking point insists that the U.S. is “energy independent,” insulated from global chaos. It isn’t.

Oil is priced globally. When prices spike, everyone pays—regardless of where the oil originates. The U.S. still imports millions of barrels per day, and its infrastructure depends on specific grades of crude it does not produce in sufficient quantities. “Independence” is political messaging, not economic reality.

From Oil Shock to Food Crisis

And here is where the crisis becomes catastrophic. Oil is not just fuel—it is fertilizer, transport, and the backbone of modern agriculture. As energy prices surge and supply chains fracture, farmers worldwide are already facing shortages.

The likely result is grimly predictable: rising food prices, shrinking harvests, and widespread hunger. This is not speculation. It is the logical downstream effect of an energy shock of this scale.

The Real Takeaway

This war is not contained. It is not regional. It is not temporary. It is systemic.

It is reshaping how power works—who controls energy, who sets prices, and who pays the cost. And as always, the burden falls downward: onto workers, onto poorer nations, onto the global majority.

Meanwhile, at the top, the machinery hums. Profits rise. Influence expands. The line between state policy and corporate interest blurs even further.

Oil was never just fuel. It was always the weapon. And now, it is being used exactly as intended.

May 5, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel’s war on water-depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water for at least nearly two decades, if not longer

It’s part of Israel’s multi-layered manufactured misery in Gaza, long before October 2023

Eva Karene Bartlett, May 01, 2026, https://evakarenebartlett.substack.com/p/israels-war-on-water-depriving-palestinians?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3046064&post_id=196084075&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email EXCELLENT ILLUSTRATIONS ON ORIGINAL.

When I lived in Gaza, I documented Israel’s systematic destruction of wells & cisterns in the formerly-rich agricultual land in eastern & northern Gaza, also noting:

“(Following the Israeli December 2008/January 2009 war on Gaza) A UNDP survey following the attacks found that nearly 14,000 dunums of irrigation networks and pipelines have been destroyed, along with 250 wells and 327 water pumps completely damaged, and another 53 wells partially damaged by Israeli bombing and bulldozing. Water has been further contaminated by chemical agents used by the Israeli army during its war on Gaza…”

Palestinian farmers often had to resort to trying to irrigate their land by carting jugs of wateron donkey carts over land rutted by Israeli tanks and bulldozers (which routinely invaded to tear up farmland and destroy crops).

On top of depriving Palestinians of their ability to collect water, Israel cut off the natural flow of water to Gaza.

On top of this, Israel ensured Gaza’s coastal waters remained polluted by sewage, never allowing Palestinians to properly maintain and treat sewage, pumping into the sea being the only option to avoid having sewage flood the streets (as happened many times).

Back in 2014 when I wrote an indepth overview of the many sadistic policies Israel employed to ensure Gaza was unliveable back then, I noted:

“Damage to the coastal aquifer from over-extraction will be reversible in 2020 if no action is taken now, a 2012 UN report notes. At the moment, 95% of water in Gaza is undrinkable according to WHO standards.”

Do read the full overview:

-on how Israel has been deliberately starving Gaza since the 2000s, including by drastically limiting imports; shooting on farmers & fishers; destroying agricultural land and stealing or destroying fishing boats

-on the 2008/9 & 2012 Israeli wars on Gaza, which I documented real time from on the ground & in ambulances in northern Gaza

-on Israel attempting to quash popular unarmed resistance by firing live ammunition at protesters (long before the 2018 Great Marches)

-on Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s sole power plant and crippling of their electricity, meaning we went without electricity for 14-18 hours on good days, 20 or more hours on bad days (which were the majority), and how this impacted sanitation, hospitals and personal lives

-on the Israeli bombings not reported by Western media, and not during Israel’s sociopathical wars on Gaza…and the sonic booms campaigns were terrorized the population, the sound very much like actual bombs, in relentless campaigns

-on how these, and more, contributed to stunted growth in children and other malnutrion related diseases, as well as anaemia in women, rampant diabetes, and other food and preventable water related diseases – https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

This was all 10 or 15 years prior to October 2023. Zionist propagandists’ justifications for their savagery are simply empty talking points

May 5, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Israeli violence against Palestinians echoes Holocaust – ex-Mossad chief

Ongoing attacks in the West Bank pose an “existential threat” to the Jewish state, Tamir Pardo has said

28 Apr, 2026 https://www.rt.com/news/639222-israel-violence-palestinians-holocaust/

Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank echoes attacks on Jews during the Holocaust and poses an “existential threat” to Israel, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo has said.

Israeli settlers live in communities built in the West Bank, a territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and which Palestinians seek as part of a future state. Successive Israeli governments have backed or tolerated the settlements for security, political, and religious reasons.

Pardo spoke to local media on Monday while touring Palestinian villages that have come under settler attacks in recent months.

”My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century,” Pardo said. “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish.”

His comments come amid a surge in settler violence across the West Bank, with groups carrying out repeated raids on Palestinian communities, torching homes and vehicles, vandalizing property and assaulting residents, according to witnesses and human rights organizations. In the latest incident, two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed last week after gunmen opened fire near a school.

Attacks occur on a near-daily basis and intensified during the US-Israeli war on Iran between February 28 and April 8, rights groups said. Yesh Din recorded 378 incidents over that period, in which eight Palestinians were killed and around 200 injured.

Pardo said the settlers behind the attacks, and the Israeli government’s failure to stop them, were creating the conditions for a future October 7-style assault from the West Bank, referring to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the attack. More than 72,000 Palestinians were killed and over 172,000 injured in Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The former Mossad chief warned that the violence unfolding in the West Bank could lead to a similar event, albeit in a different and potentially more severe form given the region’s complexity, adding that Israel was “sowing the seeds” for such an outcome.

May 5, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

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