@StephenRees@mas.toFrom The Conversation
Israel wants to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. But should it have nuclear weapons itself?
Israel’s avowed goal in the Middle East war is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet, the double standard associated with this is hardly sustainable in the long run.
The worst-kept secret in the world of nuclear politics is that Israel possesses a formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons.
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org"The best war oratory is not actually about war. It is about peace. People hear it and think not merely of the lives that might be lost, but of a way of life that might be: they fear for culture, for democracy, for decency. You weep at good oratory because you fear not just a lost war but a lost world. Yet when you watch the White House videos, you weep for a lost world anyway. "
🎁
The rhetoric of war has changed. Not for the better
https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/04/23/the-rhetoric-of-war-has-changed-not-for-the-better?giftId=ZTk0ZjgzMDEtMDk0YS00MGUxLWI3ZWUtMTU4NWE5MTFhNDEy&utm_campaign=gifted_article
@cdarwin@c.im⛔️Are fuel-related flight cancellations happening at the last minute?
In most cases, no.
At least for now, fuel-related cuts are often being made days or weeks in advance.
Lufthansa Group, for example, said this week it is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights across its network through October.
That gives you more time to adjust plans than you’d typically get with weather-related disruptions, which tend to trigger last-minute cancellations.
🆘 My flight was canceled.…
@davidaugust@mastodon.online"The flu killed 15,849 U.S. soldiers in France and another 30,000 in stateside camps. That’s 45,849 killed by the flu versus 26,277 killed at Meuse-Argonne — documenting that the flu was by far our most deadly battle.
More civilians (over 50 million) died from the flu than from both World Wars and the Holocaust combined. Another 500 million civilians were incapacitated by the flu."
@cdarwin@c.imA depot on World War II’s infamous “Death Railway” has resurfaced from beneath a reservoir
where the site has remained underwater for decades,
prompting researchers to race to western Thailand to survey the remnants of Nithe Station.
Thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Asian laborers toiled and died building the railway, a supply route through mainland Southeast Asia for the occupying Japanese forces.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand recently draine…
@metacurity@infosec.exchange
@steve@s.yelvington.comSome thoughts from Claude about military use of AI in targeting.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYIHIM6ihVJ/?igsh=cmM1ZmdjaDl3bzJ5
@cdarwin@c.imThe attack on a girl’s elementary school in the Iranian town of Minab was one of the US military’s deadliest civilian bombings in decades.
But nearly four months on, the Pentagon has produced no answers about why the military fired a Tomahawk cruise missile into a school on the first day of the war,
killing at least 175 people,
mostly children.
Some critics doubt that the Pentagon ever will, or will bury the results under classifications to keep the worst mistakes se…
@colinpurrington@flipping.rocksWallpaper at Fraunces Tavern Museum in NYC depicting General Washington arriving in Boston. The full 49-foot, 32-panel, 360-color "Views of the American War of Independence" is still produced by Zuber & Cie (est. 1797) in Rixheim, France, using 2,300 (!) wood blocks carved between 1834 and 1852. It takes a full year to print and is likely the world's most expensive wallpaper ($100,000?). The blocks themselves are classified as Historic Monuments by the French Ministry of Culture. #france #history #art #nyc #newyork #museum #wallpaper #woodblock #boston #war #independence #250th
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialAt a time when their is war on the european continent, our former ally the US does this... Putin will be pleased.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/world/europe/us-nato-cuts-drawdown-jets.html?un…
@annsev@troet.cafeDarth #Trump, the dangerous jerk, is on the verge of losing his war against #Iran. His mad mindset will drive him to destroy whatever he declares as a military target on his withdrawal.
At the moment, Trump is the most dangerous risk for the world.
He did not make America great, he destroyed US America…
@karlauerbach@sfba.socialTime to read or watch Persepolis again...
"Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author whose graphic novel series “Persepolis” introduced millions of readers to the struggles of ordinary Iranians during the turbulent years around the Islamic Revolution, has died at 56."
(The film is visible on various streaming - such as Amazon and Apple for a couple of $$ - well worth it.)
@pre@boing.worldWell, the Makerfield by-election is over. Voting just closed.
I don't live there, but if I did I think you gotta vote Labour in order to destroy this Labour government.
Which is in itself pretty mad. Demonstrating the utterly broken nature of the whole political system.
This is surely the only circumstance in which I switch away from the Greens.
As I said last month, they absolutely should have stood and spoke in front of every camera pointed at the constituency. Dunno that they managed the second part. I didn't see much of her myself, certainly.
Anyway, the point is that there's only one candidate at this election which has any chance at all of changing the direction of this government.
None of the others might be Prime Minister by autumn. Nobody else who wins can do that. There's only one candidate who can probably unseat the failing prime minister.
Would be voting more in hope than expectation of course.
He won't be very different. Certainly he's the same on Israel's genocide, on taxing wealth, on fiscal rules preventing government investment, on private industry being better than government owned industry, on capitalism, on the bond market, on the monarchy, on the pointless drug war, on conflating protest with terrorism, on the house of lords, on AI, on Free Software, on copyright, on age-gating and surveilling the internet.
But maybe that one difference, "public 'control' without ownership of industry" is at least a bit better than just Starmer thinking the state is powerless against American AI? He might try a bit harder to build more houses?
So not voting in expectation of anything really changing here, but voting for the only candidate who will even be in a position to try.
If you dislike Starmer and prefer any of the other candidates, if you prefer Greens, or Conservatives, or Restore, or Reform, or Lib Dem, or anarchy or antifa or woke then you should vote for the Labour Party candidate to cause Starmer's downfall.
You should only be voting against Starmer's Labour Party if you are happy with Starmer's Labour government and want Starmer to stay.
And only like 75,000 people even get to mark a ballot.
"Restore" are the splitters from Reform (who are in turn the Nativist right wing party splitters from the Conservatives).
They left Reform because Reform weren't racist enough for them, mostly. Their vote count is key here. Will their vote be higher than the Labour/Reform margin?
I think probably it will.
So the Restore Party is the spoiler that forces the PM out of office by splitting the nazi vote and allowing in a challenger to the PM.
Insane election. 😵💫
Apparently nobody conducted an exit poll, so we'll find out in the morning.
#ukpol #makerfield
@ubuntourist@mastodon.socialHashtag No King graffiti in the rubble
Seen on The GUARDIAN (URL below): An Iranian flag hangs amidst the rubble of a building at the Sharif University of Technology, which was damaged in a strike, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
In the rubble, a piece of wall spray-painted with "#NOKING" (hashtag No King)
Photograph: Majid-Asgaripour/Reuters
@elduvelle@neuromatch.socialJust read this really well-informed perspective on the differences between the US and Ukraine. Lots of interesting comparisons that should be an eye-opener for a lot of "Maga" Americans (at least if they were open to changing their minds, haha).
The direction the US is taking right now feels like the fall of the Roman empire, which had everything and didn't know how to deal with that (please note I am really not a historian and this might be completely wrong)
@cdarwin@c.imThe White House declined to estimate the cost of the war with Iran at a congressional hearing on Thursday,
prompting some Senate Democrats to criticize the Trump administration for its lack of transparency.
In a second appearance on Capitol Hill this week, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, sidestepped questions about the price tag of the U.S.- and Israel-led conflict.
He said the “fluctuating” nature of the war made it hard to calculate either the expense…
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyBefore the illegal US-Israeli war against Iran:
- Negotiations on nuclear development ongoing
- Strait of Hormuz open
- Oil price at $60
After:
- Negotiations to start on resolving the recent mess
- Lots of destruction in Iran and Gulf states
- Strait of Hormuz practically closed
- Oil price at $96
- Most of Europe known for its 'understanding' for breaking international law
- Economic problems around the world, inflation on the rise…
@villavelius@mastodon.online"... that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us …"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/11/pope-leo-us-israel-iran-war?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Aviation experts said the wreckage pictured was in fact from a F-15E, from the US air force’s 494th squadron, based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK."
Let that sink in. Based in the UK, shot down on a raid in Iran.
One of two US crew members rescued after F-15E jet shot down over Iran | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
@paulwermer@sfba.socialA reminder that the the world is a very complex system, and "simple & obvious" solutions are rare. Even if they work very well for capital (at least for a while).
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/06/us-china-trump-trade…
@PaulWermer@sfba.socialA reminder that the the world is a very complex system, and "simple & obvious" solutions are rare. Even if they work very well for capital (at least for a while).
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/06/us-china-trump-trade…
@memeorandum@universeodon.comLebanon Is Teetering at the Abyss of a New Civil War (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-civil-war-cb8f63e1?st=dgE4Xi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.memeorandum.com/260609/p17#a260609p17
@cdarwin@c.imIt would be hard to find a human on Earth unaffected by the US-Israel war against Iran.
Several thousand have been killed.
Millions more are paying each day in steeper food prices or at the petrol pump,
and as inflation eats away at the value of their earnings.
For many, the final bill has not yet come, but it will eventually.
They will pay for the long-term damage caused by the biggest threat of all to the global economy:
uncertainty.
Uncertainty …
@kazys@mastodon.socialSad news that Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis passed away. Very strange that the NYT did not mention that she died of sadness after her husband's death. Why?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/world/middleeast/marjane-satrapi-dead.html vs
@servelan@newsie.socialTrump officials prepping for ‘nightmare scenario’ where oil hits $150-a-barrel - and unleashes more pain at the gas pump | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/oil-cost-iran-war-usa-trump-b2950191.html
@cjust@infosec.exchange#USPolitics #USPol #WhoCouldHaveSeenThisComing
Amazing what can happen in a week.
Ref:
@cdarwin@c.imThe first US-born pope said:
“Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.”
Addressing world leaders who decide to go to war, Leo said:
“To them we cry out: stop!
It is time for peace!
Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation
– not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided.”
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!
Enough of the display of power!
Enough of war!
@ubuntourist@mastodon.socialHashtag No King graffiti in the rubble
Seen on The GUARDIAN (URL below): An Iranian flag hangs amidst the rubble of a building at the Sharif University of Technology, which was damaged in a strike, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
In the rubble, a piece of wall spray-painted with "#NOKING" (hashtag No King)
Photograph: Majid-Asgaripour/Reuters
@pre@boing.worldMy pitch if I ran a TV production company would be something like:
Twelve episodes a year of 3-episode serials: That keeps the number of sets you have to construct down. It gives each story the complexity of a movie and time to breath without the frantic pace. You can have one every season of the year.
You gotta remember to focus on the companion. This isn't really a story about The Doctor, it's about the companions asking the question, Doctor Who?
Episodes should generally start with a companion's face or escapade coz they're the ones we're identifying with as we figure out who the doctor is.
At some point in 2027 you'll cast and announce a new doctor.
This is when you call Billie Piper in to film and release a webisode which is just the regeneration into Billie so far: her going "Oh, hello?" Then shaking her head and saying "oh hell no" and shaking harder until she shakes the face off into the new man or woman you picked who says "Oh, that was close".
That change into the Bad Wolf Doctor was just bad without a capstone xmas episode. So a one minute tik-tokable short to announce the newbie frees you of it.
Then you can start ep1 filming and released nearly a year later on the 65th anniversary with a story that focuses on the companion getting into trouble and meeting The Doctor.
Cast nobody famous. The production is about making stars not finding them I don't want anyone having preconceived notions about the character from seeing the actor in that other show even it it was a really good one and they're great.
Earthbound cross-time time-travel story for serial one to pick up new companion, intervene in an aliens vs aliens space-war in serial two, go screw up history and fix it for the third and aliens endangering companion's family for the fourth.
When they're 3-episode serials you only need four a year. Different writer for each.
Cliff-hangers between episodes in each serial of course, with stories about the nature of time and space and getting along with other cultures and running up and down corridors and scary monsters and of course the question "who is The Doctor and how can they fix this without guns or violence with just a screwdriver and two hearts worth of compassion".
The Doctor is some weird looking older dude, more importantly vivid and strange and scholarly than handsome. He has a big coat and no question marks. Then he can change clothes but with the same coat always have the same look. He needs to be able to do a good arrogant rant at himself while he thinks.
The companion is curious and brave and young enough to be naive and surprised and energetic. Doesn't do what she's told. Wonders off against orders. Maybe sometimes bombs things.
Obviously you keep the blue box and the tune and make a new style screwdriver.
You need to do the behind the scenes shows too. Not sure if they make or cost money but they are brilliant for the geeky fandom. That may be why it came back last time.
Anyway. Sadly I don't own a production company.
I cancelled the TV license in the mean time. Give the money to Big Finish instead. These audio things are expensive. I've bought bundles before. Anyone have favorites? I lose track of which one's I've heard.
#doctorWho
@cdarwin@c.imPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pause attacks targeting Hezbollah
-- but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.
The truce, set to start at 5 p.m. Eastern time, could ease efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/…
@kurtsh@mastodon.socialJesus. Spring Breakers have no actual idea who we’re at war with.
(courtesy of Pod Save the World)
https://youtube.com/@podsavetheworld
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyTrump approval sinks to new low (34%) as war with Iran drives cost-of-living concerns - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-sinks-record-low-war-with-iran-drives-cost-of-living-concerns-2026-04-28/
@cdarwin@c.imThe White House is seeking a record-shattering Pentagon budget of
$1.5 trillion for the next fiscal year,
the largest year-over-year increase in a presidential military spending request since World War II.
The United States already has the world’s largest military budget at roughly $1 trillion,
more than the combined budgets of the next nine highest-spending countries.
The budget proposal also includes deep cuts to social programs.
The Trump administrati…
@scottmiller42@mstdn.socialRE: https://mstdn.social/@scottmiller42/115880071275459284
There’s a lot of reasons to be opposed to USA war in Iran, but my conviction that any action we take will only leave the world in a worse place is at the top of my list. This administration is l…
@cdarwin@c.imTrump announced on Thursday that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had agreed to begin a 10-day cease-fire at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
If it indeed takes effect, the cease-fire could remove a major hurdle to the broader peace talks with Iran.
https://www.nytimes.com/live…
@cdarwin@c.imPope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain,
dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,”
Leo told a gathering at Saint Joseph Cathedral in western Cameroon.
“They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation,
yet the resources need…
@cdarwin@c.imWe are at war.
Gas prices are climbing above $5 per gallon across much of the country.
The political apparatus of the country is rife with division, infighting, and bureaucratic chaos that threatens to further upset 250 years of historical precedent.
But look at Marco Rubio over there, getting his groove on.
DJ at a wedding! What a lovely time.
The secretary of state was pictured this weekend behind the turntables at a family wedding queuing up Calvin Harris’ …
@cdarwin@c.imIn January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre
— Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States
— and delivered a lecture.
“America,” Colby and his colleagues told the cardinal, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
As tempers rose, one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the A…
@smurthys@hachyderm.ioYup, the man is #desperate for a "birthday present" for himself and crow about it to sycophants and acolytes at the stupid #UFC event.
#Iran #agreement #birthday
@cdarwin@c.imThe United States “can certainly do more damage to the Iranian economy,
but they have withstood more pressure than any other economy in history,
and that hasn’t produced the collapse of the regime or more reasonable positions,”
said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.
Iran is such an authoritarian state that the kind of political drivers that might push compromise don’t exist, she said,
wit…
@pre@boing.worldThe talking heads on the corporate media are assuring me that Iran was building up its forces and threatening apocalyptic war and that now they can't do that.
But seems to me that it was the USA which has a large cache of apocalypse weapons and were threatening to drag the entire world into their bullshit war.
Iran was never a bigger threat than the USA, the USA is the biggest threat to world peace that exists, possibly next to Israel.
Still. Glad to see the crisis is postponed for a while and that the USA has backed down, humiliated, for now.
Trump's pointless stupid war has left Iran empowered and triumphant, the regime strengthened with more support than before.
But the talking heads can't admit that at all.
#iran #wordPol
@cdarwin@c.imCzech president Petr Pavel warned that Donald Trump’s recent comments questioning the role of Nato have damaged the alliance’s credibility more than the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has done in several years.
Pavel, a retired Nato general and former chair of the Nato military committee, also said that Trump’s criticism of the alliance over the Iran war was “to put it mildly, unfair”.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Czech media outlet Seznam Zpršvy at the Charles Universi…
@cdarwin@c.imA 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has come into effect,
-- pausing fighting in the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,100 Lebanese people and displaced over 2.1 million.
The agreement was announced earlier by Donald Trump, who said he had spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, and invited both leaders “for meaningful talks” at the White House.
Both leaders welcome…
@cdarwin@c.imThere have always been reasons to criticise US foreign policy.
Yet in the past, many of us still looked with a certain envy at the strength of the country’s institutions,
the independence of its media,
and the willingness of its citizens to engage in democratic life.
Today, as Ukraine fights a war to defend its democracy
– to preserve a state where institutions serve the people rather than dictators,
where the press remains independent,
and where ci…
@cdarwin@c.imRepublicans could and likely would vote to table any resolution to impeach Trump,
but that would represent a de facto endorsement of whatever war crimes Trump chooses to commit against Iran in the coming days,
and of the global economic fallout for Trump’s humiliating forfeiture of the Strait of Hormuz.
The least-worst way forward for both the U.S. and the world is for the war to end immediately.
That almost certainly can’t happen with an erratic president in offic…
@cdarwin@c.imAnother day, another hairpin turn in the world of Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
The weekend was all about war,
and Trump insisting Iran had not yet “paid a big enough price”.
Tuesday was Project Freedom,
styled as a grand “humanitarian gesture” to allow trapped ships and their crews to escape the Gulf,
but also aimed at weakening Iran’s chokehold on the strait of Hormuz.
By the early hours of Wednesday we were back to peace.
The president announced:…
@cdarwin@c.imTalks between the US and Iran appeared to have concluded for now,
Following several hours of talks in Pakistan that are aimed at ending the weeks-long war between Washington and Tehran.
Different Iranian media outlets, including Fars news agency and Tasnim news agency,
are reporting that “serious disagreements” remain
but at the suggestion of Pakistan, another round of talks will be held on Sunday morning.
@cdarwin@c.im'Iran can be taken out in one night, and that might be tomorrow night,' says Trump
Trump repeats his usual claims about how well the war is going and how well the US military is doing (“unbelievably well”, he says),
and celebrates the “very historic” rescue of the second crew member of the US F-15 fighter jet downed over Iran last week.
Turning to his latest deadline for Tehran to open the strait of Hormuz (8pm ET on Tuesday), he adds:
"The entire country …
@pre@boing.worldFirst we should note that quite some of the danger in this new dangerous world is caused by 'defense' spending by the UK's so-called allies like America and Israel and their attacks abroad, and so-called adversaries like Russia and their wild plundering and war crimes.
Adding more weapons the UK can use to support and extend all those battles ain't making the nation safe or secure at all. Quite the reverse.
@cdarwin@c.imThere is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule.
Interviews with several people in the orbit of the Russian leader, as well as sources in the Russian business world and western intelligence officials, paint a picture of
an isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned,
both with the faltering war in Ukraine and the economic downturn at home.
“There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the el…
@cdarwin@c.imIn a letter to the American people,
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian laid out the longstanding, historical grievances behind Tehran’s distrust of Washington,
with a turning point being the 1953 coup d’état, which he described as “an illegal American intervention aimed at preventing the nationalisation of Iran’s own resources”.
Relations before that “were not originally hostile, and early interactions between the Iranian and American people were not marred with hostility o…
@cdarwin@c.imThe death toll from Thursday’s attack on the B1 bridge in Karaj, Iran, has risen to eight, up from two,
and 95 others were injured, Iranian state media reports.
Donald Trump earlier boasted about the attack,
warning Tehran there was “much more to follow”
and urged it to “make a deal before it is too late”.
⭐️Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the attack wouldn’t force Tehran to surrender.
“It only conveys the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy…
@pre@boing.worldThen you gotta look at what defense spending actually buys.
To the extent you buy missiles and airplanes and guns and ammo and drones from your so-called allies or so-called adversaries you fund their war machine to no real benefit in security or national ability for yourself.
Sending the nation's wealth abroad in return for a more dangerous world with more battles to fight.
@cdarwin@c.imDoctor John Gartner,
the co-founder of “Duty To Warn”
noted Trump went to war on “impulse.”
He continued, Trump “didn’t bring along any allies, he didn’t prevent any evidence, he didn’t prepare the American people. He didn’t do anything.”
And the reason—per Dr. Gartner—is more alarming than you think.
It’s not just because Trump views himself as a king who doesn’t need to get his “subjects” (you and I) on board.
Rather, as Dr. Gartner opined, “He’s not th…
@cdarwin@c.imToday, Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) announced her intent to introduce Articles of Impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth:
“Donald Trump’s deranged statements – including one on Easter Sunday – are further entrenching our country and our world in another devastating, never-ending war.
He’s threatening war crimes that violate U.S. law and the Geneva Convention, on top of illegal actions and atrocities already committed at his direction
–including violence …
@cdarwin@c.imIran has now repeatedly shown itself able to strike at U.S. aircraft in ways that should give Washington pause ahead of any further escalation of the war.
Iranian forces have hit a base in Saudi Arabia, striking two U.S. KC-135 aerial refueling planes and destroyed an American E-3 early warning detection system.
Iran has also been successfully shooting down Israeli and U.S. drones, some military analysts say.
With both sides perceiving themselves as at an advantage,
t…
