Tootfinder

The 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…

“A Moral Obscenity”: White House Demands $1.5 Trillion Pentagon Budget, Largest Increase Since WWII
The 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 Trump administration’s budget request includes funding for F-35 stealth fighter jets, new warships and President Trump�…

"Its authors — some of the world’s best intelligence-gatherers, who contributed thousands of their own photos — kept the curated database updated and online for public use at no charge."
Eulogy for the CIA Factbook: The free standard for world facts, long an educational staple, is gone

Farewell to the CIA World Factbook, a reference manual now gone under Trump
The Trump administration has shut down the CIA World Factbook, and there's much lamenting about the demise of a free source that many people used to check basic facts about countries. The end came on Feb. 4 in a “fond farewell” post from the spy agency. The CIA says the decision reflects an agency whose core mission has changed over the years. Factbook fans say they'll miss the trusted reference point that had its origins in World War II-era intelligence work. It went public in 1975 and bec…

Hashtag 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

The Darth #Trump administration clearly assumes that NATO and thus the EU will assist the US in the war against Iran.
But that would not be covered by the mutual defense pact—after all, the war started by Trump is a violation of international law, and the thousands of deaths in Iran are a war crime.
Furthermore, this would not change the US's support for NATO in any way. There will be non…

Europe Didn’t Want War With Iran. But So Far, It Can’t Stay Out of It.
From London to Rome and beyond, leaders are facing diplomatic headwinds and criticism at home as they take part in a conflict they did not seek.

Republicans 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…

Impeachment As A Referendum On The Iran Fiasco
Getting caught trying to stop Trump will do much more for Democrats' public image than fighting internally over whether to blacklist a podcaster. And, at some point, it might work.

"Keir Starmer suggested allowing the US to use the bases to carry out defensive strikes against Iranian targets at the meeting last Friday but was met with opposition from Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood, according to the Spectator, which was then picked up by several media outlets."
Leak from secret UK meeting on US attacks on Iran an ‘absolute travesty’, says Lammy | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian

'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 …

“Throughout our trip to Germany, most of the conversations I had with other survivors and their families reliably returned to fears and intergenerational traumas in the context of the Trump presidency; the rise of nationalism, authoritarianism and uncertainty in the U.S. and around the world. But although this was at the height of devastating reports of famine and genocide emerging from Gaza, everyone in our group, especially the Jews, seemed to make a concerted effort to avoid mention of Pa…

Remembering ‘Never Again for Everyone’ at Bergen-Belsen
At the height of the war in Gaza, a Jewish activist for Palestine accompanied his mother, a Holocaust survivor, to Germany for a ceremony to mark 80 years since liberation

Musk’s Starlink Blocks Russian Troops’ Internet Access at Ukraine’s Request
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/world/europe/starlink-blocks-russian-troops-access.html

At Ukraine’s Request, Starlink Denies Internet Access to Russian Troops
It’s unclear what effect the change will have on Russia’s ability to wage war, but Russian military bloggers said troops were experiencing internet outages that hampered frontline communications.

Today, 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 …

Rep. Ansari: Impeach Pete Hegseth | U.S. House Representative Yassamin Ansari
The Official U.S. Congressional website of Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari

Toblinger Knoten / Torre di Toblin
(October 2024)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Photography

"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

Trump 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

Jesus. Spring Breakers have no actual idea who we’re at war with.
(courtesy of Pod Save the World)
https://youtube.com/@podsavetheworld

Doctor 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…

Trump’s dementia is a threat to the world-he must be removed from office!
Humanity is at risk

#USPolitics #USPol #WhoCouldHaveSeenThisComing
Amazing what can happen in a week.
Ref:

From 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.

Pentagon briefing:
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that a US submarine sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian ocean
as he declared that the Iranian navy “rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf”
and that it was “ineffective, decimated, destroyed”.
He declared that “America is winning”
and suggested that in under a week the US and Israel
“will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace”.
The leader of the Iranian co…

A thought, after listening to all the fucking securocrats wanking off over their Munich Security Conference.
In the Franco-Prussian war, the Paris Commune happened. At the end of the first world war, Russia had a #communist revolution, while the German navy mutinied in an explicitly left wing revolt. After the second,

The U.S. is currently holding three times as many people in immigrant detention as were detained in the Nazi concentration camp system in spring 1939
—six years into the Third Reich and just before the start of World War II.
"…nobody sane now thinks the answer to abuses at Dachau was to give the guards more training."
https://<…

Into the abyss
The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.

HP reports Q1 revenue up 6.9% YoY to $14.44B, vs. $13.94B est., and expects FY 2026 results to be at the low end of its forecasts; HPQ drops 6% after hours (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hp-war

Institutional power, capitalism, colonialism, and an empire on the brink of war or collapse. Doncha just love escaping into fiction when the real world gets to be too much?
Yeah, 19th century fictional Britain is strikingly similar to the US today, but at least you know the fictional story will have a resolution. I don't want to spoil the story. Just know that you're in for a captivating ride with an excellent author.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
I listened to the audio book…

A look at the dearth of media coverage of Sudan's civil war, started in 2023; report: 32 journalists have been killed and 90% of outlets damaged or destroyed (Isma'il Kushkush/Nieman Reports)
https://niemanreports.org/sudan-civil-war…

Sudan’s Civil War Is Silencing the Press - Nieman Reports
Sudan’s journalists risk their lives to tell the story of their homeland as the world turns away, writes Isma'il Kushkush.

Casualties and destruction were reported across at least nine countries,
with the United Arab Emiratesrecording a total of 186 missiles and 812 drones sent toward the country since the start of the conflict
and two ports in Oman targeted in drone strikes today.

The US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was hit by a drone strike,
causing a fire to break out.
The strike came as the state department urged that all US citizens leave more than a dozen Middle…

I read this fascinating thread while listening to Qobuz and by sheer coincidence, this track came on and it seems horribly appropriate:
#IfYouTolerateThisYourChildrenWillBeNext Manic Street Preachers on Qobuz https://open.qobuz.com/track/55341288
https://mastodon.social/@sellathechemist/116075306722957554
@… - The Russians cannot be trusted. At best the Russians will buy time, and then have another go.
When will European governments call a spade a spade and really push to disconnect from Russian oil and gas? If that means buying it from the US interim so be it. But then really push hard for energy and military security.
Russia is NOT going away. Nor is its hatred of Europe which is why the've been waging war on us in myriad ways for the last 20 years.
4/end
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/14/alexei-navalny-poisoning-death-russia-frog-toxin

What those different versions of the Iranian flag appearing at protests mean
https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/what-those-different-versions-of-the-iranian-f…

RE: https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/116279696642883858
When is the world going to realise that the US isn’t at war just with Iran… It’s at war with the whole world.
What did you think “America first” meant?
They’re playing a zero-sum game so appeaseme…

RE: 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…

It is unbelievable how Trump helps Putin in every way possible...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/world/middleeast/iran-war-putin-russia-energy-oil-prices.html?unlo…

U.S. Eases Limits on Russian Energy as Oil Prices Soar
The volatility in energy markets because of the war in Iran could not come at a better time for President Vladimir V. Putin.

Just finished "Pearl" written by Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by Christine Norrie, based at least in part on "Hiroshima in the Morning", a memoir by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. A concise, wonderfully-illustrated, and fascinating story of a Hawaiian-born girl sent to visit her dying great-grandmother in Japan in 1941 and then trapped there throughout World War 2. I won't spoil things beyond that, but the book digs deep into the horrors of the war on both sides, showing just how cruel the geological ambitions of nations can be to people who belong to both cultures.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

🔴URGENT! Donald Trump's special address at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos!: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/21/urgent-donald-trumps-special-address.html

Iran 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…

Iran’s Downing of Fighter Jet and U.S. Rescue Leave Both Sides Dangerously Emboldened
After Iran shot down a U.S. plane and U.S. forces pulled off a risky ground operation to extricate a stranded airman, both sides claimed victory. That confidence could fuel further escalation.

The war has put Middle East water supplies at risk: Iran War Maps: Tracking the Mideast Conflict - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/world/us-israel-iran-attack-maps#the-war-has-put-middle-east-water-supplies-at-risk

This is my shocked face. I'm just gobsmacked that no one considered this possibility.
https://apnews.com/article/oil-prices-crude-brent-iran-ecab41ec6a365e58282…

Crude oil sells above $100 a barrel as Iran war impedes production
Oil prices have jumped past $100 a barrel as the Iran war disrupts oil production and shipping in the Middle East. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, was at $107.97 shortly after trading resumed Sunday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. That's 16.5% higher than the international benchmark's Friday closing price of $92.69. The light crude oil produced in the United States sold for about $106.22 a barrel, or 16.9% more. Crude prices haven’t gotten that high in more than three and a half ye…

I am developing
a strong trust issue
with corporations
People around me
respected professionals
one by one falling under the AI spell
learning to worship it daily
despite it eating up their lives
in front of their eyes
The orange man
in a semi bulldozed
shiny White House
at the top of the hill
halfway across the world
bragging about his non-war
shrugging off 165 girls murdered
aged between 7 and 12
as the …

They are a military force in a war that cannot be won.
Kinda a natural spot in the rankings… @… https://…

Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix.bsky.social)
At $28.7B for 2025 (nearly triple its 2024 budget) and at least another $56.25B over the next three years, ICE's budget would be the envy of many national militaries... "Indeed, this budget would put ICE as the 14th most well-funded military in the world, right between Ukraine and Israel." [contains quote post or other embedded content]

“Canada supports the United States…..”
these are the only words that matter and I’m sorry what? This is “our” position? No. I reject this!!
Canada has stood for humanitarian law and international peace and security for nearly a century.
We should be a “Middle Power” with values. Right? Wasn’t that the Davos speech?!
But here we are clapping meekly from the sidelines as the country that would love to annex us, now ruled by a Christo-Fascist Regime, and in partnership with a Judeo-Fascist Regime blows up people in a country ruled by a Islamo-Fascist regime.
We are basically back to the Middle Ages but with nukes in our back pocket.
These are the three most dangerous countries in the world all fighting amongst themselves. We should not be taking sides, except for the side of peaceful civilians of all religions in all countries.
This is not the way.
I am shocked at the shallowness, the naïveté and the cowardice of Carney’s foreign policy.
#canpoli #cdnpoli #canada #iran #usa #israel #palestine #war #genocide #fascism

'Several' American warplanes crashed in Kuwait this morning,
the country’s defence ministry said.
All the pilots bailed out safely and are been checked up on at a hospital, according to the ministry.
They are all in a stable condition.
It is not immediately clear what caused the US warplanes to crash
but the incident came during an intense period of Iranian fire targeting the country.
The defence ministry said it is continuing investigations into th…

"Since the war began on 2 March, #Israel has struck at least 128 medical facilities and ambulances across south #Lebanon, killing 40 healthcare workers and wounding 107, according to the Lebanese ministry of health."
Targetting of hospitals was also a feature of Israel's assault on

The 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…

John F. Burns, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times foreign correspondent who reported from South Africa, Iraq, and other bureaus, dies at 81 (Alan Cowell/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/world/j

John F. Burns, Prize-winning Foreign Correspondent for The Times, Dies at 81
In a 40-year career that brought him two Pulitzers, he reported from trouble spots around the world, eloquently conveying the chaos of war.

Fort Bliss "**consists of five massive tent structures on the site of a former World War II detention camp for Japanese Americans**. The facility has a maximum capacity of 5,000 people with each tent divided into windowless rooms, where as many as 72 detainees are held around the clock, save the one hour per day when they are taken outside, Morrison said."
Congresswoman details 'unbelievably inhumane conditions' at massive detention center - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ice-2676622143/

David Cronenberg, master of body horror movies, was born today (March 15) in 1943 (during World War II!)
I saw his films 'Crash' and 'Naked Lunch' early, around the same time, in 1997 or 1998. Since then, I've seen many more of his- I just counted, I've seen 13 of his 23 films, and I've loved all of them. I'm a huge fan. My favorite was Shivers for a while. I'm not sure what it is now. Gotta see those final 10!
Happy birthday, David. We love …

United States launched air strikes against Iran Saturday, and by Sunday night, at least 10 countries had attacked or been attacked.
Earth has just under 200 countries.
5% of countries are now at war.
The peace president did that, trying to conceal earlier crimes.
#USpol #war #crime

The war is turning into the ultimate test of an operating principle that has guided Trump for decades: construct a narrative, declare it to be true and relentlessly force the world to submit to it. It has proved effective in Manhattan boardrooms, on reality television and even at the heart of power in Washington.
But in Iran, Trump’s unique brand of “truthful hyperbole” has collided with the truthful truth. His reality distortion field has run into a brick wall.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/30/trump-iran-war-reality?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Trump Suggests Extended War on Iran as U.S. Adds to Forces in Mideast
Iran and allied militias, including Hezbollah, attacked Israel and U.S. targets,
and Israel struck in Lebanon.
Trump said the campaign could last “four to five weeks,”
but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”
“Whatever the time is, it’s OK,
whatever it takes,”
Trump said at his first public event since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Saturday.
“Righ…

Live Updates: Trump Suggests Extended War on Iran as U.S. Adds to Forces in Mideast
Iran and allied militias, including Hezbollah, attacked Israel and U.S. targets, and Israel struck in Lebanon. President Trump said the campaign could last “four to five weeks,” but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”

In 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…

Anger at the regime continues to spread,
even beyond the borders of the United States.
Millions of workers worldwide are following the fortunes of their brothers and sisters in the US
with intense sympathy for their struggle.
In Germany in particular, Trump’s actions vividly bring to mind Hitler, the Second World War and the Holocaust.
More and more people are becoming aware that a third world war can only be stopped if we succeed not only in overthrowing the…

Voices of solidarity from Germany in the fight against Trump’s drive to dictatorship - Bytes Europe
On Friday, January 23, around 100,000 people in Minneapolis turned out to protest against the Trump administration’s mobilization of ICE against the city’s

I see no sign of any recognition from those who would want such a ban that they see any of the collateral damage a successful ban would have on the majority of kids who are not falling for this bullshit. That they are banning any good at all along with the bad.
Under 18s only
I see that the lobbying for these laws are funded by the absolute worst companies on the internet, those who will be entrenched by the legal compliance costs, that will cement themselves as the arbitrators of who is allowed to access the internet.
It’s a gift to Palantir and other surveillance companies. The very people running these algo-feeds are the ones who benefit from IDing every user and stalking them across the internet on their government-approved internet-licence IDs.
I don’t think even a successful ban on social media for kids would actually address the issue of kids being exposed to sexism and misogony or reduce the kids alienation and depression.
A ban can’t help, will make many things worse, won’t address the problem, and will make competing with the worst surveillance capitalists on the planet more difficult.
Going to war with every internet site and advice forum and making internet access harder won’t fix anything, and will have massive collateral damage against everyone seeking support from strangers or trying to learn things their parents won’t teach them.
But I see we are going to do it anyway.
The direction is clear.
Those companies do get what they lobby for, and they are lobbying hard for ID checks on every website, wrapping their desire to enclose the internet commons for themselves in a faux concern for children’s welfare.
And governments wish to monitor and control the internet, so they will pass these laws.
I wonder how many parents have a family group-chat that they’re going to accidentally ban their kids from using, not realizing that ‘social media’ might include Whatsapp? 😆
It won’t fix anything, it will make the situation for kids worse, impose costs and rents and hacks and exploits on all of us, and increase government and corporate power.
Many will lose access to their networks of support and help.
So it goes.
We will build a better more censorship resistant internet. It’s already here really: Briar. Matrix. Nostr. Bitchat. Veilid. Spritely. And the rest.
The laws may push us there faster.
The race will go on.

Russia Put Its Future at Risk by Remaking Its Economy for War
About half of the country’s federal budget goes toward the fight in Ukraine
-- money that does little to support its long-term development
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/world/e

Russia Remade Its Economy for War, but It’s Come at a Huge Cost
About half of the country’s federal budget goes toward the fight in Ukraine, money that does little to support its long-term development.

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD)
has said it is ⚠️moving families from the RAF Akrotiri airbase in #Cyprus
⚡️after it was targeted in a suspected Iranian drone strike last night
at around midnight local time (22:00 GMT), in an attack which caused limited damage but no casualties,
🔥Cyprus has put authorities on alert,
closing schools and evacuating people where necessary,

Pope Leo takes another swipe at Trump over Iran war: ‘Go to confession’ | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pope-leo-trump-iran-war-christians-confession-b2938068.html

By day six, CSIS put the cumulative cost to the US of the Iran War at
$12.7 billion.
Today, it is likely to have exceeded
$18 billion – and the meter is still running.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/202…

Experts say water, not oil, is most at risk in the Persian Gulf during Iran war | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-war-oil-water-persian-gulf-b2934830.html

Iran has scoffed at reports that the US has put forward a ceasefire deal to bring an end to the conflict in the Middle East,
insisting Americans were only negotiating with themselves.
It follows reports that the Trump administrationsent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran through Pakistan.

Donald Trump has maintained that talks to end the war are ongoing, claiming yesterday that Iran wanted a deal “so badly”.
Iran, however, had already dismissed the claim as “f…

Fears about the global economic fallout from the war in Iran grew on Sunday
as the U.S. energy secretary acknowledged in a televised interview that there were
“no guarantees” that oil prices would fall in the coming weeks.
A day after President Trump called on other countries to send warships to the region to end the de facto Iranian blockade of the economically vital Strait of Hormuz,
foreign governments responded with caution— if at all

Iran War Live Updates: Israel Launches Strikes as Trump Urges World to Defend Strait of Hormuz
Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz to America and its allies, but the president’s earlier call for more naval reinforcements has gained little traction. The U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright, acknowledged energy prices could remain high.

Strikes by both sides on so-called upstream gas production facilities in recent days are a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, with potentially long-term consequences.
The strikes were the first time facilities associated with the production of fossil fuel energy had been hit in the conflict,
rather than sites associated more generally with the oil and gas industry.
On Tuesday a successful Iranian drone attack resulted in operations at the Shah gasfield in…

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 14 that
territorial concessions by Ukraine
would not bring peace,
just as the 1938 Munich Agreement did not prevent World War II.
"It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine
— just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a greater war,"
Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference.
The Munich Agr…

Territorial concessions by Ukraine won't bring peace, Zelensky says in Munich
"It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine – just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a greater war," Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference.

Not long after Donald Trump said the US was engaged in “strong talks” to bring the war with Iran to an end this week,
Qatar took the unusual step of distancing itself from the alleged diplomatic negotiations.
Qatar was not involved in any mediation efforts, said government spokesperson Majed al-Ansari at a briefing on Tuesday night,
before adding as a telling aside:
“If they exist.”
It signalled a notable break from Qatar’s historic and recurring position as chi…

Trump drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the Strait of Hormuz were unnecessary
– and that “maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all”
because his country has plenty of oil of its own.
The president made the contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One
after pleading with European and Nato allies to enter the war in Iran to help the US secure the strait
amid the largest oil supply disruption in history.

“When there’s a supply disruption in the Middle East, that raises prices for every barrel of oil in the world,”
said Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability at M.I.T.
“Those price increases then trickle down to products that use oil, gasoline being the most relevant one.”
⚠️But isn’t the United States the world’s largest oil producer?
Yes, but not all American-produced oil can be easily used by American refiners.
The United States is a n…

America Is an Oil Exporter. Why Does a Mideast War Raise U.S. Gas Prices?
The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran have intensified and the conflict has widened, shaking global energy markets.

Iran believes there can be no end to the conflict until it believes Trump has been shown the economic, political and military cost is so high that it is not worth repeating. It is instead insisting on a permanent deal that includes a US commitment not to attack Iran again.
The defiance is remarkable for a regime that at the start of the war 11 days ago was seeking little more than its own survival.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/10/iranian-regime-is-not-weakening-in-face-of-us-israel-onslaught-but-becoming-more-defiant?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

International response to Trump’s call for the dispatch of warships has so far proved vague and reluctant,
with countries unwilling to commit to a military response that could prove treacherous for their navies.
Tehran has said any oil tanker heading for the US, Israel or its allies is a legitimate target in the war and will be “immediately destroyed”.
Sixteen tankers have been attacked in the strait of Hormuz since the war started at the end of February
and Iran has…

As Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more,
renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is
“an empire in decline,”
following a predictable pattern
of militarism abroad and political instability at home
as it loses power and influence on the world stage.
“American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational,”
says McCoy.
“I think the thing to do is to realize that we are an empire in decline, …
…

“Empire in Decline”: Historian Alfred McCoy on U.S. Aggression in Venezuela, Iran & Beyond
As President Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more, renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is “an empire in decline,” following a predictable pattern of militarism abroad and political instability at home as it loses power and influence on the world stage. “American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational,” says McCoy. “I think the thing to do is to realize that we are an empire in decline, … and it will continue for another decade…

Tump/Netanyahu war death toll


Iran: U.S.-based rights group HRANA said on Thursday that 3,186 people have been killed. It said 1,394 of those were civilians including at least 210 children.

Lebanon: Around 1,021 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities. The World Health Organization and Lebanese health authorities said more than 100 of those killed were children.

Iraq: At least 60 people have…

A ground operation by the US Marines headed to Iran likely would involve targeting Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles and deeply buried facilities — to locate, secure or disable nuclear material that cannot be destroyed from the air.
Although Donald Trump said the June 2025 U.S. strikes had "obliterated" key nuclear sites, analysts note that critical elements of Iran’s program
— particularly enriched uranium stockpiles and deeply buried facilities — likely remain intac…

Next US move on Iran: Seize Kharg Island, secure uranium or risk ground war escalation
Military analysts discuss three paths for U.S.-Iran conflict: capturing Iran's economic lifeline at Kharg Island, full invasion or securing nuclear sites.

Nations agree to release oil reserves as war in Iran hits global economy
The International Energy Agency on Wednesday announced that it would carry out its largest-ever release of oil reserves
— 400 million barrels
— in a bid to control spiking energy prices caused by the United States-Israel war against Iran.

The plan, aimed at stabilizing oil prices that have soared since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, would deplete roughly one-third of glob…

Nations agree to release oil reserves as war in Iran hits global economy
The International Energy Agency announced that it would carry out its largest-ever release of oil reserves — 400 million barrels.