World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
UK police arrest over 200 at protest for banned Palestine group 1News
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asserted their sweeping control over the Strait of Hormuz, even as it signalled that civilian maritime traffic remains permitted under regulated conditions.In a statement, quoted by AFP, the Guards’ naval command said, “All traffic… is under the full control of the armed forces,” accompanied by footage showing vessels targeted through crosshairs. The warning escalated further with the message, “The enemy will become trapped in a deadly vortex in the Strait if it makes the wrong move.”
Oil prices have rocketed in early market trading after the US announced it would blockade Iranian ports.
The US military has confirmed it will halt all maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, with the measure taking effect at 10am ET (2pm GMT) today.
US crude oil prices surged eight per cent to $104.24 a barrel in early trading, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed seven per cent to $102.29.
Hungarian voters on Sunday ousted long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, rejecting the authoritarian policies and global far-right movement that he embodied in favour of a pro-European challenger in a bombshell election result with global repercussions.
It was a stunning blow for Orbán – a close ally of both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin – who quickly conceded defeat after what he called a “painful” election result. US Vice President JD Vance had made a visit to Hungary just days earlier, meant to help push Orbán over the finish line.
China’s energy strategy pays off as Mideast war cramps supplies, analysts say The Japan Times
from news.google.com
Iran sees American demands as reaching far beyond what the United States achieved in war. Tehran is gambling that it can withstand further bombardment more than Washington is willing to sustain economic chaos, experts say.
from www.nytimes.com
“If the Taiwan Strait or the surrounding area of Taiwan will be blockaded, it is almost a 100% of the blockade of the regional energy supply,” Sawyer Mars, Taiwan’s deputy interior minister, said in an interview with Bloomberg News earlier this month. “It’s not only Taiwan’s problem, it’s the whole area’s problem.”
from financialpost.com
A TEENAGE girl has been crushed to death by a 1,000kg wooden beam in front of her horrified mum while helping her clean a temple.
The student, 17, was severely wounded following the horror ordeal in Malaysia before later succumbing to her injuries.
John Brennan, who was the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, has joined calls for the removal of US President Donald Trump from office, declaring that the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment was drawn up with Trump specifically in mind.
Myanmar’s new President: Is this shift towards civilian-led democracy or mere hogwash? The Hans India
from news.google.com
Donald Trump hasn’t done interviews with neutral journalists who could challenge him in years. Trump’s venues of choice are either cell phone interviews that last a minute or two or conservative media like Fox News and Newsmax.
The Fox News interviews are heavily manufactured, usually pretaped, and edited before they air.
It takes a special level of incompetence to go on a network that is propagandistic and supportive and botch a softball question in such a friendly and managed environment.
The issue that is driving the special election results that Democrats have been dominating, and the Democratic Party’s midterm generic ballot lead that has been growing, is the economy. Inflation and rising prices are driving voter outrage directed at this president and his administration.
WASHINGTON — Former 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said that the US will “probably” need to dispatch a special forces team to retrieve Iran’s uranium stockpile.
“That’s probably what it’s going to come down to. I mean, this is a special force mission. It would take about a week to ten days to get done. They know how to do it. It’s dangerous,” Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
The U.S. Military’s New ‘Mini’ B-21 Raider Stealth Inspired Drones Just Broke Cover 19FortyFive
from news.google.com
The first thing you learn about a loom is that it’s easy to break.
The shuttle runs along a track that warps with humidity. The heddles hang from cords that fray. The reed is a row of thin metal strips, bent by hand, that bend back just as easily. The warp beam cracks if you over-tighten it. The treadles loosen at the joints. The breast beam, the cloth roller, the ratchet and pawl, the lease sticks, the castle; the whole contraption is wood and string held together by tension. It’s a piece of ingenuity and craftsmanship, but one as delicate as the clothes it manifests out of wild plant fibers. It is, also, the foundational tool of an entire industry, textiles, that has kept its relevance to our days of heavy machinery, factories, energy facilities, and datacenters.
AT LEAST 30 people have been killed in a horror stampede at a holiday hotspot in the Caribbean, with many students feared to be among the dead.
The fatal crush happened at packed tourist attraction, Laferriere Citadel in northern Haiti.
Two U.S. Navy destroyers had transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin mine-clearing operations in the vital waterway, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
The destroyers crossed through the Strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf, CENTCOM said on social media. Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will “join the clearance effort in the coming days,” CENTCOM said.
The operation came as President Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that the U.S. was doing “a favor to Countries all over the world” by clearing mines from the strait. Mr. Trump also said Saturday that all of Iran’s mine-laying ships have been destroyed.
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian man in raid on village Arab News PK
from news.google.com
LONDON — London police arrested more than 200 people on Saturday during a protest against a ban on the group Palestine Action that the government has labeled a terrorist organization.
Metropolitan Police said they had detained 212 protesters between the ages of 27 and 82 for supporting the group.
Britain’s High Court ruled in February that the government’s decision to outlaw the protest group as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place while the government appeals.
ROME — In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
Mali withdraws recognition of Sahrawi Republic, backs Morocco’s autonomy plan MyJoyOnline
from news.google.com
Driven by a desire to retain power and avoid political consequences such as impeachment, Donald Trump is pursuing three measures that could influence the upcoming midterm elections.
Late last month, the No Kings Movement conducted over three thousand large protests in all fifty states. As many as eight million concerned citizens made their voices heard, the largest protest in US history, and everyone was watching. This president and the complicit now sense their end and are rightfully frightened. The much-anticipated November mid-term elections risk sweeping a host of Trump supporters from office and Democrats becoming the majority in the House and Senate. Which risks a presidential impeachment process to follow. A third impeachment of a president has no historical precedent. Then again, there has never been a White House resident like this one.
Did Trump arm Iranians and they failed to deliver?
Trump’s Claim of Arming Iranian Protesters Triggers Speculation Among Chinese Netizens Vision Times
from news.google.com
Iran’s leadership is facing new questions after a report claimed the country’s newly installed supreme leader is no longer able to function in his role just weeks after taking power.
According to The Times, Mojtaba Khamenei is “incapacitated and receiving medical treatment” in the city of Qom.
The report cites a diplomatic memo based on U.S. and Israeli intelligence shared with Gulf allies.
Intelligence Memo Raises Serious Questions
The memo reportedly describes Khamenei as suffering from a “severe condition.”
The unidentified condition has left him “unable to be involved in any decision-making by the regime.”
The claims, if accurate, would signal a major disruption at the top of Iran’s ruling structure during a period of heightened regional tensions.
After President Trump took out Soleimani, you would think that his relatives wouldn’t be allowed to spread anti-American hate in the United States. Turns out the State Department is just getting around to it. An F-15E was struck down over Iran, and American special forces went in to recover the missing pilots. Europe just doesn’t understand why it matters. X has become a right wing echo chamber. At least, Nate Silver thinks so. Let’s try to figure out his logic.
Israeli forces killed more than 200 people in strikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, on Wednesday. Top European diplomats called for Lebanon to be included in the cease-fire.
from www.nytimes.com
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s sunny assessment of the prospects for a long-term peace agreement with Iran, fundamental differences remain between the two sides’ visions for a deal.
Trump has described Iran’s 10-point plan as “a workable basis on which to negotiate,” but questions remain about what exactly it contains and whether it crosses U.S. red lines.
Iranian state media have reported that the plan would allow Iran to maintain its ability to enrich uranium, protect Tehran’s allied militant groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and secure the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from bases in the region.
However, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance denies that this is the plan Trump was describing as workable.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media.”
The FBI has arrested a former Special Operations Command employee who allegedly leaked classified information to the press.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday. “Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests. This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”
Vice President JD Vance said the current ceasefire with Iran remains “fragile,” but the regime’s leaders will learn the hard way if they “mess around” and cause the ceasefire deal to collapse.
Vance is warning that President Donald Trump is prepared to take decisive action if Tehran fails to negotiate in good faith.
Speaking at a conference in Hungary on Wednesday, Vance emphasized that the two-week ceasefire hinges on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and engaging seriously in negotiations.
Eleven leaders of a Turkish LGBTQ+ rights group went on trial Wednesday on charges of “obscenity” and “violating the protection of the family,” their lawyer told the AFP news aGençy.
The defendants, leaders of the Genç LGBTI+ association (Young LGBTI+ in Turkish), are accused of breaching an article of the Turkish constitution on protecting family values, as well as publishing images on social media showing same-sex couples kissing, deemed “obscene” by authorities.
China’s retaliation against Panama has backfires across Latin America The Hill
from news.google.com