03 World

Blurb:

 

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

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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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

“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.”

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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.

Blurb:

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.

Blurb:

Germany’s fiscal problems are no longer confined to Berlin — they are now most visible in the country’s towns and cities, where local governments have recorded their worst deficit since reunification.

According to a DeStatis press release on Tuesday, municipal finances deteriorated sharply in 2025, with the deficit climbing to €31.9 billion, up from €24.8 billion the previous year. While revenues rose to €391.4 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent, spending grew even faster to €423.3 billion, widening the gap between income and expenditure to unprecedented levels.

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Islamic militants just raided a Christian village in Ituri. Hundreds are dead. Thousands more injured.

It is the latest attack in a campaign by the ADF to annihilate the Christian population of the Congo.

And once again, the West is silent.

Not a peep from the global left, the media, hman rights activists, campus protests etc because that would be islamophobic.

Blurb:

 

Trump’s behavior surrounding the Iran war has changed the priorities of House Democrats.

For the duration of Trump’s first year in office, House Democratic leadership has stressed that dealing with affordability and inflation are the top issues that they have been focused on, but Democrats are getting an overwhelming number of calls from their constituents, and the members themselves are enraged over Trump’s behavior.

Blurb:

BEIJING — China’s government said Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed not to escalate their conflict and to “explore a comprehensive solution” after several weeks of cross-border fighting between the two countries that has left hundreds of people killed.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Wednesday that after seven days of peace talks in the western Chinese city of Urumqi under China mediation, all the parties also agreed to keep the dialogue.

Blurb:

 

The FBI Cyber Division warned organizations and companies that Iran-affiliated hackers are targeting U.S. critical infrastructures.

The warning comes hours before the 8 PM ET deadline President Donald Trump gave Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran-affiliated cyber actors are targeting operational technology devices across US critical infrastructure, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs),” the division wrote on X. “These attacks have led to diminished PLC functionality, manipulation of display data and, in some cases, operational disruption and financial loss.”