G7 in France: Same Allies, Different Meltdowns

Rubio spent the G7 in France denying that Washington wants Ukraine to trade Donbas for security guarantees, while Europe’s top diplomats tried to keep the summit from looking like a hostage video with catering.

So much for the “rules-based order”: one side shouts about lies, the other side performs outrage, and everyone still calls it diplomacy.

The real scandal is not the noise. It’s that the alliance keeps asking everyone to believe three incompatible things at once: Ukraine should hold the line, the U.S. should not be trapped in another endless war, and Europe should look morally upright while depending on American muscle.

That arrangement works beautifully until someone says the quiet part out loud.

Donbas has become the latest piece of territory that politicians use like a poker chip while pretending they’re playing for peace.

Meanwhile, the summit stage keeps filling up with officials who speak in grand principles and behave like rival tenants fighting over the same broken apartment.

#G7 #Ukraine #Rubio #Zelensky #EU #France #diplomacy #war

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Macron Sounds Brave on Israel, Frugal at Home

Emmanuel Macron condemned Israel over the blocked Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, calling freedom of worship something that must be guaranteed for all religions.

Fair enough — except this is the same French president whose government is now offering only tightly targeted fuel aid because, as France’s central bank put it, there is “no more money” for broad subsidies.

That’s the modern European posture in miniature: moral thunder abroad, budget discipline at home.

Macron can scold Israel for trampling holy sites, but when French drivers and businesses get squeezed by the oil shock, Paris reaches for a scalpel, not a blanket. The principles are grand; the compensation is minimal.

And that tension is the point. The Middle East crisis has pushed fuel prices higher across Europe, but France’s answer has been cautious, targeted relief rather than the old-school political sugar rush of big subsidies.

So Macron gets to play the global conscience while his own finance people remind everyone that righteousness does not pay the diesel bill.

#Macron #France #Israel #Jerusalem #fuelprices #MiddleEast #politics

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🌍 Trump’s Secret Plan:⚠️
“using Israel to topple down the Iranian government to appropriate the Strait of Hormuz”

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Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran does not agree to peace terms “shortly”, even as he claimed diplomatic progress in ending the war that was instigated by the US and Israel. ⚔️

Tehran has remained defiant during the month-long conflict, describing US peace proposals as “excessive, unrealistic and irrational” and firing waves of missiles at Israel. 🚀

The risk of further escalation, including a US ground operation to seize Kharg Island, continued to send tremors through financial markets. Oil prices are on course for a record monthly rise. 📈

In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump expressed confidence that a negotiated settlement would soon be reached, adding that the US was in “serious discussions” with what he characterised as “a more reasonable regime” in Tehran.

But he said if a deal was not struck – including to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane – US forces would destroy “all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”. 💥

Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and would probably constitute a war crime. ⚖️

Later on Monday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump would be willing to ask Arab countries to help foot the bill for the Iran war. 💰

“I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,” she told reporters. “It’s an idea that I know that he has.”

The proposal adds a striking new dimension to the warfare, suggesting Washington may seek to offload war costs on to the very Gulf states now scrambling to broker a peace deal.

The US president’s social media post and indications from the White House press team came amid continued garbled messaging.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said his preference would be to “take the oil in Iran”, which analysts believe would require using US troops to seize Kharg Island. ⛽️

#trump #israel #hormuz #strait #plan

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Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, on Monday acknowledged Tehran had received a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration after talks on Sunday between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

However, he said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington, adding that the US demands were “excessive, unrealistic and irrational”.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, dismissed the talks in Islamabad as cover for more US troops being brought to the region, adding that Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners for ever”. 🔥

Human rights groups criticised Trump’s threat of punitive strikes on civilian infrastructure. Erika Guevara-Rosas of Amnesty International said:

“Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure such as power plants is generally prohibited.”

Even in the limited cases that they qualify as military targets, a party still cannot attack power plants if this may cause disproportionate harm to civilians.

“Given that such power plants are essential for meeting the basic needs and livelihoods of tens of millions of civilians, attacking them would be disproportionate and thus unlawful under international humanitarian law, and could amount to a war crime.” ⚖️

While Trump officials, most prominently Pete Hegseth, have dismissed conflict law, Washington’s conduct of its joint war with Israel against Iran has had serious diplomatic ramifications.

Spain announced on Monday that its airspace was closed to US planes involved in the conflict. ✈️

There is a lack of clarity over the status of Pakistan’s efforts to mediate talks aimed at ending the war, which is threatening to plunge the global economy into recession and trigger shortages of food and pharmaceuticals. 🌍📉

Oil rose to almost $117 a barrel before easing back. Brent crude is now on track for its largest ever monthly gain, up 54% since the start of March. 📊

The International Monetary Fund said “all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth worldwide” if the conflict continues to disrupt Gulf flows.

Experts warn that a US ground operation could push the conflict into a deeper regional war. 🪖

Maziyar Ghiabi noted the war is moving toward a point of no return, with risks of a broader conflict involving Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Tehran struck a critical water and electrical plant in Kuwait and an oil refinery in Israel, while Israel and the US launched a new wave of strikes on Iran. ⚠️

Fighting continued to spread in Lebanon, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired missiles at Israel for the first time since the war began. 🚀

#trump #israel #hormuz #strait #plan

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Israel’s AI Kill Chain Keeps the War Dirty

Israel is not just bombing Iran; it is turning assassination into an industrial process.

The Washington Post says a new AI platform is helping Israeli intelligence sift through surveillance, cyber data, informants, and metadata to hunt Iranian leaders with what it calls lethal efficiency.

That is the ugly evolution here. Once upon a time, targeted killing was sold as exceptional.

Now it looks like workflow: cameras, payment systems, internet choke points, facial recognition, drones, missiles, repeat.

The result is a decapitation campaign that can kill a supreme leader, commanders, and aides faster than the regime can replace them.

But the Post’s own reporting also makes the core limitation obvious: assassination is not strategy, and it has not yet broken Iran’s capacity or will to fight.

Every slain official creates the same grim illusion of progress while the broader war keeps grinding on.

The real scandal is not that Israel can do this. It’s that modern war now rewards the side that can turn intelligence, software, and surveillance into a machine for killing people before they know they’ve been found.

A drone, a database, an AI model, and a target file — that’s the new foreign policy.

#Israel #Iran #AI #war #intelligence #MiddleEast #assassination

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Rubio’s G7 Blowup Exposes the Real Ukraine Problem

At the G7 in France, Marco Rubio and Kaja Kallas reportedly snapped at each other over Russia, and the whole scene had the usual alliance energy: a lot of righteous language, not much shared strategy.

Kallas asked when Washington would finally get tough on Moscow; Rubio answered with the diplomatic equivalent of

“then you do it yourself.”

That exchange matters because it shows the gap between European expectations and American priorities. Europe wants louder pressure on Russia, Ukraine wants more certainty, and Washington keeps trying to juggle diplomacy, weapons, and a growing Iran crisis without looking like it is choosing sides.

Rubio later denied there had been any real tension, which is exactly what officials always say after they raise their voices in front of their allies.

The more interesting part is not the denial. It’s the fact that the room needed a cooldown at all.

Europe is nervous that the U.S. is drifting toward a deal-first approach on Ukraine while its attention gets pulled elsewhere, especially to Iran.

That leaves allies doing what they do best: publicly demanding firmness, privately hoping Washington still carries the load, and acting shocked when the bill comes due.

#G7 #Ukraine #Russia #Rubio #Kallas #EU #diplomacy #war

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Trump’s Oil Threats Turn the Iran War Into a Markets War

Trump is back to his favorite move: declare “great progress” in talks, then threaten to bomb Iran’s power plants, oil fields, and even desalination sites if the deal doesn’t materialize fast enough.

It’s diplomacy by arson threat, which is now apparently a pillar of U.S. foreign policy.

The message is simple enough for Wall Street to understand and for everyone else to panic over.

If Iran doesn’t bend, the White House says it may hit the infrastructure that keeps the country alive and keeps the global energy system from fully melting down.

That is not a negotiation. That is hostage talk with a press secretary.

The problem is that this script is starting to repeat itself. Trump announces a deadline, markets twitch, Iran denies meaningful talks, then the deadline moves again while the war keeps chewing through the region.

The Strait of Hormuz remains the world’s most expensive choke point, and even the rumor of escalation is enough to send oil and stocks on a roller coaster.

So the real story is not just that Trump wants leverage. It’s that he is now trying to force a peace deal with threats broad enough to hit civilians, industry, and the entire energy system if the politics don’t cooperate.

In other words: de-escalation, but with a wrecking ball standing by.

#Trump #Iran #Oil #MiddleEast #Markets #War #Hormuz

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#steve #bannon #warroom

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Netanyahu Wants Wartime Discipline, Not Journalism

Netanyahu is not just attacking the press. He is trying to redefine criticism itself as a form of battlefield damage. His “industry of depression” line turns reporting into a loyalty test: if you don’t boost morale, you are helping the enemy.

That is a classic war move. First, you strip dissent of legitimacy. Then you recast bad news as sabotage. Then you make “useful” speech the only speech that counts. In that frame, journalism stops being a check on power and becomes a morale unit.

The religious overlay makes it worse. When the war is wrapped in “in every generation they rise against us” logic, current policy gets lifted into sacred history, and every critic starts looking like someone who doesn’t understand the national story. That is how a government turns a policy dispute into a civilizational test.

Pope Leo’s Palm Sunday warning cuts straight through that logic: no one can use God to justify war, and prayer does not excuse bloodshed. Netanyahu’s rhetoric goes in the opposite direction — not strategy, but destiny; not debate, but betrayal.

#Netanyahu #Israel #media #war #PopeLeo #Gaza #Iran #censorship

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Trump’s Iran War Is Reviving Europe’s Nuclear Panic

Bloomberg’s point is blunt: Trump’s war on Iran, plus his habit of rattling allies, is pushing more governments to ask whether they need their own bomb.

That is not a theoretical mood swing. It is what happens when the country that was supposed to anchor the system starts acting like the system is optional.

The European reaction makes the logic obvious. Germany and Poland, long comfortable under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, are now openly entertaining French deterrence talk after Trump’s Greenland threats and his general habit of turning alliance politics into a stress test.

Once that door opens, the taboo weakens, and the old nonproliferation order starts looking like a trust exercise nobody wants to keep doing.

The danger is not only Europe. Bloomberg also notes that China and Russia are watching Japan and South Korea more nervously as they upgrade their own arsenals, which is how a regional war can spill into a global proliferation cascade.

Iran becomes the excuse, but the deeper cause is simpler: everyone sees a world where American guarantees look less reliable, so they begin shopping for backup insurance in the worst possible store.

And once a few major states start talking this way, the whole conversation changes. Nuclear weapons stop being the unthinkable last resort and become a hedge against a volatile president, a broken alliance, or the next regional war.

That is how the nuclear age gets a sequel nobody asked for.

#Trump #Iran #NuclearProliferation #Europe #NATO #France #Germany #Poland #Geopolitics

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Iran War, Russia’s Lucky Break

Bloomberg and CNN are pointing to the same ugly math: the war in Iran is boosting Russia’s revenue just when the Kremlin needed a lifeline. Higher oil prices, tighter energy markets, and fresh attention pulled away from Ukraine all hand Moscow a better deal than it had before the war.

The cleanest way to say it is simple: Iran is now part of Russia’s war economy. The conflict is helping push Russian crude closer to full market prices, while sanctions get fuzzier and the war in Ukraine slips further down the global priority list.

That is not an accidental side effect. It is the strategic cost of turning the Middle East into a pressure valve instead of a fuse. Every more expensive barrel, every headline that shifts attention, every week that keeps Ukraine off the front page — all of it helps Moscow.

So yes, the war on Iran is feeding the Russian economy at exactly the wrong moment. Trump says he is squeezing Iran, but the spillover says otherwise: he is also giving the Kremlin room to breathe.

#Iran #Russia #Ukraine #oil #Trump #war #geopolitics

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Trump’s Iran War Is One Step Away From a Ground Quagmire

Trump keeps talking like he can force a deal, but the NYT says the menu is now blunt: Kharg Island, the Strait of Hormuz, and maybe a ground war to make those threats real.

That is what happens when “pressure” stops being a tactic and starts looking like occupation with talking points.

The administration says it wants a negotiation, but Iran says there is nothing to negotiate until the bombing stops.

In other words, both sides are now using cease-fire language as leverage, which is a polite way of saying nobody is blinking and the Marines are being loaded like a bargaining chip.

The dangerous part is how fast the objectives keep expanding. First it was missiles and nuclear sites. Then it was the Strait.

Now it is Kharg Island, near-bomb-grade material, and maybe a long U.S. presence just to keep whatever gets seized from falling apart. That is not limited war. That is the first draft of a disaster.

And the regional math is worse than the White House admits. If Trump hits Iranian energy and civilian infrastructure, Tehran can answer in the Gulf; if he tries to hold ground, the war stops being an air campaign and becomes an American liability with no obvious exit.

This is how “maximum leverage” turns into minimum control.

#Trump #Iran #War #Hormuz #KhargIsland #MiddleEast #Marines #geopolitics

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Supreme Court Turns a Cruel Practice Into a Free-Speech Fight

The Supreme Court has now handed “conversion therapy” opponents a ruling that could gut similar bans in roughly 30 states, and it did so by recasting a medical-regulation fight as a speech case. That is a big legal move with a grim human cost: the court says the state may be policing speech, while doctors and advocacy groups say the real issue is harmful treatment for minors.

The majority’s logic is tidy and dangerous at the same time. If therapy is treated as protected speech, then states lose a key tool for regulating what licensed professionals can do in the counseling room. Justice Jackson’s dissent gets to the heart of the fear: the court is opening the door to weaker oversight of medical care simply because the harm is wrapped in words.

This is also part of a broader pattern. The same court has been expanding religious-liberty claims while rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ people, and this ruling fits that trajectory exactly. In practice, the decision gives conservative litigants a new weapon and leaves states defending bans that were built on medical evidence and child protection.

The bleak irony is that the court is treating coercive counseling as if it were just another viewpoint in a debate. For the families and teens involved, this is not an abstract classroom debate. It is a ruling that makes the state’s ability to say “no” much harder when a licensed adult wants to sell shame as therapy.

#SupremeCourt #LGBTQ #conversiontherapy #FirstAmendment #Colorado #religiousrights #healthcare

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Israel: The Dangerous Turn To Death Penalty

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A new Israeli law that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks, but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes, would constitute a war crime if enacted, according to one of the UN’s most senior human rights officials.

Speaking amid mounting international condemnation of the bill, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, described the law as “patently inconsistent with Israel’s international law obligations, including in relation to the right to life”.

He added that it “raises serious concerns about due process violations, is deeply discriminatory, and must be promptly repealed”.

“Its application in a discriminatory manner would constitute an additional, particularly egregious violation of international law. Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime,” Türk said.

The legislation, passed on Monday by the Israeli Knesset, has faced a wave of criticism, including from European leaders and human rights groups.

“The death penalty bill in Israel is very concerning to us in the EU,” the EU spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said in Brussels.

“This is a clear step backwards – the introduction of the death penalty, together with the discriminatory nature of the law.”

#israel #palestinians #court #criminel #war

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The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wrote on X: “It is an asymmetric measure that would not apply to Israelis who committed the same crimes.

Same crime, different punishment. That is not justice. It is a step closer to apartheid.”

Germany, traditionally one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe, said it could not endorse the law. “The German government views the law passed yesterday with great concern,” the government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said in a statement.

“The rejection of the death penalty is a fundamental principle of German policy,” Kornelius said, adding: “Such a law would likely apply exclusively to Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.”

The legislation makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed acts of terrorism by a military court.

According to the bill, those sentenced to death would be held in a separate facility with no visits except from authorised personnel, and legal consultations conducted only by video link. Executions would be carried out within 90 days of sentencing.

Israel has rarely used the death penalty, applying it only in exceptional cases. The Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed, in 1962.

The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the bill’s strongest backers, has repeatedly worn a noose-shaped lapel pin, symbolising executions under the proposal.

A security committee made some amendments to the bill, which last week passed its first vote. Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, reported that executions would be carried out by hanging.

The measure would allow courts to impose the death penalty without a request from prosecutors and without requiring unanimity, instead permitting a simple majority decision.

Military courts in the occupied West Bank would also be empowered to hand down death sentences, with the defence minister able to submit an opinion.

Adam Coogle, the deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said: “Israeli officials argue that imposing the death penalty is about security, but in reality it entrenches discrimination and a two-tiered system of justice, both hallmarks of apartheid.

“The death penalty is irreversible and cruel. Combined with its severe restrictions on appeals and its 90-day execution timeline, this bill aims to kill Palestinian detainees faster and with less scrutiny.”

Shaista Aziz, Oxfam’s campaign engagement lead, said: “This bill is another horrifying act of violence. Israel is violating international law.

This new law effectively ensures that the death penalty in Israel will apply only to Palestinians, even as the illegal Israeli occupation has lately seen a surge in the coordinated attacks and executions of Palestinians by settler militias and military.

“Israel holds more than 9,000 Palestinians in its jails – many unlawfully and subject to inhumane conditions, starvation and torture as state policy.”

In Israel, the law is already facing legal challenges. Several Israeli human rights groups and three members of parliament filed petitions to the supreme court seeking to overturn it.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the law created “two parallel tracks, both designed to apply to Palestinians” and should be struck down on constitutional grounds.

#israel #palestinians #court #criminel #war

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#leavitt #hormuz #trump

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#rubio #nato #spain

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Russia’s Kinzhal Flyby Was a Message, Not a Strike

Moscow sent MiG-31s armed with Kinzhal missiles over the Sea of Japan to make a point, not to start a war. The timing and the publicized flight path were meant to remind Japan and the U.S. that Russia can flash long-range strike power in the Pacific whenever it wants.

The flight was over neutral waters, and the Russian Defense Ministry called it a routine mission with refueling drills. But the routine part is exactly the theater: Moscow wanted the image of a hypersonic-capable jet in a sensitive corridor because the image itself is the weapon.

Japan is the real audience here. Russia is signaling displeasure over Tokyo’s ties to Washington, its support for Ukraine, and its growing role in the regional missile picture, including the broader U.S.-Japan security architecture. The message is blunt: if Japan wants to push Russia on one front, Moscow can raise pressure on another.

So yes, this was a show of force. It was also propaganda with engines running, the kind of aerial display that tells rivals, allies, and domestic audiences that Russia still wants to be seen as a Pacific power, not just a Eurasian one.

#Russia #Japan #Kinzhal #MiG31 #SeaOfJapan #Pacific #military #geopolitics

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Turkey Claims It Blocked Israel’s Kurdish Proxy Play

Turkey says it stopped what Daily Sabah describes as an Israeli-U.S. plan to use Kurdish groups as ground proxies in the war on Iran. The story reads like classic regional geometry: Israel wants pressure on Iran, Washington wants leverage, and Ankara wants to make sure Kurdish armed groups do not become the bridge between the two.

The reporting says Kurdish fighters were allegedly being moved from Iraq toward Iran and that Turkey intervened through intelligence and diplomatic channels, including contacts with Kurdish political families in northern Iraq. Israel has not confirmed the claim, which matters because this is still a claim, not a verified battlefield fact.

But the politics behind it are real enough. Turkey sees any Kurdish military role in Iran as a direct threat to its own security and to the regional balance, especially if that role is tied to Israeli or American strategy. In Ankara’s telling, this is not just about Iran; it is about preventing a new Kurdish front from becoming permanent.

The bigger pattern is familiar. Iran gets hit, proxy ideas multiply, and every state in the neighborhood starts treating ethnic and sectarian groups as tools, buffers, or liabilities. Turkey’s move, whether one reads it as principled or self-interested, is really about keeping the war from spilling into a mess that could outlive the war itself.

#Turkey #Iran #Israel #Kurds #proxywar #MiddleEast #geopolitics

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