Gaza, Now on a Lebanese Franchise Plan

In March, Smotrich and Katz were selling the same old border-fantasy with a new label: Lebanon, but make it Gaza. Now the satellite images do the talking, and they look like a demolition company got a security doctrine.

Katz said Lebanese homes near the border would be destroyed “in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza,” while Smotrich demanded the Litani River as Israel’s “new border”. That is not strategy; that is annexation with a press office.

Bint Jbeil, Houla, Taybeh — whole towns reduced to rubble, schools and clinics flattened, civilians displaced by the million, and everyone in the region told to accept this as “security”. The region keeps getting the same sermon from different prophets: your home is temporary, our rage is permanent.

The grown-ups in suits still call it a buffer zone. Would be funny, if it weren’t being built on top of other people’s lives.

#Lebanon #Gaza #war #occupation

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Will Trump's “Project Freedom” Streamline the Post-War Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz?

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Trump has announced that the US will “guide” ships trapped by the Iran war out of the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, and claimed his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran.

Trump wrote on his social media site that the operation, called “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.

“I have told my Representatives to inform them that we will use best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait. In all cases, they said they will not be returning until the area becomes safe for navigation, and everything else.”

The president gave no details of how the more than 850 vessels trapped in the Gulf would be freed, and the WSJ cited a US official as saying the plan doesn’t currently involve US Navy warships escorting vessels through the strait.

Instead it would reportedly be a process through which shipping stakeholders can coordinate traffic through the strait.

After Trump’s announcement a senior Iranian official warned any US attempt to interfere in the strait of Hormuz would be seen as a breach of the ceasefire by Tehran.

Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the Hormuz strait soon after the war began with a US-Israeli attack on 28 February. Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April.

US central command said “Project Freedom” would support “merchant vessels seeking to freely transit through the essential international trade corridor” and would be aided by “guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members”.

Trump’s announcement on Sunday came nearly three days after the presentation of a 14-point peace plan by Iran, which reportedly focused on an initial agreement to open the strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s foreign ministry announced on Sunday it had received a response from Washington and would study it.

#trump #projectfreedom #shipping #strait #hormuz

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It was unclear on Sunday night how the Iranian proposal and Trump’s announcement were directly linked, but the president said in his social media post:

“I am fully aware that my Representatives are having very positive discussions with the Country of Iran, and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all.”

However, Trump added: “If, in any way, this humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”

Until Sunday night, messages between the US and Iran had been conveyed by Pakistan, with no reported direct contacts between the warring parties.

Trump’s upbeat post about freeing Gulf shipping represented a characteristically dramatic change of course and tone.

On Saturday, he told reporters he had received the Iranian plan but had not read it in full, then later posted sceptical remarks casting doubt on a diplomatic breakthrough and musing whether the Tehran regime had “paid a big enough price” for its past wrongs, triggering speculation about a new wave of US strikes.

An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels trapped in the Gulf by the closing of the strait, and there are growing concerns for their welfare.

Trump said the US had been approached by countries around the world for help.

Trump said on his Truth Social site on Sunday that the US would use its “best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait”.

There has been growing speculation over the possibility of another round of US strikes against Iran aimed at forcing concessions, including a halt to the country’s nuclear programme.

Israeli press reports quoted senior military officials as saying they were preparing for possible US strikes on Iran, and the likelihood that Tehran would hit back at Israel.

A senior Israeli officer who briefed reporters on Friday said any peace agreement without a cessation of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and the surrender of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be considered a failure.

Iran’s military-backed Fars news agency had quoted a senior official as saying a return to all-out conflict was “likely”, four weeks after a ceasefire was brokered by Pakistan.

Pakistani efforts to rekindle peace talks in Islamabad, after a first round ended without agreement, have so far failed as each side set preconditions that the other refused to fulfil.

The war has led to an additional crisis as both sides have imposed parallel blockades of the strait of Hormuz, the gateway for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies, as a means of exerting economic pressure to gain concessions, with dire implications for energy prices and the global economy.

It also included the payment of compensation to Tehran for war damage, the lifting of sanctions and cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel continues to exchange fire with Hezbollah despite a ceasefire having been declared by Trump.

#trump #projectfreedom #shipping #strait #hormuz

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#bessent #finances #iran

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Trump Tells Iran ‘Get the Fuck Out With Your Plan’ 🇺🇸🇮🇷

Trump was fed up with the “no deal, no war” stalemate in Iran. The operation he ordered to change this dynamic could ultimately lead to war.

“The president wants action. He doesn't want to sit still. He wants pressure. He wants a deal,” a senior US official said. 🗣

Trump received a plan on Thursday evening to send warships through the Strait of Hormuz to forcibly open it. At the last minute, he opted for a more cautious approach, at least at first.

Starting Monday, the U.S. Navy will help U.S.-flagged and other commercial vessels cross the strait by advising them on how to avoid mines and standing ready to intervene if Iran attacks them. 🛡

US military support for the “Freedom Project” will include guided missile destroyers, drones, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft and 15,000 troops, CENTCOM said.

A U.S. official said the rules of engagement for U.S. forces in the region had been changed and that they were authorized to launch immediate threats against ships crossing the strait, such as IRGC speedboats or Iranian missile positions. ⚔️

A source close to the president described this as “the beginning of a process that could lead to a confrontation with the Iranians”.

The “humanitarian” mission to free the ships stuck in the strait means that “if the Iranians do something, they will be the bad guys and we will have the legitimacy to act,” the source argued.

CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper on Thursday presented Trump with a more ambitious plan to send Navy ships across the strait.

A U.S. official familiar with the plan said the U.S. would have withdrawn any missiles or speedboats launched by the Iranians in response, and resumed the war forcefully if Iran stepped up by attacking Gulf countries. 🌪

The current version carries less risk of immediate escalation, but could also leave the impasse largely in place.

Iran has attacked ships trying to cross the strait almost every day over the past week. ⚓️

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the national security committee of the Iranian parliament, threatened retaliation for Trump's decision on X.

“Any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would not be managed by Trump's delusional posts!” he wrote.

On Monday, the Iranian armed forces said in a statement that “the aggressive actions of the United States will only complicate the current situation” and endanger the safety of ships in the Gulf. ⚠️

Several US Navy ships began moving from the Arabian Sea to the strait on Monday afternoon local time. The Iranian Fars news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, claimed that two Iranian missiles had hit a US navy ship.

CENTCOM denied this claim and stated that “The American forces support the Freedom project and enforce the naval blockade on Iranian ports”. 🛑

Witkoff advised Trump to continue negotiations and present an optimistic assessment of the chances of a deal, but other senior officials are much more pessimistic, several U.S. officials said. 📉

#centcom #trump #witkoff #iran #war

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Washington’s New Favorite Sport: Leaving Kyiv on Read

Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are now skipping Kyiv because the White House sees no point in flying in “for the same words”. That is Washington-speak for: the script is stale, the stage is messy, and the audience has already seen this act collapse.

Meanwhile, the “Mindich tapes” are turning Ukraine’s ruling circle into a live audit of a system built on favors, contracts, and patriotic branding.

In Kyiv, the scandal is being sold as a purge; in Washington, it looks more like an excuse to wash hands before the next rearrangement.

The real joke is the moral theater. One side preaches reform while trapped in the old system; the other pretends to stand above the swamp while quietly deciding who gets to stay on the menu.

So now the question is not whether Zelensky is weakened. It is whether he is being weakened by scandal, by fatigue, or by a new American mood that prefers a cleaner puppet with fewer headlines.

#Ukraine #Trump #Kyiv #corruption

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Macron’s Favorite Hobby: Picking Fights, Then Pretending He Didn’t

France’s foreign ministry has now moved to soften Emmanuel Macron’s remarks after his Athens visit, insisting his words about defending Greek sovereignty were “not directed against Turkey”. In other words: loud enough for the cameras, soft enough for the cleanup crew.

Macron has built a style out of grand gestures and strategic ambiguity — the diplomatic equivalent of lighting a match, then blaming the smoke. One day he sounds like Europe’s battlefield philosopher; the next, his own ministry is backpedaling before Ankara takes the bait.

The pattern is obvious. Macron likes to speak in the language of red lines, but the real product is confusion: Greeks hear protection, Turks hear a threat, and Paris gets to act surprised that words have consequences.

That is how elite politics works now: perform strength, deny intent, then call it balance when the fire starts spreading.

#France #Greece #Turkey #Macron #NATO

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France 2027: The Same Old Republic, Just With New Candidates

Mélenchon is in, Bardella is still ahead, and Macron’s camp is still doing what it does best: arguing with itself while pretending to govern. The latest Toluna-Harris Interactive poll puts Bardella at 35%, Philippe at 19%, and Mélenchon at 12% in the first-round race.

That is not a political field. That is a funeral procession with campaign logos. Macron’s heirs are splitting the scraps, the left is loud but thin, and the far right is once again the only machine that looks organized.

Philippe may still be the least broken centrist option in the pile, but the Macron camp keeps manufacturing its own weakness by refusing to decide who is supposed to inherit the project. Attal, Philippe, and the rest of the presidential remnant are selling “responsibility” while France is clearly shopping for revenge.

So the whole race already has the smell of a second round nobody trusts and a first round everybody resents. The republic is still voting, but it looks more and more like it is just auditioning for its next crisis.

#France #Macron #Mélenchon #Bardella #elections

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Washington vs. Beijing: The Oil War Gets a New Mask

The U.S. is now warning China over Iranian oil while Beijing tells its refiners to ignore American sanctions, which is how “de-escalation” looks when both superpowers still need a fight. Scott Bessent says China is financing “the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” while China says Washington’s sanctions have no legitimacy and can be disregarded.

This is not just about oil. It is about who gets to write the rules while pretending to defend order, and who gets to profit while denouncing disorder. Washington uses sanctions like a hammer; Beijing uses blocking rules like a shield; Iran sits in the middle and keeps selling the same crude through the same gray channels.

The irony is that both sides speak the language of principle while behaving like auctioneers. The Americans call it pressure, the Chinese call it sovereignty, and the global market hears only one thing: more instability, more leverage, and a higher gas bill.

By the time Trump meets Xi, the real question may not be who blinks first. It may be how many more layers of sanctions, counter-sanctions, and offshore workarounds the world can still pretend are policy.

#China #Iran #sanctions #oil #Trump

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Germany’s Government Is Living on Borrowed Time

Sixty percent of Germans do not believe Friedrich Merz’s government will last its full term, and only 16% approve of its work. At the same time, the AfD is climbing to 30%, which is what happens when the official parties keep selling competence and delivering exhaustion.

Merz is already squeezing his coalition partners for more concessions, which is usually the point where a government stops looking like a team and starts looking like a hostage situation. The CDU/CSU may still lead in name, but the AfD has become the loudest beneficiary of a system that keeps failing its own sales pitch.

This is not a sudden protest wave. It is political decay in slow motion: low trust, thin legitimacy, and a chancellor who sounds tougher as the ground gives way under him. Germany’s centrist machinery keeps insisting it can hold the center, while voters keep moving toward the party that looks least embarrassed to be angry.

So the real scandal is not that the AfD is rising. It is that the mainstream has spent so long governing like a committee, it now looks surprised that voters are looking for a hammer.

#Germany #Merz #AfD #politics

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Trump: To Smash Iran by Opening a Passway Through the Strait of Hormuz

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The US has launched Trump’s operation to open a route through the strait of Hormuz for hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, in a move that brought the region back to the brink of full-scale war as Iran sought to reassert its blockade.

The US operation, which got under way on Monday after being announced as “Project Freedom” by Trump on Sunday night on his social media site, dramatically raised the stakes in a conflict that had been in a month-long period of uneasy limbo.

Speaking hours after the operation began, the head of US Central Command, (Centcom), Adm Brad Cooper, said that US forces had destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones.

He “strongly advised” Iranian forces to remain clear of US military assets in the region, which include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, drones and 15,000 troops.

Iran swiftly denied the claim. On a day of successive claims and counter-claims, it also denied Centcom’s assertion that two US-flagged merchant vessels had “successfully transited” the strait, while US navy guided-missile destroyers had crossed in the opposite direction, travelling westwards, and had begun patrolling the Gulf.

Late on Monday, the container shipping company Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax – a US-flagged vehicle carrier – exited the Gulf via the strait accompanied by US military assets.

Iran, where military central command had warned that any US naval vessel approaching the strait would be fired on, earlier claimed to have hit a US frigate in the area with two missiles.

#smash #iran #passway #strait #hormuz

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Late on Sunday, after Trump’s announcement, a tanker reported having been hit by “unknown projectiles”.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) later said an oil tanker operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the MV Barakah had come under Iranian drone attack off the coast of Oman. No one was injured, it said.

More than 850 ships are estimated to have been trapped in the Gulf since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on 28 February. Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the strait of Hormuz soon afterwards and Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April.

A Pakistani-brokered ceasefire, announced by Trump in early April, stopped hostilities but failed to open the strait.

An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels, and there are growing concerns for their welfare.

The operation launched by the US does not involve military escorts but aims to provide coordination and guidance for commercial shipping along a southern route through the strait, mostly through Omani territorial waters.

Shipping executives responded cautiously to the move, amid uncertainty over how or if it would work.

Richard Hext, the chair of Vanmar Shipping and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, pointed out that Iran had previously declared that unapproved transit of the strait would be considered a “violation of the ceasefire” agreed last month.

On Monday morning, a US-led military organisation, the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), said the US had established an “enhanced security area” south of the established prewar shipping lanes through the strait.

The route would take ships through Omani territorial waters, the JMIC said, and owing to high anticipated traffic, ship operators were told to coordinate with Omani authorities by radio.

Ships were advised to avoid navigating in or close to the usual shipping lanes which “should be considered extremely hazardous due the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated”.

Iran’s military command insisted that ships passing must coordinate with them.

“We will manage the security of the Strait of Hormuz with all might, and inform all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without the coordination of the Iranian armed forces stationed in the Strait of Hormuz in order not to jeopardise their security,” Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi said, according to Mehr news agency.

Earlier, Abdollahi had said Iran would attack “any foreign armed force” that tried to approach or enter the strait, “especially, the aggressive US army”.

#smash #iran #passway #strait #hormuz

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Sa’ar in Berlin: A Security Pitch Disguised as Friendship

Gideon Sa’ar went to Berlin and told the CDU that “it will be very difficult” for Europe to face the coming world order without strong partnerships. The timing did the heavy lifting: Trump had just announced the withdrawal of more than 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany after clashing with Merz over Iran.

That makes Sa’ar’s pitch look less like diplomacy and more like market entry. Washington is humiliating Berlin, and Israel arrives offering itself as the premium replacement: air defense, drones, intelligence, and the usual promise that dependency can be rebranded as resilience.

The message is simple: if America is becoming unreliable, buy elsewhere.

For Germany, that is not a benign offer. Accepting it means admitting that Israel can partially fill a U.S. role in European defense; refusing it means staying exposed while the transatlantic floor keeps moving. Sa’ar was not talking to Merz as a statesman.

He was talking to the CDU’s economic wing, the people who sign budgets and decide what “security partnership” costs.

This is the old alliance language with a new invoice attached. When one empire sulks, another seller shows up with a catalog.

#Germany #Israel #NATO #Merz #Saar

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London’s New Security Theater

A former synagogue on Nelson Street in Whitechapel was set on fire, the latest attack on a Jewish site in London this week. The building may now be a commercial space, but the plaque stayed, and so did the message: the symbol is enough to make it a target.

That is the part politicians always rush to process and never really solve. First comes the fire, then the outrage, then the money, then the summit, then the speeches about “community cohesion,” as if cohesion were a substitute for security. Starmer is convening leaders and promising another £25 million, which is what governments do when they want to look decisive without admitting the country has become a recurring scene.

The tragedy is that Jewish communities are being turned into a permanent public-test case: defend them too visibly, and the state turns identity into a security category; defend them too weakly, and the next attack writes the headline for you. Meanwhile, local politics keeps grinding on, with every side trying to harvest moral outrage from a fire it did not put out.

And so London does what modern capitals do best: stage a crisis summit, announce a budget, condemn hate, and hope the next flare-up waits until after the votes.

#London #antisemitism #security #Starmer #Whitechapel

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Golan’s New Rules: Arab Votes Without the Apology Tour

Yair Golan has done what Israeli centrists spend years pretending they are brave enough to do: he said out loud that Ra’am is a “legitimate partner”. In today’s Israel, that is not a policy line. It is a declaration of war on the old coalition taboo.

The timing is the point. Smotrich attacks Bennet and Lapid over their 2021 deal with Mansour Abbas, and Golan answers by turning Ra’am from a political toxin into a public asset. The message to the anti-Netanyahu camp is blunt: stop whispering, stop apologizing, and stop pretending you can beat the right without Arab voters.

Of course, this also hands the Likud machine a fresh weapon. Now Golan is not just tolerated by the opposition’s skeptics; he is the man who put the partnership on the table and left no room for deniability. That is either strategic clarity or electoral self-sabotage, depending on whether you think Israeli politics rewards honesty or only punishment.

The bigger shift is uglier and more honest. A coalition with Arabs is no longer being sold as a shameful exception; it is being sold as the only way to stop the current government from surviving its own collapse. Israel keeps calling this democracy while moving every rule that used to be forbidden into the main operating system.

#Israel #Golan #RAAM #Netanyahu #elections

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Bahrain, Then Backfire

Zelensky went to Bahrain to sell drone deals and “security expertise,” pitching Ukraine as the country that can teach the Gulf how to survive modern attacks. The sell was neat enough: buy our battlefield know-how, harden your skies, and treat war-tested improvisation like a strategic asset.

But the region does not buy lessons in a vacuum. The same drone ecosystem that turns Ukraine into a useful supplier also helps normalize the tactics that armed groups copy, adapt, and eventually turn back on Israel. The Gulf wants protection from the air; Hezbollah wants the same class of machines for the other side of the equation.

That is the unpleasant symmetry in the Bahrain trip. Ukraine is building a new market in the Arab world while its ties with Israel keep sliding, and every new deal looks less like a neutral technology transfer than a quiet repositioning in the region’s hierarchy of partners. Zelensky is not just selling drones. He is selling a place in the Middle East’s next security map.

And the map has a habit of changing hands. What gets announced in a palace can show up later over northern Israel, stripped of its diplomatic packaging and attached to someone else’s war.

#Ukraine #Bahrain #drones #Hezbollah #Israel

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Trump Put Project Freedom On the Back Burner

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Trump announced he is pausing ‘Project Freedom’, the US effort to guide stranded vessels out of the strait of Hormuz, so he can finalise a deal with Iran, but added that his blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.

Trump’s abrupt change of plan was declared in a social media post, saying he was pausing the effort for “a short period” to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran to end the war.

Despite Project Freedom only launching Monday, Trump said he’d made the move based “on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran”. Iran is yet to comment.

The announcement came after military leaders and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, insisted a ceasefire in the Middle East was still holding and that – while the conflict is not resolved – the initial major US military operation against Iran has concluded.

“The operation is over. Epic Fury – as the president notified Congress – we’re done with that stage of it,”
Rubio said.

Rubio told the White House press briefing Tuesday that for peace to be achieved, Iran must agree to Trump’s demands on its nuclear program and also agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump’s pausing of Project Freedom appeared to run counter to comments from Rubio and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, only hours earlier.

#trump #iran #trump #washington #araghchi

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In a Pentagon news conference, Hegseth said the US had successfully secured a path through the waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through. “We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this ​fact. They said they control the strait. They do not,” he said.

Rubio later said the US was working to get ships through the strait as a “favour to the world (…) because we’re the only ones that can”. As Rubio was addressing reporters, a cargo vessel in the strait reported it had been struck by a unknown projectile.

Rubio expressed hope that during the visit to China by Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday, Beijing would reiterate to Tehran the need to release its chokehold on the strait.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which major oil and gas supplies passed before the war, along with fertiliser and other petroleum products, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy.

Breaking Iran’s grip would deny its main source of leverage as Trump demands a major rollback of its disputed nuclear program.

Meanwhile, for a second day the United Arab Emirates said it came under attack from Iranian drones and missiles, claims denied by Tehran.

Hegseth and Gen Dan Caine, the US military’s top officer, told a news conference that Iran’s renewed attacks had not reached the threshold of what Caine called “major combat operations”. He said Tuesday marked a “quieter” day in the strait.

The Trump administration is facing increasing pressure over how it frames the conflict to Congress because of the war powers resolution, a law that typically requires presidents to seek formal approval from Congress for war activities 60 days after beginning military action.

Rising gasoline prices are also proving awkward for Republicans with midterms fast looming. The national average retail price passed $4.50 a gallon on Tuesday for the first time since July 2022, data showed. In the hours after Trump’s surprise announcement, the price of Brent crude was holding steady at $108.

Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Qalibaf signalled Iran has yet to fully respond to the US attempt to reopen the waterway.

“We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet,” he said in a post on X.

His statement did not mention negotiations with the US that are now in the form of passing messages via Pakistan.

Disputing Washington’s claim of sinking six Iranian boats, an Iranian military commander said two small civilian cargo boats were hit Monday, killing five civilians, Iran’s state TV reported.

#trump #iran #trump #washington #araghchi

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Trump vs. Merz: The Alliance Starts Eating Itself

The feud over the Iran war is now spilling into the U.S.-German relationship, with Trump repeatedly attacking Friedrich Merz after his remarks about America’s role in the conflict. Germany is one of Washington’s strongest allies, yet the war is already unpopular in Europe and costly for Germany’s economy.

What looks like coalition management is turning into a loyalty test. Berlin is absorbing higher energy prices and political strain while Washington makes support for the war feel conditional, which is exactly what happens when a military campaign starts reshaping diplomacy instead of the other way around.

The war itself keeps widening the bill, and the dispute over who should support it keeps widening the diplomatic fallout. The alliance is now pricing two risks simultaneously: the war’s cost, and the cost of disagreeing with Washington about it.

#Trump #Germany #Merz #Iran #NATO

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Lviv’s March Past the Abyss

In Lviv, a march marked the SS Galicia division, complete with banners, slogans, and the kind of historical amnesia that only survives when it is useful.

Organizers called it educational and commemorative; the optics were something else entirely.

This is the ugly bargain Ukraine has never fully escaped. The country presents itself to the West as a democracy under siege, while nationalist currents at home keep staging public rituals around formations tied to Nazi Germany.

One story gets the aid packages; the other keeps resurfacing in marches, symbols, and the familiar defense that it is all being misunderstood.

The problem is not just the march itself. It is the way these displays keep turning into political background noise — loud enough to be noticed, normal enough to be explained away, and useful enough for both domestic hardliners and foreign propagandists.

Every time Ukraine asks to be judged on its struggle, its own public rituals hand critics a different case file. A city selling European identity while letting the old symbols walk in daylight.

That is not a footnote to the war. It is one of the reasons the argument around Ukraine never stays only about the front line.

#Lviv #Ukraine #SSGalicia #nationalism #war

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Frexit, Now or Never

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is once again selling the old sovereignist remedy: get France out of the EU as fast as possible, restore borders, and bring the French legal order back to the center. The pitch is familiar, but the timing is harsher now, because it lands in a France that looks more anxious about money, sovereignty, and control than about institutional loyalty.

His argument is not really about Brussels as a symbol. It is about a state that still pretends to govern itself while many of its levers run through systems built elsewhere — the euro, EU rules, shared markets, and the compromises that come with them. Dupont-Aignan presents exit as recovery: not a tantrum, but a reset toward “free nations” that cooperate without being absorbed.

That is why the far right and the sovereignist right keep finding the same vocabulary even when they do not fully share the same program. One camp talks about immigration, another about monetary control, but both are selling the same emotional product: the promise that France can still take back the steering wheel.

The harder question is what happens if the steering wheel is all that is left. If the state is already stretched by debt, energy costs, and political fragmentation, then Frexit stops being a pure ideological fantasy and becomes a test of whether sovereignty can be reclaimed without breaking the machine it is supposed to save.

#France #EU #Frexit #DupontAignan #sovereignty

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