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Category: War

Diplomatic cables show the war against Iran is damaging the U.S. on multiple fronts across the world

Diplomatic cables show the war against Iran is damaging the U.S. on multiple fronts across the world

Politico reports: The Iran war is risking America’s global security ties and damaging its reputation, especially among the world’s Muslims, according to a set of State Department cables obtained by POLITICO. The cables, dated Wednesday, described the fallout of the war for America’s standing in three countries in different parts of the world: Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Indonesia. U.S. diplomats at embassies in the countries’ capitals painted damning portraits of an America under siege in multiple media spheres by pro-Iranian actors…

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Colonial expansion: Support for settlement of Lebanon goes mainstream in Israel

Colonial expansion: Support for settlement of Lebanon goes mainstream in Israel

Jewish Currents reports: Uri Tzafon’s vision of establishing Israeli settlements in Lebanon has advanced significantly over the last six weeks. What was considered a fringe curiosity in 2024 is transforming into the new Israeli conventional wisdom—backed by an organized movement with broad support from politicians and the media. Even as negotiations could force Israel to halt its bombardment of Lebanon, the next time Israel attacks, Uri Tzafon will be one step closer to building civilian settlements atop the ruins of Lebanese villages….

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Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

The Guardian reports: Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran. The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other…

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Israel hits a low point with Democrats in Congress

Israel hits a low point with Democrats in Congress

Axios reports: Israel’s relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is rapidly deteriorating, with a growing number of lawmakers saying they can no longer support U.S. funding for even the country’s defensive weaponry. Why it matters: Opposing the use of American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was “seen as insanely fringe four years ago,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told Axios. No longer. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told Axios he “cannot support more military assistance” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he has…

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Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Richard Luscombe writes: It was perhaps inevitable that a braggadocious Christian nationalist defense secretary elevated from his role as a weekend Fox News television host would pluck a fake Bible verse from a violent Hollywood blockbuster and present it at a Pentagon prayer session to rally the troops for the “holy war” in Iran. Certainly among a glut of stories swirling around Pete Hegseth this week, including articles of impeachment brought against him by a group of ambitious Democratic lawmakers,…

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Lt Gen Ben Hodges: Putin’s fear will come true — the Crimean bridge is going to come down

Lt Gen Ben Hodges: Putin’s fear will come true — the Crimean bridge is going to come down

  “If Russia is no longer able to use any of the ports there, if the Ukrainians are able to isolate it, that big bridge is eventually going to come down.” Crimea is still the “decisive terrain of the war” and will deter Putin’s ability to control the Black Sea, says Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. You have been watching Frontline, with Kate Gerbeau, Philip Ingram and Louis Sykes, produced by Times Radio.

One‑way attack drones: Low‑cost, high‑tech weapons ‘democratize’ precision warfare

One‑way attack drones: Low‑cost, high‑tech weapons ‘democratize’ precision warfare

Iran’s Shahed drone is essentially a poor man’s cruise missile. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky By Michael C. Horowitz, University of Pennsylvania and Lauren Kahn, Georgetown University Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have propelled drones into the headlines. The word “drone” now stretches to cover everything from hobbyist camera rigs available on Amazon to the Predator and Reaper systems the United States has relied on to fight terrorist organizations over the past 20 years. A common ancestor in the animal…

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End U.S. military aid to Israel

End U.S. military aid to Israel

Bernie Sanders writes: I am a proud Jewish-American. My father fled Poland in 1921 to escape poverty and antisemitism. Those in his family who stayed were murdered by the Nazis. Since childhood, I have known very well where antisemitism, racism, fanaticism and demagoguery lead. So let me be clear. Speaking out against the horrific and inhumane actions of Israel, and its extremist leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not antisemitic. Speaking out about the dangerous and destructive role that Israel plays in…

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Trump is trying to distract us from Pope Leo’s calls for peace. Don’t take the bait

Trump is trying to distract us from Pope Leo’s calls for peace. Don’t take the bait

Sam Sawyer, S.J., writes: During a weekend full of bad news for Mr. Trump, his post [attacking Pope Leo] followed a lack of progress in negotiations with Iran and the resounding electoral loss of his favorite European leader, Viktor Orban, in Hungary. Relative to the Catholic world, his post came the day after Pope Leo XIV led a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s and was joined in prayer all around the world. It came within hours of a…

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Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder, St. Augustine

Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder, St. Augustine

National Catholic Reporter reports: Hours after Pope Leo XIV paid public homage to St. Augustine, one of the key architects of just war theory, Vice President JD Vance questioned the pontiff’s understanding of the Catholic doctrine for determining whether a war is morally justifiable. “When the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just war theory,” Vance said at a Turning Point USA event…

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Former U.S. and Iranian negotiators on ceasefire talks and how war could end

Former U.S. and Iranian negotiators on ceasefire talks and how war could end

  After the first round of ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan collapsed over the weekend, we speak to two former nuclear negotiators about prospects for ending the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, including what another nuclear deal might look like. Robert Malley, a U.S. negotiator for the 2015 nuclear deal (which President Trump withdrew from in his first term), says Trump’s “mercurial” behavior makes it difficult to predict his objectives and the course of any future talks. “Iran was in full…

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How geography powers Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, despite U.S. blockade

How geography powers Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, despite U.S. blockade

The Washington Post reports: Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained a week after the United States and Iran said they would facilitate vessel passage under a two-week ceasefire agreement. Instead, tensions have escalated. After Iran said ships must coordinate with its forces — and, in some cases, pay a toll — President Donald Trump called the demands “extortion” and announced Sunday that the United States would block ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, adding pressure to an…

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The Strait of Hormuz blockade is as much about China as Iran

The Strait of Hormuz blockade is as much about China as Iran

Javier Blas writes: Over the past decade, China has built the world’s largest oil emergency stockpile — a multi-layered cache of strategic and commercial reserves with more than a billion barrels. Washington probably hopes that Beijing will convince Iran to soften its demands at the negotiating table, as it has done previously: In 2023, it brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But most of the leverage Beijing had over Tehran rested on the money it was paying for…

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Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns

Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns

The Guardian reports: A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession, spiralling inflation and a sharp backlash in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact from the war so far. In its half-yearly update, the IMF said the UK would suffer the sharpest…

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Italy halts defense pact with Israel

Italy halts defense pact with Israel

Politico reports: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has suspended Italy’s defense cooperation agreement with Israel as she continues to distance her government from the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran that has enveloped the Middle East. Speaking on the fringes of a wine industry event in the northern city of Verona on Tuesday, Meloni told reporters her government “has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel in consideration of the current situation.” The 2003 deal concerns the exchange…

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Trump’s blockade ushers in dangerous new phase of Iran war

Trump’s blockade ushers in dangerous new phase of Iran war

Politico reports: American forces began their blockade of Iranian ports on Monday, even as allies scrambled to understand how it will work — and how the Trump administration will avoid sparking new showdowns with the move. More than a dozen U.S. warships in the region are available to take part, according to one U.S. official, including the USS Tripoli, which has an embarked Marine unit aboard trained to interdict and board ships. Additional details remain scarce — including how long…

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