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US military investigators have said it is likely its forces were responsible for a strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and has been condemned as a war crime, according to a report by Reuters.
The attack on the Minab girls’ school in southern Iran on Saturday is believed to have killed at least 165 people, mostly children under the age of 12.
The UN’s education agency, Unesco, said the attack was a “grave violation of humanitarian law”.
US war secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the military was investigating the incident. Investigators have not reached a final conclusion and it is still unclear what evidence contributed to their assessment, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed officials.
It was also unclear what type of munitions were used and who was responsible, the outlet said.
An investigation by news outlet Middle East Eye determined that the attack on the school was a “double tap” strike – where a target is hit a second time in order to kill rescuers who come to the aid of the injured.
“When the first bomb hit the school, one of the teachers and the principal moved a group of students to the prayer hall to protect them,” a Red Crescent medic told the outlet, citing conversations he had with survivors.
“The principal called the parents and told them to come and pick up their children. But the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived.”
The UK has joined the war on Iran – which is illegal because it was not approved by the UN or US congress – by allowing the use of its bases for strikes against the country.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has claimed the UK’s involvement is an act of self-defence, despite the fact the US and Israel started the war.
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.
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By Mohammed Abunahel, World BEYOND War, March 6, 2026
At the foot of Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s most recognizable national symbols, sits Camp Fuji, a United States Marine Corps installation embedded within the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s East Fuji Maneuver Area. The base is not large by Okinawan standards, nor does it dominate headlines in the way Kadena or Futenma often do. Yet its presence captures the enduring contradictions of the U.S.–Japan security alliance: sovereignty shared but constrained, environmental stewardship promised but disputed, and local communities asked to absorb military risk in the name of regional deterrence.
Camp Fuji functions as a Combined Arms Training Center for the U.S. Marine Corps, supporting artillery, maneuver, and live-fire exercises. It operates under the framework of the 1960 U.S.–Japan Security Treaty and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). Official accounts emphasize readiness and alliance coordination. Local experience, however, has been more complicated. Noise, accident risk, land use restrictions, and the broader social tensions associated with the U.S. military presence in Japan remain persistent sources of grievance. While Camp Fuji has not been the site of the most notorious crimes associated with U.S. bases in Japan, it is inseparable from the structural issues those incidents expose.
Camp Fuji’s modern history begins in the postwar occupation period. Following Japan’s defeat in 1945, U.S. forces assumed control of extensive training areas across the country. The East Fuji Maneuver Area became a joint-use site, later hosting Camp Fuji as a Marine Corps training facility. According to the U.S. Marine Corps, the installation supports III Marine Expeditionary Force units and rotational forces for artillery and combined-arms training. It has long served as a live-fire venue when Okinawan ranges were restricted or politically contested.
That function alone raises a political question. When resistance grows in one prefecture, training is redistributed elsewhere. This pattern has been documented by scholars examining the geographic diffusion of U.S. basing burdens within Japan. As Gavan McCormack has argued in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, the concentration of U.S. forces in Okinawa reflects a broader structural imbalance in alliance burden-sharing, but attempts to redistribute that burden have often generated fresh opposition in mainland communities rather than genuine resolution. Camp Fuji exists within that redistribution logic.
Environmental concerns have shadowed military training at the site. Live-fire artillery exercises carry inherent ecological risks—soil contamination, unexploded ordnance, noise pollution, and wildfire potential. Japanese environmental groups have periodically raised concerns about the impact of maneuvers near Mount Fuji’s sensitive ecosystem. Although official environmental assessments emphasize mitigation measures, independent access to U.S.-controlled training grounds is limited under SOFA arrangements. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment has, in broader base-related cases, acknowledged difficulties in conducting on-site inspections without U.S. consent. This structural limitation has been criticized by legal scholars and environmental advocates who argue that host-nation oversight remains constrained.
Noise remains one of the most consistent complaints from surrounding municipalities. Live-fire artillery and helicopter operations reverberate across Shizuoka Prefecture. Japanese courts have, in other base-related cases, including lawsuits concerning air noise around Kadena and Atsugi, recognized measurable psychological and physical stress caused by military noise, awarding damages in certain instances. While Camp Fuji has not produced litigation on the scale of Kadena, the pattern of complaint fits a broader national context in which communities near U.S. installations seek judicial remedy for what they describe as chronic disturbance.
Accident risk is another dimension. Military training is inherently hazardous. Across Japan, U.S. aircraft crashes and emergency landings have periodically alarmed residents. In 2004, a U.S. helicopter crashed into Okinawa International University. In 2017, a U.S. military helicopter window fell onto a schoolyard in Okinawa. Though these incidents did not occur at Camp Fuji, they shape public perception nationwide. Communities near training areas understand that accidents are statistically rare but never impossible. Mount Fuji’s proximity amplifies symbolic sensitivity; any major incident would resonate nationally.
Crime committed by U.S. service members has profoundly shaped opposition to bases throughout Japan. The 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa by U.S. servicemen triggered mass protests and remains a defining moment in base politics. Subsequent incidents, including the 2016 rape and murder of a Japanese woman by a former U.S. Marine in Okinawa, reignited public anger. These cases, reported extensively by outlets such as The New York Times and The Guardian, underscore a structural problem embedded in the SOFA framework. Jurisdictional ambiguities and perceptions of unequal legal treatment have eroded trust.
Camp Fuji itself has not been synonymous with high-profile sexual assault cases. However, it operates within the same legal architecture. Under SOFA, primary jurisdiction over on-duty offenses typically rests with U.S. authorities, while off-duty crimes may fall to Japanese prosecutors, though custody arrangements can be contentious. Japanese officials have periodically sought revisions to SOFA to strengthen local authority. Those negotiations have yielded incremental procedural changes but not fundamental restructuring.
Camp Fuji is not synonymous with a single defining scandal. Most days, it operates without a headline incident. However, its presence reflects the structural dynamics of foreign military basing in Japan: constrained host-nation oversight, environmental uncertainty, noise disturbance, and the persistent shadow of alliance-related criminal cases. Camp Fuji itself has not been synonymous with high-profile sexual assault cases. However, it operates within the same legal architecture. Under SOFA, primary jurisdiction over on-duty offenses typically rests with U.S. authorities, while off-duty crimes may fall to Japanese prosecutors, though custody arrangements can be contentious. Japanese officials have periodically sought revisions to the SOFA to strengthen local authority. Those negotiations have yielded incremental procedural changes but not fundamental restructuring.
Opposition to U.S. bases in Japan often focuses on Okinawa, where approximately 70 percent of exclusive-use U.S. facilities are concentrated despite the prefecture comprising less than 1 percent of Japan’s land area. Yet mainland bases like Camp Fuji reveal that resentment is not geographically confined. The presence of live-fire training near UNESCO-recognized Mount Fuji, designated a World Heritage Site in 2013, creates symbolic tension. The question remains whether intensive military exercises align with the preservation ethos associated with the mountain’s heritage status.
Mount Fuji’s cultural significance cannot be overstated. It is not merely a mountain; it is a national symbol embedded in art, religion, and tourism. The juxtaposition of that symbolism with artillery practice creates an uneasy image. Critics argue that the militarization of landscapes tied to cultural identity reflects a deeper normalization of permanent foreign military presence.
In conclusion, Camp Fuji does not dominate headlines the way larger U.S. installations in Japan do. It is not synonymous with a single defining scandal. Yet its existence encapsulates the enduring dilemmas of overseas basing: constrained sovereignty under SOFA, environmental uncertainty, redistribution of military burden across communities, and the persistent shadow cast by crimes committed elsewhere within the same alliance framework.
Opposition to bases is often caricatured as ideological or anti-American. In reality, much of it arises from tangible concerns, noise, safety, land use, legal inequality, and democratic accountability. Camp Fuji may appear quieter than Okinawa’s most contested installations, but it is part of the same structure.
The U.S.–Japan alliance is unlikely to dissolve. The question is narrower and more concrete: whether communities surrounding installations like Camp Fuji are asked to shoulder costs that are minimized in national security rhetoric. The evidence from decades of base politics in Japan suggests that they are.
The post Strategic Necessity or Structural Imbalance? The Case of Camp Fuji appeared first on World BEYOND War.
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Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Trump’s Fascism
(theintercept.com)
Pete Hegseth, during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026, where he rejected the idea that the war against Iran would be the sort of endless conflict that President Donald Trump swore to avoid when he took office a second time. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The United States is waging a religious war. This is, at least, how dozens of fanatical U.S. military commanders understand President Donald Trump’s illegal assault on Iran: a messianic battle to bring about Jesus Christ’s return.
“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” one military commander told his combat unit, which could be deployed to fight in Iran “at any moment,” according to a complaint reportedly filed by one of the unit’s officers to a military watchdog group.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it has been “inundated” with more than 200 calls across dozens of military installations, including 110 complaints filed between Saturday morning and Monday evening, from service members reporting their commanders have invoked similar extremist rhetoric of Christian Zionist messianism when justifying the unprovoked war on Iran.
The complaints, which were first reported by independent journalist Jonathan Larsen and have garnered international media attention, offer disturbing insight into the eschatology driving this murderous operation for a significant number of military leaders. Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth is an open evangelical Christian nationalist who has remade military leadership to align with his extremist worldview.
It would be a mistake, though, to take these chilling end times invocations as some skeleton key to understanding the foundational, undergirding reason behind Trump’s reckless death-dealing in Iran. The U.S. and Israel-led decimation of the Middle East region is overdetermined; too many causes, all reprehensible, account for Trump’s waging war. To properly understand Trumpian fascism is to not reduce one cause to another, but to appreciate how they function in a chaotic constellation. Factors at play include: annihilatory Christian Zionism; Israel’s genocidal Zionist project of territorial dominance; the American president’s unrestrained and irrepressible narcissism and drive to be a Great Man of history, idiocy, and miscalculation; and the continuity of bipartisan willingness to shed Arab and Muslim blood in the service of flailing U.S. hegemony.
[
Related
Trump’s Pick for Israel Ambassador Leads Tours That Leave Out Palestinians — and Promote End of Days Theology](https://theintercept.com/2025/03/28/mike-huckabee-ambassador-israel-evangelical-christian-tours/)
All of these factors have played a part in previous illegal U.S. assaults on the Middle East, albeit to different degrees. As Larsen, the journalist, noted, President George W. Bush “referred to the American ‘crusade’ against terrorism” to justify his forever wars. Still, the open Christian extremism of Hegseth’s military leadership marks a certain shift. So, too, does the extremity of Trump’s derangement and self-regard. But Islamophobic blood lust, the framework of civilizational clash between Judeo-Christian forces and Islamist threats, and an arrogant and foolish U.S. leadership are not new, even if the worst elements are now heightened and unvarnished by earlier myths of spreading democracy and nation-building.
Political and military leaders do not need to share in apocalyptic theological commitments to enable and enact end times. The U.S. and its allies have been willing to unleash apocalyptic destruction without a driving religious belief in Jesus’s imminent return. With bipartisan support, and under the leadership of a Democratic president, U.S.-backed Israeli forces reduced Gaza to a wasteland. We can hardly place blame for the U.S. role in that genocide on American Christian Zionists alone.
[
Related
Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers](https://theintercept.com/2026/03/02/trump-board-peace-human-right-abuses/)
I’m not saying that nothing is new here: It is a genuinely disturbing development that so many service members have described, according to the watchdog, their commanders speak with “unrestricted euphoria” about “how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”
Authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor described the far-right ideology of Trump and his followers as one of “end times fascism.” Klein and Taylor note that European 20th-century fascism may have had what philosopher Umberto Eco called an Armageddon complex, “a fixation on vanquishing enemies in a grand final battle,” but these earlier fascist movements had a “vision for a future golden age after the bloodbath that, for its in-group, would be peaceful, pastoral and purified.” According to Klein and Taylor, Trumpian fascism is marked instead by an orientation only to destruction.
In one sense, Trump’s Iran war confirms this hypothesis. It is obliteration without vision or any appreciation for consequences. But what the bombardment really shows is not the way Trumpian fascism embodies some new embrace of apocalypticism. It is, like Trump’s regime and its adherents, a gruesome pastiche of American fascistic tendencies old and new, including white nationalism, evangelical Christianity, Zionism, imperialism, authoritarian techno-capitalism, and genocidal war. As ever, the actual end times will be reserved for the whole civilian lifeworlds wiped out by our war machines.
The post Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Trump’s Fascism appeared first on The Intercept.
From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave one of his signature “I don’t have a small penis” tirades at the Pentagon on Wednesday, ranting and raving about the big, powerful, masculine war machinery that’s currently raining death and destruction upon the people of Iran.
From MR Online via This RSS Feed.
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Israel and the United States cannot win the War against Iran: The Tenth Newsletter (2026)
(mronline.org)
In the middle of negotiations, the United States and Israel launched a new attack against Iran based on an old, and false, argument: that Iran was going to build nuclear weapons.
From MR Online via This RSS Feed.
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US Investigators suggest US Bomb ‘likely’ responsible for Iranian girls’ school massacre
(www.thecanary.co)
US military investigators have told Reuters they consider it “likely” that US forces struck the all-girls elementary school in Iraq, using “precision-guided” munitions.
The devastating attack claimed the lives of 165 people, mostly girls aged between seven and twelve. This makes it one of the deadliest incidents since US–Israel launched “Operation Epic Fury.”
Wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure
The investigations team at CBC News’ also found that the area was hit “more than once.” Satellite imagery showed multiple impact craters from attacks on the school complex. No matter how many outlets or officials cite international provisions prohibiting attacks on civilian infrastructure, these egregious war crimes continue.
Speaking to CBC News, a military researcher from the Tortono-based conflict monitoring group, Factnameh, alleged that the attack was intended to be a:
precise targeting of a military facility for the IRGC […] According to satellite images, the impacts show a pattern consistent with precision-guided munitions … There shouldn’t be any mistakes.
They were of the view that the US had either experienced either a:
fault of a weapons system or a huge intelligence failure by CENTCOM.
US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an attack on an Iranian girls’ school that reportedly killed 165 children, according to Reuters news agency.
LIVE updates https://t.co/q1Q18tbGFl pic.twitter.com/yNdxGhifqO
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 6, 2026
US ‘most likely perpetrators’
US military investigators have confirmed that the deaths of 165 young Iranians were ‘likely’ at the hands of their own institution.
Reuters has reported that as the investigation remains ongoing, investigators have not reached a conclusion or determined the exact munitions used, citing US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth
In an effort to deflect attention away from the US, White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt told Reuters:
While the department of War is currently investigating this matter, the Iranian regime targets civilians and children, not the United States of America.
The historical record exposes countless occasions of US military feigning ignorance. We we caution against drawing inferences at this stage, we remember the 408 Iraqi women and children murdered by two US precision bombs targeting a civilian air raid shelter in 1991.
Still there are Americans who believe their government is fighting for the freedom of Iran women and children.
No. Your government is bombing Elementary school kids. https://t.co/wEPo0TECMQ— Zaki Dablad (@TimaAdde10) March 6, 2026
If it emerges that the United States deliberately struck a girls’ school, killing scores of defenceless children, will it admit responsibility? Israel’s continued refusal to acknowledge its crimes against Palestinians raises concerned that Washington may display the same level of indifference towards Iranian lives.
At the time of the school girls’ funeral, a time of inextricable grief and mourning for their families, China-based US journalist, Jason Smith, questioned the deafening silence from Western media, saying:
This should be on the front page of every Western newspaper. Ask yourself: Why isn’t it?”
Given the spinelessness and collaboration in genocide of the UK media and political (and Epstein) class, it’s no surprise at all — but no less appalling for that.
‘injured and traumatised children, claiming many young lives’
Contrary to the US’ dogged denials that it targets children, the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child have raised alarm bells. In addition, they have expressed the following concerns.
The committee is alarmed by reports of strikes of civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatised children, claiming many young lives.
This is a reminder that children are among the most vulnerable in armed conflicts and must never be treated as collateral damage.
Figures have yet to be independently verified. However, as per Iranian state media reporting, 165 loves have disappeared as a result of the strike on Minab province, southeast of Iran. The senseless war has so far killed 1,230 people. This is according to reports by Al Jazeera and Tasneem News.
Westerners must raise speak up against the bloodletting and stake a firm stance against the murder of innocent children. If they don’t, then they must accept complicity in these murderous crimes.
Featured image via the Canary
From Canary via This RSS Feed.
8
Scottish first minister John Swinney has been told to follow Spain’s example and ban the US from using its bases for its war on Iran.
During First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer said the US “is using an airport owned by the Scottish government to wage an illegal war, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people”.
He added: “We can see the flight data. We see the flights between Prestwick and Israel by the US military. It’s abundantly obvious what they’re doing. Spain, a fellow Nato member, has now banned the US military from using their airbases.
“Their prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said: ‘You can be against a hateful regime and at the same time against an unjustified and dangerous military intervention that is outside of international law.’ I believe the first minister agrees with that statement. It’s very similar to statements he made when he marched against the war against Iraq in 2003.”
Greer said flight data showed that 24 US military flights had landed at Glasgow Prestwick airport in the week leading up to the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, including at least one that came from Israel.
“Why won’t the first minister kick Trump’s troops out of Prestwick airport immediately?” Greer said.
Swinney replied: “I am in no way shape or form a supporter of what has happened in the course of the last few days … I am taking steps within government to establish the details around the use of Prestwick airport.
“When the government has more to say to parliament about that, we will do so.”
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.
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Joint Statement by the Tudeh Party of Iran, Communist Party of Israel and Communist Party USA
(www.idcommunism.com)
Joint Statement of the Communist Parties of Iran (Tudeh), Israel (Maki) and the United States (CPUSA)
The war of aggression launched by the Netanyahu criminal government and the United States Imperialism in the early hours of Saturday morning against Iran has ignited a full-scale war and dragged the region and its peoples towards more disasters and civilian casualties – all in the service of imperialist interests, against the interests of peoples, their independence and their right to self-determination in an effort to dominate and control the region and the world.
The Trump Administration’s declaration of its intention to “regime change” in a sovereign country in the region and elsewhere in the Latin American continent is a gross trampling on the sovereignty and dignity of peoples and a dismantling of the meaning of the existence of international law and all previously established norms, and it is a danger that grows with every war and aggression of the United States and Israel.
The experiences of the peoples in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon and in every country in the southern half of the globe facing colonialism and imperialism cannot be overlooked – true liberation and salvation from reactionary and authoritarian regimes and their change can only come with the action of the people and patriotic leadership – not from Washington or Tel Aviv.
We reiterate that this attack on Iran and the Iranian people is the prelude to total domination over the rest of the countries of the region, a plan that the Israeli government and the US administration do not hesitate to disclose, and we also affirm that this US-Israeli imperialist military aggression, not only does not herald Iran’s liberation from the yoke of tyranny and the current dictatorship, but is also an attempt to destroy Iran as a capable regional state, and to replace the current government with a subordinate and authoritarian regime that has previously announced its program to bloodily suppress its opponents.
As internationalist communist parties, we call upon all forces seeking true liberation from the regimes of exploitation and oppression in each of our countries, as well as the peace-loving and progress-loving forces in the world, to unite their efforts with all their force in these critical and decisive moments in order to struggle against the governments of war and aggression.
From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.
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Israel suspends gas exports to Jordan, underscoring slogan “the enemy’s gas is occupation”
(peoplesdispatch.org)
11
Genocidal thug Benjamin Netanyahu is once again misusing Jewish scripture to justify the deaths of Arabs. This follows aggressors US and Israel starting an illegal war on Iran. Spain has since condemned this “war”, refusing to participate and denying the US and Israel the use of its bases to support ongoing war crimes. The UK has yet to locate its spine so it can stand up to Trump and Netanyahu.
Israel’s co-conspirator, US President Donald Trump has also repeatedly claimed that the West is freeing Iran. No one has ever been freed by having their home bombed to pieces. However, Netanyahu’s own rhetoric is entirely at odds with Trump’s assertion.
Netanyahu diverges from Trump
Speaking in Hebrew to a domestic audience, Netanyahu described Iranian civilians as “Amalek” and stated that Israel should “kill them all, including women and children”. As the Canary’s James Wright has reported:
This is a genocidal dog-whistle established on Israel’s far right. The Old Testament reads: “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys”.
This demolishes the claim often repeated in Western mainstream media that these military actions seek to liberate Iranian people, when the reality is evidently far more sinister.
Netanyahu in English: "We want to free Iranians."
Netanyahu in Hebrew: "They're Amalek — kill them all, including women and children."
This is the real Netanyahu — one message for the West, another for his base.
— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) March 5, 2026
Scripture mixed with politics: ‘Playing with fire’
And, Israel’s recent mass displacement orders in Lebanon make this concern impossible to ignore. Families in Lebanon were seen scrambling to find safety amidst threats of bombs across vast swathes of territory. As in Palestine, Israeli leaders often state their intentions openly – yet Western leaders appear unwilling to hear them.
Whilst bombing Iran, Israel is simultaneously waging another war on Lebanon. The IDF have been dropping thousands of evacuation orders on the neighbouring territory sparking terror amongst Lebanese civilians. Up to 500,000 people have reportedly been ordered to leave their homes, raising alarm that the conditions for ethnic cleansing in Lebanon are now being set.
Mass evacuation ordered in Beirut
Urgent | #Israel Army: Residents of the southern suburbs, specifically Bourj el-Barajneh, Al-Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Chiyah, evacuate their homes.
A similar blanket evacuation order was issued yesterday for South #Lebanon up to Litani River.… pic.twitter.com/T3f5NBsNW0
— Firas Maksad (@FirasMaksad) March 5, 2026
The rhetoric describing Iranians as “Amalek” makes the agenda behind this war difficult to ignore. In the Hebrew Bible, Amalek refers to an enemy people who Israelites were commanded to destroy completely, including civilians. When Israeli leaders invoke this language while discussing Iran, it signals a dangerous ideological agenda that we have already seen in Gaza. An agenda which seeks to normalise mass violence and displacement in places such as Iran and Lebanon.
Western governments, by continuing to support Israel militarily and politically, risk becoming increasingly complicit in the devastating consequences of these campaigns.
Ethnic cleansing in process
Below is an IDF evacuation notice which shows the size of Lebanese territory being cleared by Israel. Consequently, civilians are seen running for their lives in terror:
UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini has condemned Israel’s actions displacing thousands of Lebanese civilians:
Yet again, spiraling violence across the region is forcing thousands to flee their homes in Southern Lebanon.
Today’s evacuation orders of 4 neighborhoods in Southern Beirut are creating panic & greater forced & mass displacement.
As part of broader Lebanese authorities &… pic.twitter.com/xcNTFPBdmX
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) March 5, 2026
Lazzarini’s statement in full:
Yet again, spiraling violence across the region is forcing thousands to flee their homes in Southern Lebanon.
Today’s evacuation orders of 4 neighborhoods in Southern Beirut are creating panic & greater forced & mass displacement.
As part of broader Lebanese authorities & civil society efforts,
@UNRWA
has opened emergency shelters for displaced people — Palestine Refugees, Lebanese & Syrians alike.Lebanon needs peace not more destruction, displacement & death.
CNN reporter Sana Noor Haq drew attention to the psychological re-traumatisation caused by Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Many critics describe this repeated overreach in Lebanon and Iran as acts of terrorism against civilians:
Lebanese people trying to survive renewed Israeli military attacks are being psychologically retraumatized by the sound of strikes, scenes of mass displacement and increased bloodshed as shelter becomes scarce, relief staffers say.
Several aid workers told CNN that Lebanese…
— Sana Noor Haq • سناء نور حق (@sananoorhaq) March 5, 2026
“Even small triggers, like a door slamming, cause people to jump in fear”
Who did the strikes on the schools and killed all these poor people?? Who did a double tap and committed intentionally this massacre? Say the name of the terrorists, do you dare? Say this bloodshed is the work of israel and the USA!
— Paul.A (@Pr0_fit_abl3) March 5, 2026
Nevertheless, it appears Israel may be getting more than it bargained for with counter attacks from Iran and Lebanon:
Hezbollah and Iran are simultaneously firing missiles and drones at Israel.
The Israelis are surprised by Hezbollah's readiness and fighting capabilities at the borders, confronting the advance of the occupation forces fiercely.
Hezbollah stated its conditions to stop: Withdraw…
— Elijah J. Magnier
(@ejmalrai) March 5, 2026
Some public figures in the UK are holding firm to their principle and insisting that we do not sink to the same levels of depravity as the US and Israel. Pointing out the craziness and schoolboy rhetoric of US officials, Sayeeda Warsi confronted Netanyahu’s blatant ‘expansionist agenda’:
The language of hyped teenagers playing call of duty mixed with crusader end of times craziness and underpinned by Israelism where nations interests and sanity is being sacrificed at the alter of Netanyahu’s expansionist Israeli agenda.
The UK must resist becoming infected by… https://t.co/oQiOOeFIlY— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) March 5, 2026
No to war
Israel and the US will use whatever virtue-signaling nonsense to trigger white saviour attitudes across the West. It is a lie eagerly swallowed by Westerners that our governments are bombing and invading countries to ‘liberate’ them. Liberate them from what? Who has ever had freedom delivered to them by an expansionist and neo-colonial empire?
Persecuted and terrified Iranians and Lebanese people deserve far better. It is essential that all those who believe in equality, freedom, rule of law and basic humanity fight for it. Before it is taken away from us all by Israel and the US.
Ultimately, once imperialists get what they want, they move on to the next target.
This will only leave a world order of absolute catastrophe for those without power, wealth, or privilege.
Featured image via the Canary
From Canary via This RSS Feed.
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'Cowardly and Despicable': Hegseth Condemned for Sinking of ‘Defenseless’ Iranian Ship
(www.commondreams.org)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday was condemned for his boasts on Wednesday about sinking an Iranian military ship after allegations emerged that it was "defenseless" at the time it was torpedoed in international waters by a US submarine.
Military.com reported Thursday that the Iranian ship had been departing from a biennial multinational naval training exercise that it had been invited to participate in by the Indian government.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far remained silent on the US attack on the ship, but other politicians in India delivering sharp condemnations.
According to the Times of India, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tore into Modi for not speaking up after the US torpedoed a boat that his government had invited into its waters.
"The conflict has reached our backyard, with an Iranian warship sunk in the Indian Ocean," Gandhi said. "Yet the PM has said nothing. At a moment like this, we need a steady hand at the wheel. Instead, India has a compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy."
In a social media post, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said there was no way that the Iranian ship could have been perceived as any kind of military threat.
"I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition," he wrote. "It was defenseless... The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind."
Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim noted that, in addition to striking what appears to have been a defenseless boat, the US also didn't help rescue any of the shipwrecked men who were aboard the vessel.
"The Sri Lanka Navy was left to pull the dead bodies from the water," Grim commented. "I am hard pressed to think of any other nation throughout history that would do something so cowardly and despicable. We are genuinely in a league of our own, and American media—mostly shrugging off the bombing of a girls school and acting as if carpet bombing Tehran is a normal military tactic—is deeply complicit."
Author Bruno Maçães also pointed to the decision to leave the shipwrecked crew at sea as an act of historic depravity.
"Really quite extraordinary that the US bombed an Iranian ship and then left the surviving sailors to drown," Maçães wrote. "There are many many accounts of the Nazis or Imperial Japan saving survivors at sea. I see we have now dropped below that level."
Mohamad Safa, executive director of PVA Patriotic Vision, an international multilateral organization with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, said that the US attack on the Iranian ship constituted either a war crime or straight-up murder.
"What Pete Hegseth ordered the military to do violates international law," he wrote. "The Iranian ship was near Sri Lanka, in international waters outside the combat zone and on a training exercise. Under the Geneva Conventions, you are obligated to rescue the crew of a ship that you sink during war. Abandoned any survivors and leaving them to drown is illegal and a war crime."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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While you were sleeping, more civilian locations in the Iranian capital of Tehran were hit with massive explosions, while Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes on towns in southern and eastern Lebanon.
It really is anything to distract from the Epstein Files for US “president of peace”Donald Trump – and, of course, the fulfilment of a long-held ambition for Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since the US and Israel launched their war of aggression last weekend, more than 1,300 peoplehave been killed in Iran. This includes at least 180 children, the majority massacred in an airstrike on a girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran, on Saturday. US military investigators now believe their own country was responsible.
This is the illegal war that prime minister Keir Starmer seems determined to draw Britain into, despite claiming that he has “learnt from the mistakes of Iraq”.
Starmer caved to pressure earlier this week, allowing the US to use RAF bases for operations against Iran after initially refusing. The US and Israel started bombing Tehran on Saturday – a day later, the PM made his signature move (the U-turn) and acquiesced to the US’s request.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said last night that strikes on Iran were about to “surge dramatically”thanks to Starmer’s decision to let the US use the Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos Islands. Good to know that the US can target more kids’ schools now.
Labour governments in my lifetime have a decidedly poor record when it comes to following the US into wars in the Middle East. But spare a thought for Starmer, who really has been under fire from all directions.
In fact, the PM has failed to please anyone with his decisions. Trump called Starmer a “loser” and compared him unfavourably to Winston Churchill. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of “catching arrows rather than stopping the archer”. And Reform’s Nigel Farage branded him a “coward”.
Funnily enough, anti-immigration parties are cheering loudest for our involvement in the war. As my colleague Aaron Bastani has pointed out, for political outfits that despise refugees, they sure seem committed to making more of them.
The distinction between ‘defensive’ and ‘offensive’ actions is also doing some heavy-lifting this week. According to Downing Street, we’re only letting the US launch “specific and limited defensive actions” from our bases. We won’t “join offensive action”, apparently, but will only act in the “collective self-defence of regional allies who have requested support”. If only our government had the spine of Spain’s.
While the attacks on Iran are widely viewed as illegal under international law, experts are divided on whether Iran is justified in its strikes on Gulf territories in response, and whether the UK can facilitate US strikes aimed at defending Gulf states without being complicit in those US attacks which are almost definitely illegal.
Most of Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile strikes seem to have been intercepted, but some have hit military assets and civilian infrastructure. A drone strike on the UK’s now-infamous Cyprus base RAF Akrotiri, used for Gaza spy flights during Israel’s genocide, was found not to have been launched by Iran.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a bill that would mean Starmer couldn’t just give the US (or any foreign power, no matter how ‘special’ the relationship) use of UK bases without parliamentary approval. It could also allow permission for the US using UK bases to be withdrawn.
Predictably, the UK media has been cranking up the consent-manufacturing machinery, and our further involvement in a war in the Middle East feels increasingly likely. Déjà vu, anyone?
From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.
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Former Tory donors flock to Reform, including a massive donation from Thai-based billionaire
(www.thecanary.co)
On 5 March, the Electoral Commission published its records of political donations in the last quarter of 2025. And, surprise surprise, Reform UK has taken yet another massive crypto donation from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Last quarter’s £3m donation joins the record-breaking £9m that the cryptocurrency investor already gifted to the far-right party. Likewise, on top of the £3m, Reform also received a further £2.5m from other sources.
It appears the 1% know which way their bread is buttered.
Reform is in the pocket of the super rich
As the Independent pointed out, a great deal of Reform’s newfound fortune comes from former Tory donors fleeing Badenoch’s sinking ship:
The latest register of donations, released on Thursday, also showed that more Tory donors are giving money to Reform UK. This included construction equipment firm JCB, which has previously backed the Conservatives but this time gave £200,000 to both Reform and the Tories.
Isabel Goldsmith, the sister of former Tory minister Zak Goldsmith, also gave Reform £100,000.
Former Tory donor and high-profile Reform defector Nick Candy, a property developer, donated £240,000 to the party.
Commenting on the massive donations, a spokesperson for the far-right party said:
These figures show the extraordinary momentum behind Reform UK. Raising more money than any other party in 2025 proves that people are backing the party to deliver real change.
That’s an awfully strange way of phrasing ‘we promised to be a good little lap-dog for the billionaires’.
That £5.5m total puts Reform head and shoulders above any other party in terms of donations. For contrast, the Tories received £4.2m, the Lib Dems took almost £2.2m, and Labour were given £2m. Meanwhile, the Greens received just over £294k.
If you wanted a clearer demonstration of which parties are in the pockets of the super-rich (and which aren’t) – look no further.
Reform goes crypto
Speaking of shilling for the interests of the wealthy…
Back in May, Farage told the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference that his party would launch a “crypto revolution”. On the same day, Reform announced that it would start accepting donations in crypto.
Then, in the very next financial quarter, Harborne’s major £9m donation to Reform rolled in on 1 August. It was the largest ever gift from a private individual to a political party.
At the time, the Canary highlighted that Harborne also donated millions to the Brexit Party in 2019, as well as to the Conservatives between 2001 and 2022. While Harborne is British, he’s now based in Thailand.
Sky News spoke to political donation expert professor Justin Fisher, who told them:
It exposes the fact that this is a person who is a British citizen but is able to influence British politics without being subject to the laws that any Reform government might bring in, any tax arrangements that a Reform might bring in.
This is foreign money by any other name.
When the crypto donation revelation surfaced, Farage insisted that Harbourne “wants nothing from me”.
Farage and the crypto lobby
Completely by coincidence, in January 2026, the Reform leader used his first ever meeting with Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey to shill for the crypto lobby.
The Reform leader reportedly criticised the Bank of England for imposing restrictions on cryptocurrencies. Instead, he urged that the UK follow Trump’s example in the US by lifting efforts to police crypto.
Likewise, he also tried to push one cryptocurrency – the Tether stablecoin, the value of which is pegged to the US dollar. In an interview with LBC Radio ahead of his first meeting with the Bank of England chief, Farage said:
I’m going to go tomorrow to say this. You know, Tether is a stablecoin. Stablecoins are the way which money goes from conventional currencies through into cryptocurrencies and back again. Tether is about to be valued as a $500bn company.
And, as luck would have it, Christopher Harbourne also just happens to be a major shareholder in Tether. Funny that, isn’t it?
Reform are not a party of the common man. They are not a friend of the everyday resident of the UK just trying to get by. As their donation history – and Farage’s flip-flopping talking points – makes clear, the party is wrapped around the finger of anyone they think will launch them to power.
Featured image via the Canary
From Canary via This RSS Feed.
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ECA: Statement on the 107th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International
(www.idcommunism.com)
Statement of the European Communist Action (ECA) on the 107th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International
We are celebrating the 107th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International (Comintern). The founding of the International Workingmen’s Association —the First International— on 28 September 1864 was an important milestone of the revolutionary labor movement.
Inspired by the Communist Manifesto and spearheaded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it brought together trade unions, mutual aid societies, political and cultural groups, and organizations. It marked the decisive break with opportunism in an international framework and guided the struggle of the world’s working class for the overthrow of capitalism, while giving impetus to the realization of the need to establish workers’ political parties. Its dissolution (1876) came after the defeat of the Paris Commune (1871) in the face of the new circumstances it found itself confronted with.
The Second International was founded on 14 July, 1889, amid rapid growth of the capitalist system and the swift rise of the labour movement. Ideological and political problems, along with the dominance of reformism, led to the collapse of the 2nd International. This was a product of the corrosion of the Workers’ Parties in the time leading up to the outbreak of the First Imperialist World War in 1914 and the eventual betrayal of the interests of the working class in favor of the bourgeoisie. Notable examples of parties that did not follow the bourgeoisie in their countries were the Bolsheviks in Russia, led by V. I. Lenin; the Internationalists-Spartacists in Germany (Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring, etc.); and certain socialists groups in the Balkans.
The Great October Socialist Revolution proved by practical example that a workers’ revolution capable of seizing power was possible and served as a beacon that continues to illuminate the struggle of working people around the world to this day. Lenin raised the crucial need to reform the programmes of the workers’ parties, rename them as Communist Parties, and establish a new International.
The founding of the Comintern on 4 March 1919 was thus an important step in giving the revolutionary labor movement a definite organizational framework in which it could fulfill its revolutionary duties. Through its theoretical and practical intervention it made an important contribution to the forming of Communist Parties, which became the leading force for the overthrow of capitalism in many countries.
The development of the Comintern was prepared by the organization of the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences, in which a line of confrontation between the revolutionary labor movement and opportunism, as well as with its centrist or “left” social-democratic variety, was strengthened. Thanks to Lenin’s contribution, the contemporary epoch was characterized as the imperialist stage of capitalism and the necessary conclusion of turning the imperialist war —which threatened to break out among the imperialist states— “into a proletarian civil war against the bourgeoisie, for the purpose of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism”, was strengthened.
Since the beginning of the imperialist War in Ukraine a similar differentiation within the International Communist Movement has taken place. We can now observe that many so-called Communist and Workers’ Parties have given up on representing the independent interests of the working class, renounce Proletarian Internationalism in favor for supporting their own bourgeoisie in imperialist conflicts and indefinitely postpone the preparation for socialist revolution by proclaiming the need to fight for various “intermediate stages”.
Throughout its history the Comintern was the world’s leading center of the struggle of the working people for socialism-communism. It made important contributions to the theory of Marxism-Leninism, which require deeper study and include the problems and contradictions in its strategy. Important problems that had a negative impact on all its members include for example the nature of imperialist war, the struggle against fascism and the capitalist system that gives rise to it, and the stance towards social democracy. Nonetheless, this does not diminish its significant contribution to the International Communist Movement until its eventual self-dissolution in 1943.
Due to its international character the working class struggle will always need a unified political leadership and strategy.
Today, as in 1919 when the Comintern was founded, we recognize that the imperialist system is the highest and decaying stage of capitalist development. The development of the productive forces to such a high level that they are in sharp contradiction with the capitalist relations of production, inhibits the possibility to use them for the satisfaction of the needs of the people. Socialism–communism is more necessary and timely than ever.
The founding and activities of the ECA based on its Founding Declaration and our world view, Marxism–Leninism, contribute to the effort to develop a common revolutionary strategy and lay the groundwork for a higher form of organization of the Marxist-Leninist pole within the international communist movement. The slogan of the Communist Manifesto remains as relevant as ever: “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”.
eurcomact.org
From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.
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Progressives Warn Democrats: Vote for Iran War Powers Resolution or Face Primary Challenge
(www.commondreams.org)
As the US House prepared to vote Thursday on a war powers resolution aimed at ending President Donald Trump's assault on Iran and Democratic leaders whip votes in support of the measure, progressive organizers ramped up pressure on lawmakers to side with the vast majority of the party's voters and support the resolution—or face consequences in upcoming elections.
Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, told Axios Wednesday after Senate Republicans—and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—voted down a companion resolution, that "any Democrat that votes against war powers is supporting Trump's war on Iran and deserves to be primaried because all voters across the political spectrum are wholeheartedly against it."
A poll released by Reuters/Ipsos this week found that just 25% of voters support Trump's decision to join Israel in launching airstrikes across Iran, which have so far killed more than 1,000 Iranian civilians. At least six US service members have also died or been killed since the unprovoked assault began over the weekend.
Only 7% of Democratic voters support "Operation Epic Fury," as the administration is calling the attacks, while 74% oppose it. A small majority of Republicans, 55%, said they approved of the White House's war on Iran, which the administration has justified with conflicting reasons—none of them convincing experts who say the attacks are a clear violation of international law.
After warning that "the American people will remember who voted to keep our service members in danger by supporting this dangerous, unnecessary, unpopular war" following the Senate vote on Wednesday, the advocacy group Demand Progress urged Americans to call their representatives in Congress and demand they support the war powers resolution introduced in the House by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
The measure is expected to fail due to the GOP majority; Republicans hold 218 seats in the House while Democrats control 214; Massie and one other Republican, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), have indicated support.
Groups are "organizing calls into their districts to make sure that every Democrat votes for" the bipartisan resolution, one House progressive told the outlet.
Organizers are directing particular ire at House Democrats who have a history of staunchly backing Israel and have unveiled a resolution that would allow Trump to continue striking Iran for 30 days.
That resolution was introduced by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Jim Costa (Calif.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Greg Landsman (Ohio), and Jimmy Panetta (Calif.) and would authorize the attacks for roughly the same length of time the president has said he believes they'll last, although Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the war could take twice as long and that, ultimately, there would be no timeline placed on the war.
Cavan Kharrazian, a senior policy adviser for Demand Progress, told The Intercept Wednesday that for "any representative that is actually against the war," the resolution introduced by Khanna and Massie is "the vehicle they should be voting for now, and not attempting to give Trump a blank check for 30 days."
“We have already seen in the past four days the death and destruction and escalation with this war. I can’t even imagine what things look like in 30 days," said Kharrazian.
Golden is not seeking reelection this year; the other five co-sponsors of the alternative war powers resolution are up for reelection and facing primaries in the coming months.
Axios asked other lawmakers including Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) how they plan to vote on Khanna and Massie's resolution, but did not receive clear answers, with Suozzi saying only that he was "going to do the right thing."
Moskowitz told The Hill that he has "decided" how he'll vote but is "not ready to say what my vote is."
Oliver Larkin, a democratic socialist running against Moskowitz in the primary, seized on the congressman's comment.
Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for the grassroots advocacy group MoveOn, told Axios that the organization's members "have no plans to throw their support behind members of Congress who refused to do their job and stop Trump from expanding his war. All options are on the table to make sure that our members' voices are heard loud and clear."
MoveOn also said Wednesday that any lawmaker who supports a $50 billion supplemental funding package "should expect to hear from our members."
"MoveOn members consider a vote for the supplemental a vote in favor of Donald Trump's war," said the group.
In a private Democratic caucus meeting on Wednesday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member, and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), made an "emphatic" case for Khanna and Massie's resolution, and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) has been leading efforts to whip votes.
One anonymous progressive House Democrat told Axios that a vote against the resolution would be "politically perilous" for any Democrat.
Advocacy groups are "already preparing" to organize primary challenges against Democrats who break ranks or vote to allow Trump to attack Iran for a 30-day window, said the lawmaker.
"If the filing deadline has passed, they'll do it in '28," they told Axios. "It's basically inviting a primary challenge."
Paco Fabian, a spokesperson for Our Revolution, told Axios that "when elected officials... fail to stand with working people demanding peace and accountability, they risk losing the trust of the voters who put them in office."
"And when that trust is broken," he said, "voters often begin looking for leaders who will fight for them."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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‘Good riddance’: Trump fires Kristi Noem from DHS, names ‘MAGA warrior’ as replacement
(therealnews.com)
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 05, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Amid mounting calls for the ouster of US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her department’s deadly immigration operations and detention facilities denounced as concentration camps, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that she will take on a new role and Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace her.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the Republican senator from Oklahoma will take over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 31, while Noem, “who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida.”
The initiative will seemingly build on Trump’s fatal bombings of boats allegedly trafficking drugs and a new joint operation that’s sending US troops to Ecuador. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the governments attending the summit “have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal narco-terrorist gangs and cartels and counter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States but the Western Hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this president.”
After thanking Noem for “her service at ‘Homeland,’” Trump promoted Mullin as “a MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter” who “truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda.”
Trump touted Mullin’s Native American heritage and said he “will work tirelessly to Keep our Border Secure, Stop Migrant Crime, Murderers, and other Criminals from illegally entering our Country, End the Scourge of Illegal Drugs and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”
Mullin’s conduct in Congress has notably included threatening to physically fight Teamsters president Sean O’Brien during a 2023 Senate hearing. His formal nomination to lead DHS will require confirmation by the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans. According to Fox News, Noem “will likely be at least temporarily replaced by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Los Alamitos, California, in the line of succession for the agency.”
Trump’s announcement came just hours after the National Review reported that Trump “is privately furious” with Noem “for suggesting in her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on Tuesday that he gave advance approval of a taxpayer-funded $220 million ad campaign contract that was subcontracted to one of her allies.”
So let me get this straight: Trump fired Noem after she lied about spending over $200 million of taxpayer dollars on ads promoting herself.
But he wouldn't lift a finger after two Americans were killed by her federal agents? https://t.co/cuM8fxJBxZ
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 5, 2026
During that Senate hearing, Noem faced outraged Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) ripped into her over DHS agents’ killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—a topic retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) also addressed, noting the infamous passage of Noem’s book in which she describes shooting her family’s dog and goat.
Responding to Trump’s announcement, Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan said, “Good riddance to the racist, lying puppy killer.”
Graham Platner, one of the Democrats running to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in November, similarly said “good riddance” to what he called one of Collins’ “worst confirmation votes ever.”
The progressive oyster farmer and combat veteran also renewed his call to “dismantle” the DHS agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stressing that “the sickness at ICE goes far deeper than one person at the top.”
Well now we don’t have to impeach her. https://t.co/NNBFbHCT0B
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) March 5, 2026
Progressives currently serving in Congress joined Platner in welcoming Noem’s departure from DHS but also reiterating criticism of the department leading Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
“It’s about time,” declared Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.). “But Trump’s violent, cruel deportation agenda didn’t begin with Kristi Noem, and it won’t end with her firing. We need to abolish ICE, dismantle DHS, and prosecute everyone responsible for violating our rights, bypassing due process, and killing people in our streets.”
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that “this is a big win. Kristi Noem was a disaster, and people speaking up got her fired. But Kristi Noem is not the architect of Trump’s dangerous mass deportation policies, and we can’t let up the pressure. Fire Stephen Miller.”
DHS remains partially shut down due to a congressional funding fight. Just a day after grilling Noem on the Fourth Amendment during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal said “good riddance” to her while also arguing that “Congress still cannot fund DHS until there is real, tangible proof that this will be a meaningful, structural change.”
From The Real News Network via This RSS Feed.
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Trump’s regional allies to gather in Miami for “Shield of the Americas” Summit
(peoplesdispatch.org)
21
Young people keep asking me if this was what the Iraq invasion was like. I’ve been telling them “Sort of, but this is way dumber and crazier.”
There were fairly intelligent people who bought into the Iraq war propaganda. Many anti-war folk assumed Saddam probably did have weapons of mass destruction — they just didn’t buy into the narrative that war was the answer. There really were interventionists who sincerely believed the war could do good things for the Iraqi people.
This is nothing like that. Only the most shitbrained of morons sincerely believe the narratives supporting the Trumpanyahu administration’s attack on Iran. Mostly it’s just liars and manipulators cynically pretending to believe the stories about nuclear weapons and massacred protesters and bringing freedom and democracy to the Iranian people, because they want Iran to be bombed.
This time they’re not even pretending to care about the will of the American people. They’re not even pretending to care about humanitarian interests or the future of the people they are bombing. They’re just spouting extremely obvious lies that get fact-checked and debunked by the mainstream media in real time, and then murdering people and bragging about it.
https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/2029544008926568900
The Iraq invasion was an unforgivable mass atrocity of unfathomable evil, but looking back on it you can understand how a person acting in good faith could have been taken in by the post-9/11 hysteria and the uniform war propaganda of the mass media. There was an argument put forward that Saddam Hussein would be replaced with a government that serves the interests of the Iraqi people, and then the US coalition really did stay in the country and build up a new regime to run things. Compared to what we’re seeing now, it’s almost quaint.
This is just open savagery. The US and Israel are pursuing the Libya model with Iran: smashing and decapitating the nation and then leaving the people to pick up the pieces and deal with all the chaos, lawlessness and sectarian conflict that ensues. They intend to plunge a nation of 90 million people into mass-scale strife and potential state collapse or balkanization, and then casually stroll away from the wreckage in cool indifference to the suffering they just unleashed upon the world.
They make no claim to be replacing the Iranian government with a better one. They make no claim to be bringing freedom and democracy to an oppressed people. They’re selling WMD lies and atrocity propaganda, but only in the most half-assed and low-energy of ways, with no interest in whether anyone actually believes them. Mostly they’re just destroying an ancient nation because they can, and looking at the world saying “Yeah we’re thugs. What are you gonna do about it?”
This is the new George W Bush. Trump is what Bush metamorphoses into when it emerges from its red cocoon. The crazier the US empire gets, the more insane its managers are becoming.
_____________
Caitlin’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The best way to make sure you see everything I write is to get on my free mailing list. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
From Caitlin’s Newsletter via This RSS Feed.
22
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave one of his signature “I don’t have a small penis” tirades at the Pentagon on Wednesday, ranting and raving about the big, powerful, masculine war machinery that’s currently raining death and destruction upon the people of Iran.
“We will fly all day, all night, day and night finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders, flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC, Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over,” Hegseth bloviated, saying there will be “B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” the War Secretary spouted.
https://x.com/ProudSocialist/status/2029217598450151861
This would be the same Pete Hegseth who was mentioned in a recent article by Jonathan Larsen titled “U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for ‘Armageddon,’ Return of Jesus”, which reports that US military commanders are telling American soldiers that they are on a mission from God to fulfill a biblical prophecy and bring about the end of the world.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has enshrined evangelical Christianity at the uppermost levels of the U.S. military, airing monthly prayer meetings throughout the Pentagon,” Larsen reports, saying that “Last year, the Pentagon confirmed to me that Hegseth attends a weekly White House Bible study. It’s led by a preacher who says God commands America to support Israel.”
Larsen reports that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been inundated with complaints from every branch of the US military that troops are being told by their leaders that President Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” and similar statements.
Then you’ve got House Speaker Mike Johnson spouting religious war rhetoric, claiming Iranians have been led to evil by a “misguided religion”.
“The largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran and its proxies, have killed more Americans than any other terrorist regime on Earth,” said Johnson on Wednesday. “They are dedicated to it. They have been, and they say the quiet parts out loud. They wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, and they’d like to take us out as well. We’re the great Satan in their analogy and their misguided religion.”
So as if we didn’t have enough problems to deal with, it turns out the world is ruled by a nuclear-armed Armageddon cult.
The US empire is the most evil, destructive and dangerous power structure on this planet. It is operated by psychopaths and guided by demented religious zealotry. These freaks wouldn’t be believable as villains in a children’s cartoon show.
These are the people claiming to have the moral authority to decide who should be the leader of a sovereign nation on the other side of the planet. These are the powerful individuals whose choices are determining the path our species will take into the future.
They are everything they accuse Iran of being. They are dangerous religious fanatics. They cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. They are the tyrants. They are the monsters.
This is unsustainable. These guys gotta go. The US empire must fall. Humanity depends on it.
__________________
Caitlin’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The best way to make sure you see everything I write is to get on my free mailing list. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
From Caitlin’s Newsletter via This RSS Feed.
23
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'Medicare Advantage Is Not Medicare': Democrats Proposal Would Unmask For-Profit Fraudsters
(www.commondreams.org)
A group of Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday reintroduced legislation aimed at reining in for-profit insurance companies who use the Medicare name to market their plans.
The "Save Medicare Act," being reintroduced by US Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), bars private insurers from using the word "Medicare" in marketing their plans, imposing "significant fines" for any insurer that doesn't comply.
At issue, the lawmakers said, is that insurers are flooding the airwaves with ads for Medicare Advantage plans during open enrollment periods. The ads are deceiving Americans into thinking their plans are just variations of Medicare services offered by the federal government, they said.
"Let’s be clear: Medicare Advantage is not Medicare," said Schakowsky. "These private insurance plans use Medicare’s trusted name while too often denying medically necessary care, restricting providers, and overcharging taxpayers by billions. That is unacceptable. We have seen insurers exploit the system to boost profits at the expense of seniors."
Khanna noted that Medicare Advantage is "a private insurance program that too often boosts profits by limiting coverage," even as it "misleads seniors into thinking it's traditional Medicare."
"That's wrong," Khanna emphasized. "This legislation will stop private insurers from cashing in on the Medicare name. We should be working to protect and expand real Medicare instead."
Pocan declared that "only Medicare is Medicare," adding that Medicare Advantage plans "often leave patients without the benefits they need while overcharging the federal government for corporate profit."
"This bill makes clear what is—and what is not—Medicare," added Pocan, "and ensures this essential program will continue to serve seniors and other Americans for generations to come."
Pocan also posted a video on social media where he talked about his elderly mother being unable to see the physician that came to her assisted living home because she relied on Medicare Advantage and the doctor in question was out of network.
"She would have had to go all the way across town to get that care," Pocan explained. "The problem is, she wasn't very mobile and she never got the medical care."
We don't allow banks to call themselves the U.S. Treasury Investment Fund. We don't allow anyone to call themselves USPS Plus.
So why allow insurance companies to call private insurance Medicare Advantage?
I’m reintroducing the Save Medicare Act with @RepRoKhanna and… pic.twitter.com/c6dAXpEJqY
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) March 4, 2026
"We don't allow banks to call themselves the U.S. Treasury Investment Fund," said Pocan. "We don't allow anyone to call themselves USPS Plus. So why allow insurance companies to call private insurance Medicare Advantage?"
Many progressive critics have for years pointed to Medicare Advantage as a legitimate example of wasteful spending by the federal government.
A report released in January by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent congressional agency that advises lawmakers on Medicare, estimated that overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans could total $76 billion in 2026.
One major factor in the overpayments is that patients using Medicare Advantage plans tend to be healthier than patients on traditional Medicare, with the result being that private insurers charge the government more than is necessary to meet these patients' needs.
On Wednesday, Schakowsky said that the "crucial legislation" she joined Khanna and Pocan in introducing "will end deceptive marketing and ensure beneficiaries understand the difference between traditional Medicare and private insurance plans."
"Seniors deserve transparency, accountability, and the full benefits they have earned," she said.
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