U.S. military commanders have reportedly been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric to push war on Iran, selling the conflict to American troops as an existential “holy war” in apocalyptic language that experts fear could exacerbate the violence and death toll of military operations. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, attributes the rise in extremism at the Pentagon to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who “has created a template that the only approved member of the U.S. military is to be straight, Christian, nationalist and male.” Weinstein warns that “whenever you attach an extremist aspect of any religious faith to that machinery responsible for war … we end up with one […]

We get an update on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran from Israel, where reports are growing of discrimination against non-Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel attempting to seek shelter from Iranian drone and missile attacks. While Jewish neighborhoods are “well protected” by bomb shelters, shelters are much rarer in Palestinian neighborhoods within the highly segregated country, explains Israeli journalist Orly Noy. “This is the meaning of a supremacist, racist regime,” she says. Noy, whose Iranian Jewish family immigrated to Israel during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, also points out that public focus on Iran has allowed the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to continue with minimal international […]

Iran has selected Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader. The elder Khamenei was assassinated in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike on February 28. Iran selected the “hard-liner” Mojtaba Khamenei in defiance of President Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he can choose Iran’s next leader. His selection also contradicts the Islamic Republic’s previous resistance to hereditary succession. “The war changed everything,” says Iranian American political analyst Hooman Majd, who adds that Iran’s leadership sees the conflict as “existential” and is therefore carrying out retaliatory attacks throughout the region to “make it painful economically and in many other ways for the United States and […]

Toxic Black Raindrops Fall on Tehran Following U.S.-Israeli Attacks on Fuel Depots, Video Shows U.S. Missile Struck Iranian Girls’ School, Killing 175, Contradicting Trump’s Denials, Mojtaba Khamenei, Son of Ayatollah Assassinated by U.S. and Israel, Named Iran’s Supreme Leader, State Department Declares Iran War an “Emergency,” Speeding Sale of 20,000+ Bombs to Israel, Iran Fires Missiles and Drones at Israel, U.S. Bases and Mideast Nations, Killing Several People, Lebanon Says Israeli Attacks Have Displaced Over Half a Million People, Israeli Settlers’ Attacks Kill 6 Palestinians in a Week Across Occupied West Bank, Paramedic and Two Children Among Palestinians Killed in Israel’s Latest Attacks on Gaza, Pentagon Reports […]

President Trump is hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America in Miami for a summit discussing his so-called Shield of the Americas initiative. This comes as the U.S. deploys special forces to Ecuador and as Trump hints about regime change in Cuba. “This summit is … an opportunity for Trump to play out a moment of imperial fantasy in front of fans in South Florida,” says Jake Johnston, director of international research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago will attend, says the White House.