West Asia ceasefire for how much longer?

Eight of us for our weekly hourly vigil at the busiest intersection in Brunswick, Maine today. Nine of the big-rig truckers honked or waved which is a rarity. The cost of diesel fuel is rising.  

• Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been forced out as Navy secretary after clashes with Hegseth. Phelan was a wealthy Trump donor and businessman with zero military experience, exactly the kind of loyalist the administration loves to install. He lasted 13 months. He and Hegseth 'didn't get along'. Neither of them know how to fight a war.
• The Lebanese government will not sign any agreement with Israel as part of negotiations unless it includes a "full withdrawal" of the Israeli troops from its territory, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. "We cannot live with a so-called buffer zone … an Israeli presence where Lebanese displaced people are not allowed to return, where destroyed villages and towns cannot be rebuilt," Salam was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

• Testimonies from Israeli soldiers and commanders indicate that troops operating in southern Lebanon have been looting civilian property on a wide scale, taking items such as motorcycles, TVs, furniture, and other belongings from homes and businesses, according to Haaretz. This is a photo posted of a female Israeli soldier in a house in southern Lebanon whose owners had responded to an illegal “evacuation order” by fleeing to save their lives. They’re cooking vegetables from the garden, in an immaculate, well-stocked kitchen, all while working for a military that claims it is fighting Hezbollah. There’s no Hezbollah in this house; it’s just naked theft, stealing a home from civilians, as Israel has been doing since this abominable nation’s founding.
• U.S. forces boarded and seized a sanctioned, stateless oil tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean. 

• Yemen Leader Al-Houthi: "Israel killed one Palestinian woman every half hour in Gaza for two years. With American weapons, American funding, American partnership. Where are the women's rights they crow about?"
• Trump’s White House just told DNI Tulsi Gabbard she has until the midterms to resign. She was reportedly frozen out of the Situation Room meeting where the president greenlit Operation Epic Fury — the latest round of strikes on Iran. This is the same Tulsi Gabbard who, as Director of National Intelligence, told Congress in plain English that the intelligence community’s assessment was clear: Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not reauthorized the program he suspended back in 2003. She should resign today and not in six months and tell the American people exactly what she knows.

• The International Energy Agency just dropped its most alarming oil demand forecast since the COVID lockdowns. Global oil demand is now projected to contract in 2026, with a steep 1.5 million barrels per day drop expected in Q2 alone — the deepest quarterly plunge since the pandemic. The empire wanted to strangle Iran at the behest of Israel. Instead it’s strangling global energy markets and punishing the very producers who placed their bets on American gunboats and the petrodollar protection racket. 

• The U.S. has started using Ukrainian counter-drone tech at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia after repeated Iranian drone attacks damaged aircraft and infrastructure. Makes sense - three of the leading global terrorist nations now working together.
• New York Times: 308 ships linked to Iran have passed through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the US-Iran war.

• Is Trump waiting for the arrival of the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea before launching a strike against Iran? It is expected to arrive in the Middle East within 3 to 4 days. This will be the third carrier strike group deployed to the region, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R. Ford.
• Former EU Foreign Policy Chief: The Iranians are extremely skilled negotiators, both technically and diplomatically. Pressure and threats alone cannot achieve an effective result against Iran. 

• Iranian military says they are ready for the next stage of the war. “During the lull, our speed in updating missile and drone launch platforms is even higher than before the war. The enemy is unable to create similar conditions and is forced to transport ammunition drop by drop from the other side of the world. They have lost this stage of the war,” the statement said.
• British Prime Minister Starmer: The Iranian conflict is causing serious economic damage to the United Kingdom.

• Iran just made American fighter jets obsolete in its skies and a retired U.S. Army Colonel explained why. Colonel Gagnon, speaking on ABC News, laid it out cold: 'Iran has shifted to passive infrared detection systems that don’t emit radar signals. They track heat signatures instead. The F-35 and F-15 — the crown jewels of U.S. air power were never built to face this. Stealth means nothing when the hunter is silent and staring straight at your engines. Iranian airspace is no longer safe for U.S. fighter jets.'
• Article 3(c) of UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (the Definition of Aggression) goes straight to the point: “The blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State” qualifies as an act of aggression. Hence, it is a straightforward violation of the ceasefire. Iran has not blockaded any foreign ports, or declared a blanket blockade. It has imposed a tollbooth on hostile vessels transiting a Strait that runs through its own territorial waters.
• Washington Post: Clearing mines from Strait of Hormuz could take 6 months, Pentagon tells Congress. The Pentagon assessment, shared in a classified briefing for lawmakers, suggests gasoline and oil prices could remain elevated through the midterm elections in November. (Trump looking for any excuse to keep US forces on Iran's doorstep.)
• Marta Kos is excited by the prospect of laundering another €90 Billion EU loan to crumbling, corrupt and terroristic Ukraine. Don't expect to be repaid. There are still far too many sea-side homes in South Florida that the former Nazi 'warriors' from Ukraine are buying and selling thanks to EU & US cash. Why stop this war? It's far too lucrative for the mobsters inside NATO. 

• Somalia says it imposed a ban on the passage of Israeli-linked ships through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

• (Above) Vinnitsa, Ukraine: Despite the best efforts of the woman, the military body snatchers condemned another ‘Ukrainian patriot’ to a certain death sentence. (Below) In Volyn on the roof another Ukrainian patriot was ‘convinced’ to die for Zelensky. They will get a week's training, taught to fire a machine gun, and then be packed off with other very 'reluctant recruits' to the front lines to help force Moscow to spend more money and lives in order to stop the US-UK-NATO war on Russia. The western colonizers want Russia's vast resource base.

• The United States is withholding Arab Funds. The U.S. is delaying the release of money belonging to several Arab sovereign funds. These funds come from the oil and gas revenues of wealthy Arab states and are deposited in American banks. Officials from these countries are currently in Washington, attempting to persuade the US administration to allow the withdrawal of part of these assets. The U.S. Treasury recently blocked the delivery of a cash shipment worth roughly $500 million in US banknotes. This money originates from Iraqi oil revenues held in accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

• Colombia just paid off its entire debt to the IMF — nearly $5.3 billion. No more IMF conditions. No more austerity strings attached. This is what financial sovereignty looks like. Other nations should be paying attention.
• Fire breaks out aboard identity-fluid $8 billion USS Zumwalt destroyer built at Bath Iron Works in Maine. Three sailors were injured aboard the Navy’s problem-plagued stealth destroyer undergoing a hypersonic makeover while the stealth destroyer was sitting pier-side at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, undergoing a costly modernization meant to give the ship a whole new identity. One sailor was taken to a local hospital in stable condition, while two others were treated at the scene. The troubled vessel has never participated in any combat mission and has become a byword for Pentagon overreach: flashy, fantastically expensive, and still trying to figure out what exactly it wants to be when it grows up.

• Trump's fiscal year 2027 budget request was made public with the largest Pentagon raise in history at $1.5 trillion. "We are delivering on President Trump's commitment to expand American military dominance for decades to come," said Secretary of War Hegseth. "Previous administrations under invested in our military while our enemies grew stronger and more dangerous, so we are now changing the game. This budget builds this arsenal without compromising readiness that will ensure we remain the world's premier fighting force." "This is a generational investment in the US military— the arsenal of freedom, Jules W. Hurst III, the War Department comptroller said. This 42% increase will supercharge our defense industrial base by expanding production of major weapon systems, while strengthening supply chains and supporting tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses. It secures our homeland and military advantage through investments in the Golden Dome missile defense system, drone dominance and space superiority." 
• The lights are back on in Cuban homes and hospitals.  Russian oil saves lives. 

• Iran will not blink. Whatever it takes. The responsibility for destroying the global economy relies entirely on the US. Tehran is very clear: no lifting of the naval blockade, no negotiating.