Still far apart: Iran & U.S. inch closer to more war$

• ABC reports: Most Americans don't support the Iran war. According to its polls, 63% of respondents believe that attacks on Iran lacked sufficient justification, and only 26% say that U.S. military actions in Iran were correct.
• US officials to WSJ: Trump will resume bombing Iran if he feels negotiations are futile. 

• Iran's deputy Defence Minister after a meeting with Russian Defense Minister, Andrey Belousov: "America is no longer in a position to dictate its policies to independent nations. This has become clear to the whole world through the resilience of the Iranian people and armed forces, and America will have to accept that it must give up its illegal and illogical demands. Today, the whole world considers America and the Zionist regime as symbols of state terrorism." 
• A Ukrainian drone strike has killed an employee at Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the facility’s press service said in a statement on Monday. Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked Europe’s largest nuclear facility since it came under Russian control in 2022, soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has condemned the incident.
• Ukrainian Rada (Parliament) extends martial law for 90 days until August 2. 90 days to kidnap more ‘Ukrainian patriots’ off the streets to die for Zelensky. The Ukrainian Army is the oldest in Europe. The average age of Ukrainian soldiers is 45 years reveals says The Irish Times. The publication reports this after speaking to 55-year-old Ukrainian veteran Alexander Yurichko. Yurichko complained that young people are buying their way out of the Territorial Recruitment Centers, but when the elderly are mobilised, they go to fight. 

• The UAE will leave OPEC from May 1 Reuters reports. The UAE will no longer be obliged to comply with oil production quotas. Saudi Arabia & the rest of the OPEC members are not happy with this decision, while this made Trump happy. This way he can 'cool' down the oil prices and control markets. 
• US Navy harassed and boarded a ship they suspected to be headed for Iranian ports. They had to release it after finding out that they were wrong. The US Navy arrogant presence in waters 11,000 km away from their shores continues to be a pain for worldwide shipping.

• Congress members funded by AIPAC are highlighted below in red. 324 of 435 members of Congress are essentially under Israeli control. Free, free, free America! See www.trackaipac.com   

• Former Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have formed a unified party in a bid to oust Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in elections later this year. Bennett told reporters that joining forces was “the most Zionist and patriotic act we have ever done, for the sake of our country,” adding that “the era of division is over.” Lapid said: “We are standing here together for the sake of our children. The State of Israel must change direction.” The new partnership will run as a unified list without formally merging their parties, and both have said they would seek to form a government only with Zionist opposition parties, excluding Arab factions.
• The fragile US-Iran ceasefire remains under strain, partly due to ongoing Israeli strikes in Lebanon, which were expected to halt under the broader truce as well as a separate bilateral ceasefire extended last Friday. Israel aims to establish control over large areas of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River.
• Trump has signaled support for a proposal to rename Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), endorsing a suggestion shared on social media that would change the agency’s acronym to NICE. Trump reposted a message on his Truth Social platform from a supporter suggesting that ICE be renamed “National Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” which would change the agency’s acronym to NICE. The change would compel media outlets to refer to federal officers as 'NICE agents' framing the agency in more positive terms. GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT,” the president wrote in response to the post..

• What Trump dinner gunman Cole Allen said in his manifesto: “And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he wrote, identifying Trump administration officials as targets.

• Alastair Crooke writes: "Today, the U.S. is experiencing deep polarisation at home, whilst still pursuing conflicts overseas whose aims U.S. leaders try to connect to the redemptive narratives coined for service in the domestic struggle (i.e. validating the ‘Peace through Strength‘ meme) via the war on Iran. The U.S. establishment thus links ‘victory’ in a foreign war as the means to restore its political standing domestically and internationally. Michael Vlahos calls this duality 'a mutually destructive dynamic'. It virtually assures that Washington will not be able to think straight about Iran, and will opt for the wrong tactics."

• DR Congo has launched a new paramilitary “Mining Guard” to secure its mining sector, funded by a $100 million program with support from the U.S. and UAE.
• German Chancellor Merz popularity is off the charts! Just one year in office and already the furious crowd is there, shouting "Merz, go lick eggs," "Get lost," and "Merz must go!" The visceral outrage follows him anytime he is seen in public. You just can't lock up the entire German population it would appear! Germans is it time for Merz to resign?

• Tucker Carlson: Where did Trump get the idea that Iran would collapse swiftly? John Kiriakou: He could only have gotten that idea from Benjamin Netanyahu.
• Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson — Colin Powell’s own chief of staff said the quiet part...“We lied about Vietnam, we lied about Iraq, we lied about Afghanistan, we lied about Somalia, we lied about Libya. We put more small arms and medium arms into the hands of terrorist groups the world over by not securing Gaddafi’s weapons caches in Libya than any arms merchant has ever put into the world.” A top insider confessed: "America doesn’t fight terrorism. It manufactures it, then lies about it for decades. The blowback isn’t accidental but policy. Natural consequences don’t forget who armed the monsters."

• Times of Israel: Israel appointed its first ambassador to Somaliland, months after formally recognizing the breakaway region in the Horn of Africa, the foreign ministry said Sunday. Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own currency, passport and army, but has struggled to win international recognition, amid concerns in many capitals that this would provoke Somalia and encourage other separatist movements in Africa. Regional analysts believe that relations with Somaliland would provide Israel with better access to the Red Sea, enabling it to hit Houthi rebels in Yemen. 

• According to reports, 15 unexploded heavy American missiles & ordnance inside Iran, were transferred to “technical and research units” for “reverse engineering”. Among the heavy missiles/bombs that Iran fully recovered is a GBU-57 bunker buster bomb.