Update from Iran: Persian Gulf Day

• Last evening the Israeli Navy stormed boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla near the Greek island of Crete, hundreds of nautical miles from Israel. This is in international waters. It is piracy. This is the largest civilian flotilla to challenge the siege on Gaza carrying people from across the world who refuse to keep watching a genocide in silence. Organizers say Israeli navy in speedboats approached pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons, ordering participants to the front of the boats and onto their hands and knees. Israel captured 179 activists from 21 sail boats. Thirty-two flotilla boats remain afloat although some were damaged by Israeli naval forces and may be forced into ports on Crete for repairs. No doubt the Israeli naval forces will be lurking like sharks in the waters off Crete waiting for the remaining small boats to come out.
• According to noted journalist Seymour Hersh, Trump is now talking about paying Iran $25 billion to open the Strait of Hormuz, having become disgusted with Netanyahu for luring him into a war that even he now realizes can’t be won: "Trump, in a political panic over the economic fallout from the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, is now talking to Iran, as an Israeli insider put it, about ending the current impasse in return for a payment from the US of at least $25 billion, and possibly much more, to the government in Tehran. In return, Iran would end its blockade and open the strait to all traffic, ending a crisis for Trump, the US, and much of the world.” That sounds an awful lot like the 'bags of cash' Trump accused Obama and John Kerry of traitorously giving the Iranians to seal the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
• Iran’s IRGC Aerospace Force commander says even if new US attacks are limited, Iran will respond forcefully and long.

• The representative of the Jewish community in Iran announced yesterday the renewal of allegiance to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei (may his shadow endure).
• A record-breaking community sports gathering in Tehran. Over 10,000 athletes from the city’s exercise stations came together on Nature Bridge to celebrate National Persian Gulf Day. 

• Tomorrow May 1st, is PERSIAN GULF day. It marks the kicking out of the Portuguese from the Strait of Hormuz in 1622 by Iran. Trump just tweeted this very disturbing AI graphic with the name 'Strait of Trump'. Trump can only get victories online and can’t actually militarily control the PERSIAN Gulf so he resorts to online propaganda. It will always and forever be the PERSIAN GULF.  

• Axios: Trump has spoken to Netanyahu “every day this week.” 

• Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: The country is falling apart. We seize territory and then have to withdraw because we don't have enough forces to hold it. Meanwhile, there are about 100,000 healthy young men from the ultra-Orthodox community who are not serving in the military, and the government is giving them billions of dollars.
• After the arrest of nine IDF soldiers for raping a Palestinian POW to death, and a week of protests and debates, Israel’s courts have now officially ruled that a sexual assault can only be defined as a crime or rape if it’s committed against a Jewish woman. 

• Britain and other north European states will create a naval force outside of NATO to counter Russia, chief of naval staff in the UK, General Gwyn Jenkins, said. Jenkins announced that members of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (Jef), which has been in place since 2014, signed a statement of intent last week to set up a new “multinational maritime force.” The Jef includes the Netherlands, all five Nordic nations (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) and the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.) This is actually about trying to grab control of the Arctic Ocean which Russia has the largest border with.
• Iran's envoy to Russia Kazem Jalali: "The people of Iran have absolutely no trust in the Americans when it comes to negotiations." 

• “The Haitian Revolution was the first global shock to the colonial order,” Fortifi Lushima, national coordinator of the non-governmental organization Urgence Panafricaniste in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told Sputnik. But independence came at a high price. In 1825, France imposed a staggering debt of 150 million gold francs on Haiti, aiming to deter other colonies from rebelling. "The logic was simple: to show other French colonies that striving for freedom would lead to poverty and instability," Lushima explained.
• "This is the gift we received from those who boast about humanity and peace." The head of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran spoke with foreign journalists who toured the university since it was attacked by the US and Israel. 

• The Irish government has agreed to put in motion a plan to terminate government-provided accommodation for Ukrainian migrants, as well as cut benefits for those living in rentals. An estimated 125,000 Ukrainians have received temporary protection in Ireland since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. 
• “The whole world must unite to call on the US for peaceful talks." Einar Tangen (international commentator on geopolitics and the global economy based in Beijing) believes only a united global front could pressure Washington to change course, calling for sanctions relief, reparations, and a shift toward genuine negotiations. 

• USS Truxtun (DDG-103) warship has been resupplied at Mumbai port inside India. This is evidence that India is helping USA to do blockade of Iran.
• Energy prices are set to jump by 24% this year to their highest level since 2022, while overall commodity costs will rise by 16%, the World Bank said, adding that the US-Israeli war on Iran has triggered “the biggest energy supply shock in history.” Prices could climb further if the conflict intensifies. The global oil prices continue to rise, as the price per barrel has exceeded 120 dollars.
• The US has announced a coalition aimed at pressuring China to relinquish its interests in two ports in the Panama Canal, accusing Beijing of infringing on Panama’s sovereignty and politicizing global trade. China has called the claims “baseless.”  Further evidence of the US attempt to restore its control of Latin America.

• A leaked plan to grant the US military sweeping overflight access to Indonesia's airspace has triggered a domestic backlash over concerns that Jakarta is "colluding with the aggressor" amid Washington's war on Iran. Analysts say the defence document, first reported by New Delhi-based newspaper the Sunday Guardian, raises concerns that President Prabowo Subianto may be trading away Indonesia's strategic independence. The proposal, which reportedly emerged following a meeting in February between Prabowo and Trump, is said to grant American military aircraft "blanket" overflight access to the Southeast Asian nation's airspace for contingency operations, crisis response and joint exercises. Behind the scenes, divisions have emerged. According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, Indonesia's foreign ministry sent a letter marked urgent and confidential to the defence ministry in early April warning that granting blanket overflight rights risked entangling Jakarta in foreign conflicts. Indonesian President Subianto has accepted appointment to Trump's phony 'Board of Piss'.

• Major league bombshell. Former Republican-party US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene explicitly confirms Donald Trump was forced to make a secret deal with the Zionist lobby to become president. She exposed how the Trump administration is completely held captive by Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel. 
• An audio tape just revealed Juan Orlando Hernández, former convicted criminal president of Honduras, brags that his pardon was financed by the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu with Trump's concurrence.
• Maduro once said whoever takes Venezuela to the IMF is a traitor and the people have the right to take to the streets. This week, President Delcy Rodríguez announced Venezuela is back at the IMF. The IMF does not save countries. The IMF traps them. Austerity. Privatization. Hunger. Argentina is the example. Premium beef exported. Donkey meat for locals. That is the IMF model. Venezuela was free of the IMF for years. Now the door is open again. The same institution that helped strangle Argentina, Ghana, and dozens of others. 
• The identity of the female thief who stole champagne and wine from the table during the attempted assassination of Trump has been revealed as the Ukrainian ambassador to the US Olga Stefanyshyna!