Israel moving to control Al-Aqsa Mosque

• Fars News Agency: Trump is misrepresenting the Iran deal terms. He claimed Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz for free and dismantle its nuclear materials — neither is in the actual text. The US must immediately unblock $12 billion in Iranian assets before talks can proceed, and a full ceasefire in Lebanon (on Hezbollah's terms) is also required. The deal is still awaiting final approval in Iran. Informed sources describe Trump's statements as a mix of truth and fabrication — an attempt to claim a premature victory. Trump cannot tell us what we ‘must’ do, we decide it by ourselves. Trump is on his own planet and talking to himself again.

• Washington Post: Trump’s approval plunges among his white working-class base. In a striking shift, white voters without college degrees who voted to reelect Trump by a huge margin are now net-negative on his job approval.
• Bloomberg: Five US military personnel were injured in Iran's retaliatory attack on a US base in Kuwait. The IRGC launched a retaliatory strike on the base from which Iran was shelled on the night of May 28. US military personnel were injured, and two MQ-9 Reaper attack drones were seriously damaged, each costing around $30 million.  Ali Al Salem, located in the Jahra Governorate of Kuwait, mainly hosts the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing of the United States Air Force.

• Portside reports: The origins of this current malaise in the US date back to the mid-1970s, and followed the actions taken by business class elites responding to the exhortations contained in the now-famous Powell Memorandum. This was a secret 1971 memo from then-corporate lawyer Lewis Powell to the Secretary of the US Chamber of Commerce. The memo wasn’t revealed to the public until well after Powell had been appointed to the Supreme Court, where he continued to wage his ideological battle in defense of capitalism and corporate power. In the memo Powell argued that: 'The US Chamber of Commerce should lead an assault upon the major institutions, universities, schools, the media, publishing, the courts, in order to change how individuals think about the corporation, the law, culture, and the individual.'
• The Pentagon has spent months positioning warships and weapons in place for an attack on Cuba and is ready to go if President Trump gives the order, POLITICO reported on Wednesday. The report noted that the US doesn’t have quite the number of warships it had deployed in the Caribbean before the attack on Venezuela, but the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group just recently arrived in the region, and the US can also make use of fighter jets and other weapons based in Florida for a war with Cuba. The US has also ramped up military surveillance flights around Cuba, something it did in the months leading up to the attack on Venezuela.
• Bolivia stands up: 'We will not dialogue or negotiate with those who have the blood of our indigenous communities on their hands; we will resist in the barricades until President Rodrigo Paz resigns.' Indigenous leaders from Bolivia vow to fight until they topple the regime of Rodrigo Paz, a US puppet who seeks to privatize the country and hand over precious resources like lithium to the Yankee empire. This is what the dignity of native peoples looks like as they fight against those who destroy and sell their land. 

• Blue Origin rocket exploded on a Florida launch pad, in major setback for space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Blue Origin rocket exploded on the pad during an engine 'hotfire test' on May 28 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin officials posted a statement: "We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test. Debris from the anomaly could wash ashore...over the coming days or weeks." The rocket had been slated to potentially launch as early as June 4. Rockets sometimes blow up on the launch pad or soon after take off. Imagine the danger when these rockets will be outfitted with nuclear devices in the near future as missions to the Moon and Mars are planned to carry nuclear reactors to those planetary bodies. 

• Hungary will not send weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar stated this at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
• Professor Jeffrey Sachs: 'I published in the Berliner Zeitung an open letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Germany has the key responsibility right now for preventing a European-wide war. Germany incidentally promised the Soviet Union and Russia in 1990 that NATO would not enlarge. Germany cheated on its promise.' 

• The US Space Force must plan to deploy troops on orbiting space stations and at bases on the moon [at the Earth-Moon Gravity Well] to prevent China from winning the new space race and controlling outer space, according to a policy paper circulated recently by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz writes in his weekly Inside the Ring column that the paper by retired Space Force Col. Kyle Pumroy warns that a sustained human military presence in space is needed to counter China’s growing space efforts that are run by the People’s Liberation Army, including plans for a moon base by 2030. 

• Confirmed: Yemen shot down another MQ-9 drone, this morning. 

• Muslims have been praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque for around 1,400 years. Israel has had its eyes on the holy site since the state’s creation in 1948, and its leaders have made increasingly aggressive attempts to seize control. In theory and by law, the custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque is King Abdullah II of Jordan.  The US and Israel are conspiring to strip the Jordanian royal family of its historic custodianship. A US official has denied the report, but under the plan described to Middle East Eye by American, Jordanian and Palestinian officials, Israel would gain control over the appointment of imams and senior mosque officials. The plan, reportedly being pushed by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and zionist US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, would also give Israel a role in approving the content of Friday sermons.

• Footage circulating online shows Dutch police smashing a pregnant Palestinian woman into the ground, while posing no threat at all, in the Netherlands. What did she do to deserve this brutality?

• The President of Romania stated that a drone crashed in the country following an intervention by Ukrainian air defence. Romanian President Nicușor Dan visited Galați, the site where the drone crashed, and stated that the drone ended up on Romanian territory after being hit by Ukrainian air defenses near Reni. According to him, the group consisted of 43 drones, some of which were shot down over Ukrainian territory. One of the drones was likely hit over Reni, after which it changed course and crashed on Romanian territory. Of course NATO blamed Russia. 
• Pro-Palestine candidates were more likely to win their seat than candidates from any major party besides Reform at the recent local elections in England. New data shared with Middle East Eye indicates that opposition to British cooperation with Israel remains a key political issue and is a predictor for electoral success in many areas in England. At the May 7 local elections, candidates who signed the 'Pledge for Palestine', created by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, won 27 percent of the seats they contested, while Reform candidates won 30 percent. Labour candidates trailed behind on 22 percent, with the Lib Dems just one point behind on 21.

• The US is deliberately causing hunger in Cuba as part of its economic strangulation of the island, City University of New York professor Danny Shaw has said in an interview with RT. Shaw, an ethnography scholar, discussed his recent visit to Cuba and argued that the US is the main cause of the instability. “US foreign policy for 67 years now has done everything to disrupt the Cuban economy, any sense of social and economic harmony,” Shaw said. “The State Department, all these different agencies, the CIA, they know exactly how many calories Cubans have access to, and every day it’s less,” he added. Sanchez, who was born in Cuba and raised in Miami, said the issue was personal to him. He also rejected claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Cuba’s worsening economic crisis is primarily the fault of its own government, arguing instead that “the US has destroyed Cuba [by its economic blockade], not incompetent communists.”
• The Kremlin has published a joint statement by the leaders of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) regarding Armenia’s plans to join the EU. The leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan believe that a nationwide referendum should be held in Armenia on whether to join the EU or remain in the EAEU.  This is all part of NATO-EU encirclement of Russia.

Reviewing the takedown of Thomas Massie with Joe Kent

In this episode of 51/49, James sits down for an exclusive interview with former Counterterrorism Director Joe Kent to expose the record-breaking $30 million onslaught targeting Representative Thomas Massie.

They reveal how powerful foreign lobbies and institutional forces are actively trying to execute a political hit on a lawmaker for opposing a war with Iran and fighting to release the Epstein files.  

the funnies

U.S.-Israel war on Iran costing Nebraska farmers big time

Drop Site's Capitol Hill correspondent Julian Andreone traveled to Nebraska to speak with corn and soybean farmers about how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is hitting their operations — and why they say every American will feel it.  

Google Boss booed at Univ of Arizona graduation over AI promo

U.S. fires shots again at Iran

• A new and symbolic mural design unveiled at Palestine Square in Tehran. The mural features a Rorschach-inspired design symbolizing the downfall of the zionist regime. The design came following a message from the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, regarding the eventual collapse of the zionist entity. 
• Iranian military: 'The terrorist US military in the region violated the ceasefire by firing several missiles at empty areas of Bandar Abbas Airport, which caused no damage. In response to this aggression, the US airbase in Kuwait from which the attack originated was struck in retaliation. If this action by the terrorist US military is repeated, it will face our harsh response.'
• Deputy Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Bagheri: 'Our region would be the most stable region in the world without the US. The success of negotiations depends on ending the United States’ policy of arrogance and imposing conditions. The current problem in the region is US interference and the presence and influence of zionists. The recent war showed that the Strait of Hormuz created a route for threatening the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under such circumstances, Iran, as an independent sovereign state, has the right to protect its security and national sovereignty and not allow them to be violated or threatened. From the American perspective, peace is linked to securing their illegitimate interests. The US attack on a school in Minab showed that America’s claims about human rights are completely false, and that they place no value whatsoever on human beings and their rights.'

• Doron Kadosh, Israeli army correspondent: 'The escalation in Beirut is based on an American request; it is important to remember.'
• Trump openly threatened Oman: 'The Strait of Hormoz will be open to everyone and no one will control it. Oman will behave like everyone else, otherwise we will have to blow them up.'  Oman is now working directly with Iran to control Hormoz which borders their shores .
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would continue tightening what he called a “financial stranglehold” on Iran. “Through Economic Fury, the US has imposed a financial stranglehold on the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Bessent said. The press release also warned against payments or cooperation connected to passage through the Strait, including tolls, digital assets, swaps or other in-kind arrangements. The move comes as the US fails to subjugate Iran with unhinged threats, outright military aggression and ceasefire violations. Nonetheless, the US continues expanding its sanctions campaign while claiming to negotiate with Iran.

• According to an informed source close to the negotiation team: Iran's frozen assets that must be released during the negotiations are estimated at $24 billion. Iran insists that half of it should be released upfront with the start of the memorandum announcement and the rest transferred within 60 days.
• Informed sources for Fars News say that Trump may unilaterally announce within the next few hours that the Iran-US agreement has been finalized. If he does, this is seen as an attempt to apply pressure and impose the agreement on public opinion before all differences are fully resolved.

Covering all the bases at our weekly vigil in Brunswick, Maine today

• The United States has reimposed sanctions on the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese for revealing the Israeli regime’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.

• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev called for a change in European policy regarding the conflict in Ukraine. "Personally, I am concerned that Europe is striving to achieve victory over the largest nuclear power, having the ability to intercept and counter modern hypersonic weapons. This is a serious risk. It is necessary to change the general policy", stated Radev. The Bulgarian Prime Minister also stated that he supports negotiations between EU countries and Moscow.
• Latvia is installing 'dragon teeth' on the border with Russia and digging anti-tank ditches. They are designed to prevent the movement of military equipment across the border. Construction of the fortifications is planned to be completed by 2028. The total length of Latvia's border with Russia and Belarus is about 450 kilometers. This year, only 8 km are planned to be fortified. Why is Latvia worried about an invasion by Russia? Could it be that since Latvia joined NATO they are part of a planned European war against Russia in the coming years?  

• European Commissioner for Integration Marta Kos stated that Zelensky's demand for “Ukraine to join the EU next year is unfeasible," Financial Times reports. European leaders have repeatedly pointed out the inconsistency of Ukrainian legislation with European standards and stated that one of the mandatory conditions for considering Ukraine's membership is thorough reform.

• Zelensky's patriotic recruitment continues on a daily basis. This eager recruit in Odessa willingly joins the ranks for the frontline defense of the mafia regime in Kiev. Good luck brother....  

• Report by CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh was released four days after the tragedy in Starobelsk, Russia but it had been prepared in advance. The implications cannot be more serious. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova’s complete statement: "As you know, CNN did not travel to Starobelsk last Sunday, citing logistical reasons. Yesterday CNN revealed what they were actually working on while correspondents from around the world were documenting the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attack on the dormitory and teaching block of a pedagogical college in the Lugansk People's Republic. CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who has been indicted in absentia in Russia for participating in the Kursk incursion, was filming a promotional segment about Kiev’s drone strikes on Russian cities. The piece was prepared slightly in advance but aired on May 26, four days after the Starobelsk strike that killed more than twenty people. Neither the anchors nor Walsh mentioned it with a single word. Instead the segment ran as a full advertisement for the effectiveness of Ukrainian drones: 'We are now next to perhaps the most wanted target in Russia, a Ukrainian long-range drone strike unit. Tonight they will launch 200 drones at Russia. These drones have already struck Stavropol.' That passing detail about Stavropol is significant. It suggests Walsh may have been embedded with the Ukrainian unit at the exact moment it was coordinating the planned strike on the college in Starobelsk. Kiev’s drones hit Stavropol the day before the Starobelsk attack. The Armed Forces Ukraine hired CNN to film their drone killers at work. When Russia invites CNN to document the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes, the killing of civilians including children and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, American journalists cite vacations, logistics and so on. Meanwhile there is a strong likelihood that CNN correspondents were filming the preparation for that very attack. Their audience, the channel has decided, should not know about the consequences. This is not journalism. CNN has different priorities now: propaganda, distortion, manipulation, not informing its audience. This is exactly how the Völkischer Beobachter [daily newspaper published by the Nazi Party] operated in 1944. Its editorial policy was coordinated with the propaganda apparatus, its staff saluted and celebrated the achievements of German arms, and until 1945 reported on the imminent victory of the Reich over the USSR and the Allies. Anything that did not fit the narrative simply did not exist. After the collapse of the Hitler regime, the Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced the editor of the Völkischer Beobachter to spend the rest of his life in labor camps. This is how the Western mainstream manufactures a deliberately distorted picture of the world today.” 

• Netanyahu: 'We are now in 60% of the Gaza Strip, more or less. We were at 50%; now we’ve moved to 60%. My directive is to move to'... Audience: 100! 100!... Netanyahu: 'Wait, let’s go in order. First 70%. Let’s start with that.'

• Washington Post: Trump’s approval plunges among his white working-class base. In a striking shift, white voters without college degrees who voted to reelect Trump by a huge margin are now net-negative on his job approval. Could it be that these folks are realizing their 'prez' has done virtually nothing for them while he has made sure the top 1% are getting all the economic breaks?  

Can't vote our way out of this one

In this episode James exposes how a powerful foreign lobby and massive pro-Israel dark money executed a record-breaking $35 million primary ouster against Representative Thomas Massie for opposing the war in Iran.

He tours the National Mall to reveal how Washington’s iconic monuments and textbook histories are actually sophisticated propaganda designed to manufacture public consent and protect the establishment from the American voter.

Excellent timely film: 'Saving Walden's World'

Jim Merkel's remarkably timely film called 'Saving Walden's World' about his fascinating life, family, worldwide travels and work is a should see by anyone who promotes peace, sustainability, and has children/grandchildren.  

I was very moved by Jim's own conversion story from working for the war machine to then traveling to India, Cuba and Slovenia to find and share the stories of remarkable women who are working to change the world for the better by empowering local women to do sustainable agriculture, education and political action. 

Particularly timely was the Cuba segment as we see Trump today threatening to invade Cuba in order to restore the US mafia system that was thrown out by the people's revolution in 1959. Despite the horrific blockade by the US for so many years, Jim featured Cuban people who are finding ways to keep the dream of independence and sovereignty alive.

Please find a way to help more people see this important film. 

Find more info at www.savingwaldensworld.org

Bruce

Normalizing genocide: A danger to peace & sovereignty around the world

• Lebanon to the world: We apologize for the harshness of the words, but the reality in the south is harsher than any description. The world is watching and the silence of the world is killing us! Every day the hand of the Israeli enemy extends to directly and deliberately target the messengers of humanity and the medics of the Islamic Risala Scouts in Srifa, Tir Felsiyeh, and Qaraoun Dam. The only guilt of these heroes is that they refused to abandon our children, and they devoted themselves to protecting what remains of the fragments of childhood and life in the south. Israel is slaughtering our children and assassinating the medics who bandage their wounds, and no one is moving a finger. Mass genocide is being normalized around the world by the imperial agents of doom.

• A total of around 190 airstrikes were recorded in Lebanon during the past 36 hours. The Lebanese Ministry of Health stated that 31 people were martyred and 40 wounded, including children and women, as a result of the series of Israeli attacks yesterday.
• NetBlocks says more than 80% of internet connectivity has been restored in Iran as mobile networks and other  services reconnect to the global internet.
• John Mearsheimer: “On 24 May 2026, I was on ‘Switzerland’ talking with Tom Switzer about the high-profile negotiations between President Trump and Iran that were taking place that day. Exactly where those negotiations will lead is difficult to tell. Trump initially signaled that the two sides were very close to a deal, but then qualified his language later in the day. It appeared from what we were hearing about the specifics of the deal — certainly at the start of the public conversation — that the US was effectively conceding defeat to Iran, which is not to deny that Iran would have to make some concessions, especially on the nuclear issue. Unsurprisingly, Israel, the lobby, and the war hawks here in the US were apoplectic about the terms of the deal, which is surely what caused Trump to temper his rhetoric over the course of the day.”

• The Israeli Knesset has taken an important step toward annexing Palestinian archaeological and historical sites in the occupied West Bank, Mondoweiss reported. The Knesset advanced a bill that would place the sites under direct Israeli civil authority and effectively legally annex them to Israel. The Antiquities Law was originally introduced in 2023 and passed its first Knesset reading by a vote of 23 to 14. It is now due to go up for its second and third readings in the Israeli parliamentary body before being passed into law. If successful, the bill would move the control of the occupied Palestinian antiquities from the army’s Civil Administration to a civilian agency in the Israeli government, “a clear act of legal annexation in contravention of international law,” Mondoweiss notes.

• A State Department cable says the US does not want Riyad Mansour to have a ‘pulpit’ to highlight Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza at the UN. Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour is withdrawing as a candidate for vice president of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) following pressure from Washington, NPR reported. Earlier this week, the US threatened to revoke Palestinian diplomats’ visas if Mansour did not withdraw his bid. “We will hold the PA responsible if the Palestinian delegation does not withdraw its VPGA candidacy,” a State Department cable issued  and obtained by NPR said. The cable said the Palestinian envoy to the UN “has a history of accusing Israel of genocide.” NPR noted that the threat is considered unprecedented, particularly given the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which generally bars the US from blocking UN officials from entering New York. 
• The Chosun Ilbo: A US led war game against China took place on South Korean soil during the 2025 Ulchi Freedom Shield and the 2026 Freedom Shield US–ROK joint military exercises. Reportedly, approximately 2,000 Army personnel from the US Army’s 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force, a brigade-sized formation, participated in the exercises to “neutralize China’s Anti-Access/Area Denial capabilities across multiple operational domains — air, land, sea, space, cyberspace, and information warfare — throughout the Indo-Pacific theater.”  

• Der Spiegel: The US plans to reduce its military contribution to NATO and shift a significant portion of Europe’s defense burden onto its European allies. Washington's deep state plans to reduce its fighter jet contribution by about a third and significantly decrease the number of strategic bombers within the Alliance. Washington no longer wants to provide submarines to NATO, and it also plans to cut back on its contribution of destroyers and drones. Why? US can't afford to do it anymore when it is $38 trillion in debt and nations are dropping their US Treasury bonds like hot cakes. At the same time Pentagon weapons systems are proving to be ineffective and thus a crisis is developing as massive funds are being wasted (Trump has requested $1.5 trillion for 2026) on poor quality weapons. In addition the world increasingly is calling for the US to close its 800 bases in foreign nations. The bases make the host nation a target and are loaded with a toxic stew from years of military pollution.

• Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on recently resigned US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announcing an audit of more than 120 foreign biological facilities. Zakharova claimed that over 40 US-linked biolaboratories are operated in Ukraine and said Russia had previously raised the issue at the UN and under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The briefing also referenced investigations conducted during Russia’s special military operation and renewed calls for international scrutiny of US military-biological activities abroad.

• The Board of Peace’s official fund remains empty, and the organization is in a political and legal deadlock, the Financial Times reported. Despite $17 billion in financial commitments pledged by international backers and Washington, no funds have been transferred to the organization’s accounts in the four months since its establishment.
• In a February 1901 article titled, 'To the Person Sitting in Darkness,' Mark Twain continued to criticize the US. "There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive's new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land...True, we have crushed a deceived and confiding people; we have turned against the weak and the friendless who trusted us; we have stamped out a just and intelligent and well-ordered republic; we have stabbed an ally in the back and slapped the face of a guest; we have bought a Shadow from an enemy that hadn't it to sell; we have robbed a trusting friend of his land and his liberty; we have invited clean young men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit's work under a flag which bandits have been accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America's honor and blackened her face before the world...And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one - our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones."  

• Femena reports: More than two months into the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon, women across affected areas describe a life shaped by constant fear, repeated displacement, exhaustion, and uncertainty. What began as emergency survival under bombardment has evolved into a prolonged humanitarian and psychological crisis affecting nearly every aspect of daily life. Across southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa, and other affected regions, civilians continue to endure Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and constant drone surveillance under increasingly unstable and dangerous conditions. Although international actors have repeatedly called for de-escalation, and a tentative ceasefire framework was announced in April 2026, military operations and attacks continue, leaving many communities trapped between repeated displacement, destruction, and the ongoing fear of renewed violence. At the same time, women across Lebanon continue to carry the burden of sustaining families and communities under extraordinary pressure. Women human rights defenders, activists, journalists, healthcare workers, volunteers, and community organizers remain at the forefront of documenting violations, coordinating relief efforts, supporting displaced families, and preserving community networks, despite enduring the same violence and insecurity themselves.  

• Gazeta Wyborcza: Poland and Britain will soon sign a defense agreement against Russia. In May 2025, Warsaw signed a similar agreement with France, and in June such a document will be signed with Germany. Thus, Poland, Britain, Germany, and France are working on creating a "NATO within NATO," which will be directed against Russia.
• Former senior adviser to the US Defense Secretary Col. Douglas Macgregor says trying to follow Trump’s Iran policy is enough to cause “an acute case of schizophrenia.” “What this man does brilliantly, let’s give him credit is manipulate the markets,” Macgregor stressed. Meanwhile, the bill is coming due. Macgregor warned that the Iran war is driving inflation higher, oil markets are being artificially managed, and the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve could be drained in about 60 days. “We’re going to watch the global economy shrink by an estimated 36%. Just for referential purposes, the Great Depression reduced the world economy by 20%.”
• Nazi occupied Kiev. This ‘Ukrainian patriot’ was mobilized in a totally ‘free and democratic’ manner. Men of all ages are just dying to go to the front lines and fight for the corrupt Zelensky mafia crew. They know if they are lucky they will last at least a week. 

• Half of young people aged 16-29 would never fight for Britain if war broke out, a new opinion  poll has revealed. The pollsters summarized young people’s attitudes as being ‘why fight for a country that isn’t fighting for you?’ No wonder governments across Europe are now reintroducing conscription or other schemes to push new recruits into the armed forces, such as France’s strategy to encourage young people to volunteer for paid military training. Belgium is rolling out a similar plan, while the Netherlands has openly mulled bringing back the draft.

German perspective on growing war propaganda

The War-Hysteria in Europe is not accidental. It has been prepared and seeded in the continent's population for a long time through war narratives, propaganda and actual cognitive warfare plans. 

Today I speak with Dr. Jonas Tögel, a German propaganda researcher and author. 

We discuss war messaging in Europe, German military outreach in schools, youth resistance, NATO narratives, the role of the US and EU, the collapse of antiwar politics, and the way propaganda, fear, and media overload shape public opinion. 

They also discuss public resistance, self-care, and keeping a peace movement alive.

6 million dead in the Congo

Sporadic shooting resumes in Hormuz - war restarting?

Veterans march on May 25 against Iran war and Trump in Chicago

• Iran confirms it shot down another Pentagon MQ-9 surveillance drone and fired upon a RQ-4 drone & F-35 jet forcing them to flee the country’s territorial airspace. Iran reserves the right to respond to ceasefire violations. Iran also says the US violated the ceasefire by harassing Iranian commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz in the last 48 hours. The statement says Washington is acting in bad faith. Iran’s leader, Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, in a statement says: 'The hands of time will not turn back. Regions, nations & lands will no longer act as shields for US bases. Not only will America lack a safe haven for its mischief and military bases in the region, but its former status is fading day by day. The US is unwilling to lift the naval blockade & even after a MoU and reopening of the Strait of Hormoz, Iranian ships must coordinate with the US military & obtain its permission to exit the region. This is really bad and Iran will not be accepting this agreement on these terms.' This so-called US blockade is costing lots of money that Washington does not have as it sits on $38 trillion of debt.

• Sovereignista: Talking about normalizing Israel under the guise of Iranian hoped for Peace Agreements Trump says...'Sign the Abraham Accords and normalize Israel, or there is no peace.' A stumbling fantasy and attempt at outright blackmail, called ‘transformative’. (For who, we may ask?) The countries involved are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. For once Saudi Arabia kept to their long-standing policy – no movement on these Accords [until] there is a land for Palestine. Pakistan also declined so far pointing out a long-standing clause printed on Pakistani passports stating they are valid for all countries except Israel — underscoring the official position of non-recognition toward the Israeli state.

• Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi: 'Hezbollah strikes tanks, while the Zionists bomb apartment blocks, and Western journalists and diplomats pretend that they represent the civilized world. They are the barbarians of our time.'

• As always Israel vows to bomb Beirut and begins a campaign of carpet bombing Lebanon. Civilians are fleeing Dahiyeh in south Beirut now. Israeli attack on Beirut or southern Lebanon suburbs risks total collapse of talks.  The empire is working very hard for this war to continue.
• Financial Times: Nine countries have left the Czech coalition for supplying ammunition to Ukraine. According to Czech president Petr Pavel, currently only nine countries are funding the initiative, whereas last year there were 18. "The difficulty is that only about nine member states are making a financial contribution. Within the framework of this initiative, up to 50 percent of all large-caliber ammunition is supplied to Ukrainians, so in this sense it is difficult to replace it with anything else," he said. Pavel’s office refused to name the countries that recently left the initiative. 

• Pope Leo XIV: "In our time, a culture of power is taking hold, in which the availability of resources and the ability to dominate tend to dictate the agenda and criteria for decision-making. In this way, the common good of humanity is relegated to the background and the concrete tragedy of peoples at war is reduced to a secondary consideration in relation to strategic interests. This culture of power infiltrates society, changes relationships and behaviors, and grows by normalizing war, pursuing ever-greater military power, taking advantage of the crisis of multilateralism and fueling a false realism that insists that there is no alternative."
• Armenia and the US have signed a strategic partnership agreement. (Another way for Washington to destabilize the region.) The agreement was signed by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The parties concluded a framework memorandum on the extraction, processing, and supply of minerals and rare earth metals critical to the US. As part of the TRIPP project ('Trump’s Road to International Prosperity), the parties confirmed a plan to create a transit route through Armenia’s Syunik region to the Azerbaijani enclave Nakhchivan.

• Dmitry Medvedev: Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has taken a course of breaking ties with Russia, and this must be admitted directly. Moscow's strategic partner is the Armenian people, and not any particular Armenian leader. Armenia will lose the Russian market and all of the EAEU as a result of Pashinyan's course. Pashinyan is actively pushing Armenia onto the path of Banderite Ukraine. Pashinyan has put relations with Russia, the CSTO, and the EAEU under direct threat, and his actions will have consequences.

• Sergey Lavrov urged the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to evacuate the US embassy in Kiev. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, spoke by phone with  Secretary of State Rubio on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lavrov informed Rubio that Russian Armed Forces are beginning systematic strikes on objects located in Kiev and drew his attention to the recommendation to urgently evacuate US diplomatic personnel. Additionally, the Russian Foreign Minister expressed regret that “the arrogant efforts of Euro-elites” and the Kiev regime are undermining the Anchorage agreements. Strikes will also be carried out in Kiev, among other things, against places of design, production, programming and preparation for the use of UAVs. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' attack on the dormitory in Starobelsk has “exhausted the patience”. 

• Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico: If Ukraine wants to join the EU, it must 'make concessions for the sake of peace.' The Slovak Prime Minister added that Kiev cannot count on accelerated accession to the union. "I will repeat for the third or fourth time: Ukraine cannot bypass those who are already very well prepared for accession — Montenegro, Albania, Serbia," he stated.
• John Perry and Roger D. Harris: “If we have to kill people so we can have peace of mind, we’ll do it. If we have to resort to repression to control the country, we’ll do it.” (Juan Orlando Hernandez, former US and Canadian-backed Narco-President of Honduras, 2014-2022). Governance in Honduras shifted sharply to the extreme right within months of National Party’s Nasry Asfura taking office on January 27, succeeding the Libre party’s progressive Xiomara Castro. In the November 30, 2025 elections, the National Party was trailing a poor third before Trump threatened to end all aid to Honduras unless Asfura won. Even then, Asfura had only a wafer-thin plurality, which might well have disappeared had the electoral council not broken its mandate by halting the count before all the votes had been tallied. Compounding this blatant interference, Trump announced just two days before the election that he was pardoning former Honduran president and National Party stalwart, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been extradited to the US and was serving a 45-year sentence for narcotrafficking. The wider conspiracy has been revealed in a trove of leaked audio recordings, now dubbed “Hondurasgate.” The 37 recordings appear to show that Hernández, still in the US, is preparing a return to Honduran politics and, in league with Republican party officials, is actively producing propaganda directed against progressive governments across Latin America. Since taking office, Asfura wasted no time consolidating control over Honduran institutions. The elections left the Libre party with fewer than one-third of the seats in the National Congress, reverting to the historic pattern in Honduras in which the National and the Liberal parties, both neoliberal and subservient to Washington, swap power. This has enabled Asfura to move quickly against his enemies. Read the entire story at https://www.laprogressive.com/foreign-policy/hondurasgate

What War Means to Your Enemy: An Open Letter After Memorial Day

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

By Yussra

Dear Americans,

I hear the way you talk about it.

War for you means having to think about the economy and gas prices.

If you have loved ones in the military, then war might involve a more personal sacrifice in the form of the precious family member whose return you anxiously await.

But do you wonder what war means to the ones your leaders send your children to fight?

The “enemy,” so to speak?

Has it been normalized to you that war is always fought on someone else’s turf?

Do you buy the logic that the US and Israel need to invade the homelands of others or overthrow their leaders in order to keep the world safe from the terrorism of Palestine and Lebanon and Iran and Venezuela and Cuba and a list of countries I don’t have the patience to list and you don’t have the patience to read?

• Even though it is not Iran that is dictating what America should do with its ports and uranium; it is not Iran that bombed America’s elementary school or medical facilities or heritage sites.
• Even though it is not Lebanon that targets Israel’s paramedics; it is not Lebanon that has destroyed tens of thousands of housing units and displaced over a million people, a fifth of the entire country’s population, within months.
• Even though it is not Palestine that illegally occupied and ethnically cleansed Israel; it is not Palestine that imposed an apartheid system and starves Israelis to have an easier time stealing even more of their land.
• Even though it was not Muslims who kidnapped and tortured humanitarian activists from around the world on camera last week, and then, upon their deportation, beat the torture survivors in front of their families right at the airport to prevent evidence of war crimes from getting out.

War, to your enemies, means losing the house they grew up in and everyone they’ve ever loved on the same day and the air losing its oxygen and the green of homeland turning to gray; it is rubble on street corners and metal plates in the severed legs of children, and there is no “back home” to return to.

I got a company email yesterday with a boilerplate Memorial Day message, something to the effect of “honoring our fallen troops who gave their lives in the conflict in the Middle East.”

He says this while Gaza burns, and we burned it.

But to acknowledge America’s atrocities would be “talking politics at the workplace,” while honoring invading soldiers is for some reason standard practice.

I am horrified to live here sometimes, and I wonder if you ever feel the same way.

Before anyone makes any suggestions about where I should go instead if I have complaints, bear in mind that I didn’t choose this, that I wouldn’t be here at all if the US hadn’t attacked Iraq.

I know you remember that one.

I don’t know if you remember it the same way I do. 

The thought brings me anguish, dear Americans, that you might live your whole life feeling inconvenienced about the stock market and arguing about petty shit like cancel culture, that you might die never having realized that this whole time, we were part of an incredibly evil machine.

That one day, history books will be written about the sadism of the Zionist colonizer, the unparalleled oppression around the world at the hands of the Western empire, and if you were to read one of these books, you might not even recognize yourself from the pages you are living through right now.

The blame is not all on you; you have the illusion of freedom.

Rather than a total media blackout, you have a suppression of all media that doesn’t conform, so it’s harder to recognize the tyranny you live under.

Rather than a dictatorship, you have an electoral system where you can choose between one of two pre-approved war criminal parties who align on everything that actually matters to the empire, but they lie in different ways and keep us occupied enough with their spectacle of democracy.

I honestly don’t know anymore if for the average American I’m preaching to the choir or ruffling feathers with these words.

The reality I describe seems obvious to me, but war for me has a very different meaning than the way it gets talked about in company emails, and don’t get me started on genocide.

Home will always be a very loaded term for me.

Do you ever wonder what your loved ones died for after they were sent overseas?

I’m sure you do.

Please don’t stop wondering; it is not an insult to their memory, and that question desperately needs to be asked.

I genuinely hope you had a meaningful time at your barbecue, and that your kid comes home safe from their tour, maybe asking some questions you’re not sure how to answer yet. 

Cuba's battle against Alzheimer's

More than 55 million people live with Alzheimer’s — but global access to treatment is deeply unequal.

Despite limited resources, Cuba’s public biotech sector developed NeuroEPO, a treatment that has shown promising results in slowing the disease’s progression. But access, visibility, and support are blocked by U.S. sanctions and outdated Cold War policies.

Scientist Teresita Rodríguez and her team — made up largely of women — are leading a story of science, care, and resistance.

The film’s engagement campaign is about recognizing that story, sharing it, and building bridges that can shift how the world treats aging, illness, and its people.   

Dissecting the future: Digital money, constant surveillance, a neo-feudalist form of human slavery

Joined by former George Bush's Cabinet member Catherine Austin Fitts to discuss the Iran war and the panopticon.  

Take this warning seriously. Work in what ever way possible to resist this coming system of ultimate corporate fascist control. 

This is why they are building all the data centers to track all the people and all the information about our lives. 

The driving forces behind all of this are the big time banksters, the Epstein class, the global zionist cabal, the international war machine, digital tech industry (Palantir for example), and more.

Fitts believes, 'It's the divine against the demonic. Invest your time building spiritual security.'

She states, 'This is not far in the future. It is coming now.' 

The globalists are pushing for a major depression. It will be the 'small guys' who suffer just like happened during covid. The big cats will consolidate profits and control. 

Persians and the Chinese have the highest IQ's in the world and are thus in the way of this plan for domination. It's the Anglo-American western alliance verses the Global South. 

Ultimately it is about national sovereignty. 

Fitts also discusses that the US has built underground bases across the nation. She estimates that there are at least 170 such bases in the US. Building a base costs something but keeping it running and keeping it secret costs much more.

        

Why would we allow ourselves to be digital slaves? 

Fitts believes the control grid will ultimately defeat itself because of their own internal contradictions. 

It is a truly fascinating interview. 

For what it is worth - U.S. & Iran still talking

• Iran’s MFA spokesman: • We do not collect tolls; one must be careful in the use of words. We are not seeking to collect tolls...the services that we’ll (Oman and Iran) provide [for the passage of ships], as well as the protection of the environment, require the collection of fees. • No nuclear talks at this stage. • The President of China announced a 4-point plan for security in the region, which was valuable to us. • Lebanon must be one of the elements in the MoU.  • Negotiations have made progress, but the imminence of an agreement depends on the Americans. • Politics in the US has become somewhat chaotic. Facing contradictory views from their officials within hours disrupts the course of any negotiation. Trump’s posts are mainly for domestic media and politics. 

• US military aircraft, including drones and crewed surveillance planes, have spent more than 150 hours circling Cuba since February 4, as Trump ramps up pressure on the Communist government, according to flight-position data analyzed by the Wall Street Journal. More than 20 surveillance flights have been tracked, generally launching from a naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida.  The flights come amid Trump's threat of a 'friendly takeover' of the country and the recent indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro. 

• Despite the current US occupation of Venezuela, some people in Caracas are still determined to express their outrage over what Trump and Rubio are doing to their nation as well as the threats to Cuba and other Latin American nations.  Viva Cuba! Viva Venezuela!

• New Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger (former CIA officer and a Democrat) vetoed bills to allow state workers to collectively bargain, to legalize marijuana, and to regulate prescription drug prices. The Democratic Party can't be counted on.  

• The US warned Japan that the delivery of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles could be delayed for up to two years after US stockpiles were depleted during the Iran-Iraq War.
• SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis Donovan visited the Venezuelan capital in Caracas. Will the Pentagon launch their attack on Cuba in part from Venezuela? That would be a humiliation for all of Latin America and indeed a warning of more to come. Let's hope and pray it does not happen. We need to get out on the streets before Cuba might be invaded rather than just after.

• Wanna know why Basque, Spain police beat Gaza flotilla torture survivors? These are the same cops who've taken €1.6M in Israeli security contracts, trained by former Mossad agents, and equipped with Israeli surveillance tech. It's called 'Greater Isra-hell.'
• Israel killed this child today in an airstrike on her family's tent in the southern Gaza Strip. Why?

• Ukraine has been embroiled in a diplomatic crisis in West Africa since 2024. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger jointly wrote to the UN Security Council in August of that year, demanding “appropriate measures” against Kiev for its “subversive actions,” which “constitute the involvement of foreign state sponsors in the expansion of terrorism in the region.” Since that time the Ukraine Nazi-infused military has also been training French-backed terrorists in use of offensive drone warfare. France long ripped off Mali of its  gold, oil and lithium resources, giving little back in return. Since being kicked out of the region in recent years France has been trying to regain control of Mali. Thus Paris has secured the services of Kiev to assist in the terror operation. Kiev, losing US financial support for its war on Russia, is now selling its services to other NATO nations. 

• Kit Klarenberg: On May 13th, French outlet RTL published an explosive report, entirely unremarked upon by English language media. It exposed how Ukrainian military and intelligence units are covertly operating in Mali on France’s behalf, in coordination with both ethnic Tuareg rebels and Al Qaeda-linked forces determined to crush the country’s revolutionary government. Ukrainian militancy, long-encouraged by the CIA and MI6, has now decisively developed into an international mafia-like threat.
• RT reports: Foreign journalists toured the site of the deadly Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic. Ukraine targeted a teacher training school dormitory in the town of Starobelsk with several waves of UAVs on Friday, killing 21+ people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 60 others. Russian Foreign Ministry arranged a trip to Starobelsk on Sunday for more than 50 foreign journalists from 19 countries: Austria, Brazil, UK, Hungary, Venezuela, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Qatar, China, Cuba, Lebanon, UAE, Pakistan, the US, Turkey, Finland, and France, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. BBC and CNN rejected an invitation to visit the site of the attack, while Japan’s government explicitly banned Japanese reporters from making the trip.

• Tucker Carlson: "Putin did not start this war." Tucker is exactly correct. This was not, "An unprovoked invasion." The truth is that in 2001, Putin asked the Bush Administration. "I would like to join NATO. I would like to join the defensive alliance that exists to keep me from moving West into Western Europe." Bush said No because NATO always planned a war on Russia. Putin says the current crisis in Ukraine is a direct result of years of aggressive NATO policies. Professor Jeffrey Sachs: "The Casus Belli of the Ukraine war is NATO enlargement, US  directed coup, CIA operations all over Ukraine. Russia is not going to stop fighting as long as NATO enlargement is on the table. This is the basic reason why we are at war."  

• Yemen military: "American injustice continues even outside Islamic countries, as is happening in Cuba — blockade and oppression. Why all this oppression from America?"
• Telegraph: The UK and France refused to spend 0.25% of NATO countries' GDP on Ukraine. Spain, Italy and Canada also blocked this idea during the discussions. Any proposals adopted by NATO require unanimous support from all the capitals of the participating countries. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is pushing the spending increase. 

• President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic visits China and EU unelected leaders not happy about such frisky moves. Not supposed to leave the ranch without permission. President Xi emphasized that Serbia is the first European country to have built a community with a shared future in the new era with China, fully reflecting the special and high-level nature of bilateral relations. As ironclad friends, China supports Serbia in safeguarding its national interests and social stability, and in pursuing a successful development path suited to its own conditions. 

• Massive destruction in the town of Al-Duwayr, Lebanon as a result of the violent Israeli raid. 

• A poll conducted by The Economist magazine: 75% of Americans consider the economy 'weak'. 

• From the occupation prisons to Vienna Airport...the Austrian police welcome the activists of the Freedom Flotilla with torture and brutality. Why?