Tag: perpetual war

France Approves Ukraine to Produce SCALP Missiles, Aster-30 Interceptors, Confirms First 16 Rafale Fighter Jet Deliveries

France has approved a major expansion of its defense cooperation with Ukraine by allowing the local production of several French-designed weapons and confirming a delivery timeline for the first batch of Rafale fighter jets.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision on July 13 following a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris, where leaders discussed continued military support for Ukraine.

Under the new agreement, Ukraine will receive licenses to manufacture Aster-30 air defense interceptor missiles, SCALP long-range cruise missiles, and AASM Hammer precision-guided bombs on its own territory. France said the move is intended to strengthen Ukraine’s domestic defense industry and reduce dependence on continued deliveries of finished weapons from abroad.

The decision marks the first time France has approved local production of these advanced French-designed systems in Ukraine. Macron said the agreements build on discussions held with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and previous understandings reached last year.

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Trump claims ‘other people’ could lead ground campaign in Iran

US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out a ground campaign in Iran, saying unspecified allied forces could seize key strategic sites like Kharg Island without the involvement of US troops, while threatening to expand the bombing campaign to include power plants and bridges.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said he would consider a ground operation “if I thought it was appropriate.”

“Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people who will do the ground campaign for us… But we have already hit Kharg Island twice, even three times. I said, ‘Hit everything but the oil!’”

Located around 25 km (15 miles) off Iran’s Gulf coast, Kharg Island handles around 90% of the country’s crude exports and serves as the primary outlet for oil revenue.

Ahead of the now-broken April ceasefire, Trump threatened to seize Kharg Island “to take the oil.” Asked whether he still intends to seize the island, Trump replied, “As far as taking it is concerned, if we degrade them far enough and deep enough, I would do that.”

The president also vowed to intensify the air campaign, saying US strikes will continue until he decides “it’s enough.”

“They’ll continue until I say it’s enough. Next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

Trump warned that Iran “won’t have anybody left” unless it reaches a deal, claiming US officials relayed that message to Tehran “about an hour ago.”

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‘Not How It Works’: Critics Slam Trump Bid To Restart Legal Clock on Illegal Iran War

Critics from both sides of the political aisle on Monday denounced President Donald Trump’s effort to construct a facade of legality for the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran by notifying Congress of renewed military strikes on the Mideast nation.

Trump claimed in a letter to members of Congress that, on July 7, he ordered “defensive strikes against targets within Iran, including missile launch sites, air defenses, military maritime assets, military support infrastructure, and command and control capabilities.”

“These strikes are limited, measured, planned, and executed in a manner designed to minimize civilian casualties,” wrote Trump, whose war has killed more than 3,400 people – hundreds of them children – and wounded over 26,500 others since February 28, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health.

“I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution,” the president added.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 – also known as the War Powers Act – requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to military action and limit such action to 60 days, with a 30-day withdrawal period, unless lawmakers declare war or issue an authorization for the use of military force.

Elected Democrats and legal experts have rejected Trump’s argument that the negotiated ceasefire he’s now abandoned resets the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day limit; absent congressional authorization, the statutory clock generally starts from the first US strike and continues uninterrupted until military action ends.

Asked Monday by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if this is “just the new normal for the American people,” Trump – who has called himself the “peace president”—replied, “No, well, you know, we were in Vietnam for 19 years; we’re [in Iran] for four months.”

Trump said during the same press conference that “we’re doing another very major attack tonight” in Iran.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Monday that US forces “began launching the third consecutive night of strikes against Iran, at the Commander in Chief’s direction.”

“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM added.

Responding to the president’s letter, former libertarian Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said on social media: “This is not how it works. The War Powers Resolution doesn’t give the president a ‘free’ 60 days – and the Constitution certainly doesn’t either. Regardless, we’re talking about a single war. You don’t get to pause it and then pretend it’s a different war.”

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A Budget of the Pentagon, By the Congress, and For the War Profiteers

The first sentence of Thomas Paine’s classic 1776 essay, Common Sense, urged the American people to challenge the legitimacy of the English Crown, something that had never been challenged before. He wrote:

“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them a great favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

Two hundred and fifty years later, time and reason strongly suggest that the U.S. “defense” budget is out of control, unsustainable and absent of accountability.

Only the American people can rein it in.

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The West Won’t Punish the Settlements. Its Two-State Solution Was Always a Sham

If I asked you to cut off your arm, would you do it?

What if I pointed out that that your arm regularly punched a neighbor in the face so violently that it broke their nose and teeth, and left them unconscious? Would you cut your arm off then?

I’m guessing the answer to both questions is a firm, “No.”

Which is exactly why the European Union, Britain and the United States have precisely no intention of severing their support for Israel’s illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, however violent the Jewish colonizers who live on stolen Palestinian land prove to be.

For decades, settler militias – backed by Israeli soldiers – have beaten up Palestinians, shot them, poisoned their wells, chopped down their olive groves, torched their homes, all in an attempt to ethnically cleanse them from their historic homeland.

The relentless expansion of these illegal settlements has left any hope of a two-state solution in tatters. The West Bank is now an archipelago of Palestinian villages and towns isolated from one another by marauding violent settlers, apartheid roads only for Jews, steel and concrete barriers, and army checkpoints.

All of this has happened in full view of western states over many decades. The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, ruled back in 2004 – nearly a quarter of a century ago – that these Jewish settlements violated international law and needed to be dismantled.

It reiterated that demand in a decision two years ago in which it identified Israel as an apartheid state ruling over Palestinians. It warned states to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assists in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

And yet the West has done nothing meaningful year after year as the settlements have stolen more land from Palestinians, made their lives there ever more miserable, and trashed any chance of the West’s supposed ambition of two states living alongside each other.

Remember this when Israel’s apologists tell you to wait for the same court’s definitive ruling – in a year or two, or maybe three – on what it deemed in early 2024 to be a “plausible” genocide in Gaza, just three months into Israel’s mass slaughter there.

Not only will any such ruling be far too late to make any difference to the victims of the genocide, but the US, Britain and Europe will do precisely no more to punish Israel for this crime of crimes – one we can see for ourselves without an ICJ ruling – than they have done in punishing Israel for the settlements.

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REPORT: Russia Intercepts Western AI Drones Smuggled for Deep Strikes on Military Bases

Russian security forces have seized a cache of Western-manufactured, artificial intelligence-guided drones that were allegedly smuggled into the country for planned attacks on remote military aviation bases in the Ural Mountains and the Far East.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Monday that operatives intercepted the hardware before it could reach the Shagol air base in the Chelyabinsk region and the Ukrainka air base in the Amur region. Several individuals involved in the transit operation have been detained.

Covert Smuggling Operation

According to the FSB, the drones first entered Russian territory using balloons and larger fixed-wing unmanned aircraft, landing in the Bryansk border region. Smugglers then concealed the devices inside specially modified trailers equipped with false bottoms, transporting them across the country disguised as shipments of household appliances, reported Sputnik.

AI-Guided Strike Capabilities

Russian authorities stated that the confiscated drones originated from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Sweden. Each unit was armed with more than one kilogram of explosives and featured advanced AI navigation systems engineered to evade Russian electronic warfare and signal-jamming networks.

Parallel to Ukrainian Tactics

The intercepted plot bears similarities to a 2025 Ukrainian operation known as “Spider’s Web,” in which trucks with retractable wooden roofs were used to transport and launch drones. That campaign reportedly damaged around 20 aircraft and successfully struck the Ukrainka base.

In recent months, Kyiv has intensified long-range strikes on Russian defense enterprises and energy infrastructure located deep inside the country. These attacks have taken major oil refineries offline, contributing to widespread fuel shortages.

Kremlin Accuses West of EscalationI

n response to the expanding reach of Ukrainian deep-strike operations, Moscow has sharpened its accusations against Western nations, claiming they are directly enabling the attacks.

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that Western support for Ukraine had transformed Russia’s “special military operation” into a full-scale war.

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Vatican Rejects US Claim That Pope Leo Speaks as a Politician, Insists That Leo XIV’s Opinions on War and Migrants Are Official ‘Proclamations of the Gospel’

The Globalist playbook of ideas does not equate to the teaching of the Gospels.

We have been reporting here on TGP about the most disturbing behavior by leftist Pope Leo XIV, who lets his ideological bias fly in the defense of ideas that are popular with the Globalist-Liberal establishment of our planet.

It’s the war, it’s the migrants, it’s global warming: Leo opens his mouth, and predictable leftist talking points fill the air.

Most conservative Catholics are disgusted by his relentless political statements, but the US ambassador to the Holy See went above and beyond, playing down Leo XIV’s criticism of the U.S. war in Iran, saying he spoke as a politician, not a religious leader.

The Vatican issued an angry public rebuttal, arguing that when Leo’s talks about war, migrants and other topics, he is ‘officially proclaiming the Gospel’.

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Rubio launches campaign to ‘dismantle’ International Criminal Court

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new push by the Trump administration against the International Criminal Court (ICC), including efforts to weaken and ultimately dismantle the global tribunal.

On Monday, Rubio (R-Fla.) warned that “powerful people in faraway places” are trying to control the lives of Americans, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal and a video message shared on X.

“The U.S. is launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message — sovereign states over globalism,” Rubio wrote in the opinion piece. “Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC — brick by brick, if necessary.”

America’s diplomatic toolkit features travel bans, canceled visas, harsher sanctions on the ICC and its affiliates and pressure on allied nations to leave the court, a State Department official told Reuters.

In 1998, the foundational treaty for the court known as the Rome Statute was adopted with operations officially beginning in 2002. The court is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. Although 125 countries are members, the United States has never officially joined.

“They believe that they should be in charge of your laws, of your country, your life, and they don’t care whether or not you agree,” Rubio said in the X clip.

“When the ICC was born 24 years ago, they told us that it was nearly a narrow backstop: a global court that would step in to prosecute only the gravest offense — things like genocide and war crimes — and only when a nation’s courts were unable to prosecute them on their own,” he continued. “But the truth is, it was something far more radical and extreme: it was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited.”

Because the U.S. is not a member of the court, its relationship with the ICC has shifted depending on which administration is in power. Generally, Democrat presidents have been more open to cooperation, while Republican administrations have taken a more critical approach.

“If we stand idle, all of them would be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called ‘crime’ of defending their own country.”

“The American people never agreed to any of this. And they never will,” Rubio declared.

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Bahrain Accuses Iran of Targeting Civilians as U.S. Launches More Strikes

The Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) said on Monday that its air defenses “successfully intercepted and destroyed several treacherous Iranian aerial attacks.”

Contrary to Tehran’s claims that its attacks are limited to American military bases, the BDF said Iran is launching “unlawful missile and drone attacks targeting civilians.”

The BDF denounced Iran’s attacks as “treacherous” and stressed that “deliberate use of missiles and drones to target civilians and private property constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Iran launched missiles and drones at Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, and Oman over the weekend as the United States continued to hammer air defenses, radar sites, missile depots, and attack boats controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization.

Iran listed Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait among its targets, and claimed that it destroyed stores of fuel and munitions at the bases, along with America’s Patriot air defense missiles. The respective defense ministries of the four Gulf Arab countries said they intercepted all of Iran’s weapons without any major damage to the bases used by American forces.

Kuwait said on Sunday that an Iranian drone struck one of its offshore oil platforms, injuring one worker, and three Kuwaiti sites near the Iraqi border were damaged. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also reported intercepting Iranian drones and missiles.

The IRGC released a statement on Monday that described its attacks on neighboring countries as “retaliatory missile and drone strikes” against the United States.

For one of the first times, the IRGC publicly admitted that it has attacked civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz – which triggered the massive U.S. campaign of airstrikes – but insisted it was somehow justified in its piracy.

The IRGC claimed it “stopped two ships because they had switched off their tracking systems and taken an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, endangering traffic in the strategic waterway.”

In reality, Iran has done much more than “stop two ships,” and one of its illegal attacks left a Qatar liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker crippled off the coast of Oman with an engine room fire.

“In the first phase of their response to the aggression, the valiant fighters of Islam set ablaze several large missile depots and fuel storage facilities at Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base in a missile and drone strike,” the IRGC statement said.

“In the second phase of their retaliatory operation, the IRGC Aerospace Force struck key helicopter maintenance and repair facilities, a hangar housing a P-8 electronic warfare aircraft, and the command-and-control center for the US military’s drone operations at the US base in Sheikh Isa, Bahrain,” the statement continued.

The “third and fourth phases” were Iran’s attacks on Kuwait. The IRGC claimed it “completely destroyed fuel storage tanks and a Patriot air defense system” at the Ali Al Salem airbase, an “FPS strategic radar system” at the Ahmad Al Jaber airbase, and two HIMARS missile launchers plus “ammunition depots stocked with missiles” in an alleged ground forces attack.

“We will not allow a rogue, child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference there,” the IRGC declared.

The Iranian regime and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) issued conflicting statements on Sunday about whether the Strait of Hormuz is “closed.”

“The Strait of Hormuz is open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway,” CENTCOM said.

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In a Departure From Post-WW2 Limits, Japan Begins To Build a New Centralized Intelligence Agency

The Japanese are trying to step up to the challenges of our day.

Post-WW2 Japan has operated under significant limitations on its military (the Self-Defense Forces) and its intelligence agencies.

But right now, the Asian island-nation is leaving these restraints in the past, as the new government tries to build a centralized intelligence agency – something that is only natural in most countries, but still controversial there.

Japanese leaders have privately approached partners such as the United States, Australia, and Germany in recent months for advice on technology, staffing, and priorities, according to interviews with officials from Japan and elsewhere. The conversations have not been previously reported.

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