Tag: perpetual war

Rare Survivors of Pacific Boat Strikes Allege U.S. Forces Kidnapped and Tortured Them

The extraordinary story you’re about to read, by Camila Lourdes Galarza, is a dark look into what it’s like to live and die on the other side of U.S. headlines. As we expand deeper into reporting on South and Central America, particularly with the hiring of our Latin America bureau chief José Luis Granados Ceja, this is the kind of journalism we hope to be bringing you more of. (Granados Ceja just returned from a reporting trip to Cuba; watch him discuss the situation there on Breaking Points.)

The last time Roxanna Mero heard from her husband Carlos was January 19. Calling from sea on an emergency line, he said an “American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship” had been circling La Fiorella, the Ecuadorian fishing boat he captained. The presence of an airplane worried him, given that Trump’s extrajudicial airstrikes across the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 170 people in 6 months, but a local coast guard had already inspected the vessel, found nothing and cleared them to continue.

The next day, the boat went up in smoke. The eight fishermen aboard have not been seen since.

Three independent accounts from relatives of the missing crew assert that eyewitnesses, on a nearby raft at the time of the incident, saw La Fiorella engulfed in flames. “They’ve been threatened not to speak to the press. They’re scared for their lives,” said Angelica Lourdes Mero, whose son and spouse are among the disappeared men.

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Trump Goes All In On Regime Change In Cuba

The Trump administration just slammed the door on an effort by Cuba’s communist government to secure an economic lifeline while appearing to embrace reform. A May 1 executive order expands and sharpens longstanding American sanctions on Cuba, and appears to deliberately target a recent gesture at partially opening the Cuban economy. “All property and interests in property that are in the United States,” the order says, are barred from operating “in the energy, defense and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy,” under the penalty of economic sanctions.

On March 16, in a bid for survival, the communist government of Cuba had announced a series of intended though vaguely executed reforms that would allow foreign investment in the island from Cubans living overseas. The reforms were to include a supposed expansion of private property rights. Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said that the country was “open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies.”

Asked by email if the May 1 order was a deliberate response to the March 16 Cuban announcement, a State Department spokesman referred The Federalist to comments made on April 27 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. In a long discussion with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst, Rubio rejected the possibility of reform under the current Cuban government, describing Cuba as “a failed state.”

Cuba “can get better,” the secretary of state added, but “serious economic reforms are impossible with these people in charge. It can’t happen. And these people in charge aren’t just economically incompetent. They have rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries of the United States to operate within Cuban territory against our national interest with impunity. We are not going to have a foreign military or intelligence or security apparatus operating with impunity 90 miles off the shores of the United States. That’s not going to happen under President Trump.”

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Did you know the US and Israel helped create Iran’s nuclear project? Here’s the story

What’s 3,000 people killed in Iran, 2,020 killed in Lebanon, 23 in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf states after the US launched its war against Iran? “A little Middle East work” that’s going “very well,” US President Donald Trump said at the White House last week during a state dinner for King Charles. 

Trump’s ‘little work’, which involved significant casualties in the region without a clearly defined objective at the outset, was later framed as serving the purpose of ensuring that “Americans and their children would not be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Will Charles help Donald make sure there’s nothing – and no one – to allow Iran to work on its nuclear project? It seems like the US will try to level Iran to the ground anyway. According to The Atlantic, the Trump administration began considering strikes aimed not simply at Iran’s military capacity, but at the faction inside the regime that Washington believed was preventing a deal.

Trump even reposted a video by Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen calling for an air campaign along those lines. According to Axios, the military prepared options for a “short and powerful” wave of strikes, which General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed the president on.

The timing is politically delicate. Trump has a state visit to China scheduled for mid-May, a trip that has already been postponed once. If strikes are ordered, they could come before the trip, allowing the president to travel after demonstrating strength. Or they could come immediately afterward, once the diplomatic optics are out of the way.

While Trump supplied the performance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio supplied the doctrine. When Trump spoke of military victory, royal agreement, and Iran never being allowed to possess a nuclear weapon, Rubio framed the same position as strategic necessity: Iran’s government cannot be trusted, its future intentions are already known, and any deal that fails to address the nuclear question is unacceptable.

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Trump’s War on Iran Is Not America’s War

In a recent editorial exhorting President Trump to stay the course in Iran, the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Democrats in Congress are hoping for Mr. Trump’s failure in Iran, as if that wouldn’t also be America’s.”

For the life of me, I don’t see how Trump’s failure in Iran would also be America’s failure in Iran. I wish the Journal had explained its reasoning. I hope it still does.

This is Trump’s war. Not America’s. Trump’s!

Let’s keep in mind some basic facts. Trump launched this war all on his own. Well, okay, not entirely on his own. He launched it in consultation and partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two of them got together and decided to initiate their war on Iran, clearly thinking that it would be over within a few short weeks.

One fact is undisputed. Trump did not go to Congress, which consists of the elected representatives of the American people, to secure a declaration of war before launching his war of aggression on Iran. He (as well as the Wall Street Journal editorial board) knows full well that that is what the U.S. Constitution requires. The Constitution is the law. It is the higher law that we the people have imposed on Trump and all other federal officials. Trump is required to obey our law, just as the American people are required to obey laws enacted by Congress (and enforced by Trump and other executive branch officials).

Trump chose not to obey the law. He chose to break it. He chose to launch his war on Iran all on his own. He knew that when he launched his war, he was breaking the law — our law — the law of the Constitution.

Therefore, how in the world can Trump’s illegal war, which he launched without the consent of the American people, as required by law, possibly be converted into America’s war? I just don’t get it. I wish the Journal’s editorial board would explain its reasoning. If Trump’s illegal war of aggression against Iran results in his failure, why isn’t that his failure alone? Why is it also the failure of our country?

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Israel threatens Gaza war resumption to force disarmament as ‘truce’ frays

In the shattered neighbourhoods of Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip, the roar of Israeli drones and the concussive thud of controlled demolitions are daily reminders that the war has never really ended.

Despite a “ceasefire” in place since October, families continue to pull bodies from the rubble. According to local medical sources, 828 Palestinians have been killed since the “truce” began. Now, families in Gaza are bracing for a renewed offensive as Israeli officials threaten to tear up the fragile agreement to force a surrender.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly cancelled a scheduled security cabinet meeting on Sunday, opting instead for smaller consultations. Simultaneously, the military has ramped up pressure to resume hostilities. A senior official in the Israeli military’s General Staff told Channel 15 that an additional round of fighting was “almost inevitable”, citing the refusal of Hamas to surrender its weapons and the alleged “failure” of the International Stabilization Force, a multinational body deployed under the recent truce framework to oversee security and manage the ceasefire’s implementation.

Israel’s Army Radio reported that on the ground, the military has steadily been enlarging the territory it controls in the besieged enclave. By gradually pushing the “ceasefire”-established “Yellow Line” westwards, Israeli forces have expanded their territorial control to 59 percent of the Strip, regularising their occupation through daily violations of the “ceasefire” and moving additional troops from the Lebanese front into Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

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Warren blames Spirit Airlines closure on Iran war after advocating against JetBlue-Spirit merger

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is receiving backlash from GOP lawmakers for pushing former President Biden’s Justice Department to block the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. 

“The 14,000 employees at Spirit who’ve lost their job loss, the travelers who will now pay higher fares, and the shareholders and debt holders who have been wiped out can thank Elizabeth Warren,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) wrote on X on Saturday. “Electing left politicians, who have ZERO business experience, has consequences.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reposted a critical Warren post and wrote, “Stunning.” 

Warren defended her advocacy against the merger by blaming a federal judge for stopping it. 

“Spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline,” Warren wrote in a post on X. FWIW, JetBlue merger failed because a judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, said the deal was illegal. Republicans are desperate to shift blame from higher costs hitting families.”

Biden’s Justice Department had detailed its involvement in blocking the merger back in 2024.

“Our win in court is a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “We fought this case to protect consumers who, as the court recognized, ‘otherwise would have no voice.’ I am incredibly proud of the Antitrust Division’s team and our state law enforcement partners’ tireless advocacy.”

Warren had pushed the Department of Transportation under Biden to work to block the merger, as detailed in a letter she wrote.

She also applauded the blockage of the merger.

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Chinese engineer stole US military and NASA software for years

International espionage isn’t always about sophisticated malware and zero-day bugs. Sometimes it’s as simple as pretending to be someone else asking for a favor.

For four years, a Chinese aerospace engineer did just that. Dozens of researchers at NASA, the US military, and major universities handed him exactly what he asked for, and possibly violated US laws in the process.

His name is Song Wu. He’s been on the FBI’s wanted list since September 2024, charged with 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft, and he’s still at large.

Wu’s day job was as an engineer at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Beijing-headquartered state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate with over 400,000 employees. The US has AVIC and several subsidiaries on a sanctions list.

His side hustle was simpler. From January 2017 through December 2021, Wu set up email accounts impersonating real US researchers and engineers, then emailed their colleagues asking for source code and proprietary software. He targeted employees at NASA, the Air Force, Navy, Army, and FAA, and faculty at universities across the US.

When software is a weapon

The applications Wu was after handle aerospace engineering and computational fluid dynamics. It’s the kind of intellectual property that helps develop advanced tactical missiles and evaluate weapons performance, and it sits squarely inside US export controls, according to NASA’s Office of the Inspector General. Sharing it with the wrong person, even by accident, is a federal problem.

Some victims did transmit the requested code. They were, in the OIG’s careful phrasing, “unwittingly” violating export control law.

How a four-year campaign finally broke

It wasn’t a firewall that caught Wu. It was a tip.

NASA’s Cyber Crimes Division got a report that someone had set up a Gmail account claiming to be an established aerospace professor who frequently collaborated with NASA. From that single thread, investigators unwound a campaign that had quietly targeted dozens of researchers across the federal government and academia.

The OIG also noted the giveaways: Wu asked for the same software multiple times and never explained why he needed it. Those are tells that anyone could have spotted on a slow afternoon if they’d been looking.

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Britain Lacks Money to Buy New Weapons Until 2030, Senior UK Official Admits

Gen. Richard Barrons, former head of the British Joint Forces Command and co-author of the UK government’s Strategic Defense Review, told media that the country lacked the funds to purchase new weapons until at least 2030.

In June 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that London would be moving to “war preparedness” as part of its new defense strategy. The media reported on April 6 of this year that legislation to increase defense readiness would be delayed until at least mid-2027.

Barrons warned that the British armed forces can only “think about” preparing for war because they lack the money to buy new weapons until 2030 due to funding shortages, according to the publication.

The lack of investment is “depleting” the industrial base and forcing defense companies to move production overseas.

The newspaper clarified that the army barely has enough money for tanks, helicopters, and artillery, but not for loitering munitions, kamikaze drones, or artificial intelligence-based systems.

The new Strategic Defense Review (SDR) was published in June 2025 amid the UK’s plans to increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. Specifically, the document includes a recommendation to create a nuclear warhead modernization program, to which the British leadership plans to allocate 15 billion pounds ($20 billion).

In recent years, Russia has noted unprecedented NATO activity along its western borders. The alliance is expanding its initiatives and calling it “deterring Russian aggression.” Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern about the bloc’s buildup of forces in Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously emphasized that Western politicians regularly frighten their populations with an imaginary Russian threat to distract from domestic problems, but “smart people understand perfectly well that this is a fake.”

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Obama: Netanyahu presented to me same arguments for war with Iran that he made to Trump

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with The New Yorker published Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had presented him with the same arguments he later presented to current President Donald Trump to persuade him to launch a war with Iran.

“I think my prognosis was accurate,” he said. It may be that Netanyahu has “gotten what he wanted. Whether that’s what is ultimately best for the Israeli people, I would question that. Whether I think it’s what is good for the United States and America, I would question that. I think there’s an ample record of my differences with Mr. Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu opposed the nuclear deal Obama signed with Iran in 2015, an agreement that Trump ultimately canceled in 2018 during his first term in the White House. Since then, Trump has not succeeded in bringing Iran to a new nuclear deal, and no such agreement was signed during Joe Biden’s presidency either.

Since the agreement was canceled in 2018, Iran has raced toward a nuclear bomb, and its progress eventually led to two wars — the 12-day Operation Rising Lion in June 2025 and Operation Roaring Lion, which began in late February 2026.

In the interview, Obama was asked about threats Trump has made toward Iran in recent months, including that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Obama replied: “believe American leadership, as represented by the American President, has to reflect a basic regard for human dignity and decency, not just within our own borders but beyond. That’s part of the responsibility of leadership. If we are not giving voice to those core values—that there are innocent people in countries with terrible governments and we have to care about those people, that we can make mistakes if we are not guarding against hubris and pure self-interest . . . If we don’t have those things, the world can break in very bad ways.”

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Putin Announces Truce for Victory Day on May 8 and 9, Warns Ukraine: If It Disrupts Celebrations, Russian Forces Will Strike Kiev’s Center

Victory Day truce may unleash unprecedented strikes.

We are approaching May 9, the date where Russians traditionally celebrate their defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, or – as they prefer – in the ‘Patriotic War’.

Just like last year, the celebration that gathers the Russian elite and a large number of foreign dignitaries will happen under the shadow of a possible drone-missile combined strike by Ukraine.

Not only that, but after Moscow announced a truce on May 8 and 9, Kiev came today with their own truce to begin on Wednesday (6).

Also today, the Russian Defense Ministry has warned Kiev of massive retaliation if it disrupts the celebrations.

Bloomberg reported:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin designated a ceasefire for May 8-9, the Defense Ministry said in a post on Telegram. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there was no coordination with his government. He declared his own ceasefire regime starting at midnight on the night of May 5, saying Ukraine will act reciprocally starting from that moment.

‘There has been no official appeal to Ukraine regarding the modality of a cessation of hostilities’, Zelenskiy said on X after Russia’s announcement. ‘It is time for Russian leaders to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s Defense Ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill’.”

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