Source: CounterPunch
by Masoud Pezeshkian, President, Islamic Republic of Iran
“The Iranian people harbor no enmity toward other nations, including the people of America, Europe, or neighboring countries. Even in the face of repeated foreign interventions and pressures throughout their proud history, Iranians have consistently drawn a clear distinction between governments and the peoples they govern. This is a deeply rooted principle in Iranian culture and collective consciousness — not a temporary political stance. For this reason, portraying Iran as a threat is neither consistent with historical reality nor with present-day observable facts. Such a perception is the product of political and economic whims of the powerful — the need to manufacture an enemy in order to justify pressure, maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry, and control strategic markets. In such an environment, if a threat does not exist, it is invented.” (04/02/26)
“ICC member states have voted to pursue disciplinary proceedings against Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan after receiving reports regarding sexual assault allegations against him, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In a vote on Wednesday by a core group of member states, 15 voted in favour, two abstained and four voted against moving forward with the process, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Khan, who investigates war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has taken leave of absence pending an inquiry into accusations of non-consensual sexual interaction with a lawyer in his office. He rejects any allegations of wrongdoing.” (04/02/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“As the United States and Israel press their war of aggression against Iran — now entering its second month — attention has understandably focused on the carnage in the Middle East. Yet with the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded and global energy markets in turmoil, the conflict’s ripples extend far beyond the Persian Gulf. In East Asia, America’s closest treaty allies, Japan and South Korea, are absorbing punishing economic shocks from their dependence on Middle Eastern oil, while Washington’s diversion of military assets has left them feeling exposed and annoyed. Meanwhile, Beijing, Washington’s bete noire, looks on with barely concealed satisfaction, its state media churning out satirical videos that mock yet another American entanglement in the region’s endless conflicts. For those who have long warned that empire abroad undermines security and prosperity at home, the spectacle offers a textbook case of the predictable, if unintended, costs of interventionism.” (04/02/26)
“In President Trump’s first term, many members of his Cabinet were establishment conservatives with tangible, executive experience who were willing to follow the president far to the right … but had lines in the sand they were unwilling to cross. In this second term, Trump has prioritized surrounding himself with those who are unwilling to cross him. And during her time as attorney general, Pam Bondi was unquestionably one of those people. On Thursday, she lost her job anyway. Not because Bondi wasn’t loyal but because she couldn’t make ‘it’ go away. And you know what I mean about ‘it.'” (04/02/26)
“Cloudflare has lifted the wraps off EmDash, a new open source CMS that it deems to be the ‘spiritual successor’ to WordPress. The company explained an overwhelming majority (96%) of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, which have full access to the database and filesystem, and run in the same environment as the core code without any isolation. To tackle this, Cloudflare is putting each EmDash plugin in an isolated sandbox, called Dynamic Workers, with plugins having to declare exactly which permission it needs upfront.” (04/02/26)
“The Freedom of Information Act was designed to empower citizens to hold their government accountable. But evidence suggests the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has quietly adopted a practice that turns that principle on its head: labeling some of the people who file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as ‘vexsome.’ In effect, the agency has created a FOIA-specific blacklist. Yet when asked, it denies having done so.” (04/02/26)
