“Ethiopians voted Monday in an election marred by insecurity but widely expected to see the ruling Prosperity Party secure the majority of legislative seats and give Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed another five-year term. A heavy military presence was observed in the capital, Addis Ababa, as watchdogs called for a peaceful vote in the country that is Africa’s second most populous and host of the African Union. The head of the electoral commission, Melatework Hailu, said security incidents were reported at polling stations in two volatile regions, Oromia and Amhara. Voting resumed at some but did not at 143 others, and it was not clear whether voters would have another chance to cast ballots. No details were given about the insecurity. Voting in 50,000 other polling stations proceeded as Ethiopians choose more than 500 members of the House of Representatives, who will vote to select the prime minister. More than 50 million people, out of Ethiopia’s estimated population of 130 million, are registered to vote.” (06/01/26)
“Israel’s government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday, a day after its ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon in 26 years and as Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, including the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa. A joint statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the orders to attack targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs followed what they called repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah and ‘attacks against our cities and citizens.’ Hezbollah agreed to halt attacks on Israel when the ceasefire was signed in mid-April, but the militant group resumed the assaults after Israeli strikes in Lebanon that Israel characterized as self-defense. After Monday’s warning, large numbers of people were seen fleeing the area known in Arabic as Dahiyeh, jamming roads leading out of the suburb, where Hezbollah enjoys wide support.” (06/01/26)
“Throughout most of human history, commerce and government have been intricately linked, at least geographically. Hubs of trade and business have almost always also been the seats of government. As cities grew and flourished, as commerce grew and flourished, and as both expanded into surrounding areas, governance became necessary and, thus, inevitable. And as cities preceded ‘countries’ or empires by decades, if not centuries, those cities that tended to fare the best at enduring and growing were also the ones that were most successful at enabling commerce, creating wealth, conquering neighbors and their lands, etc. All of which is to say that the governments of the richest and most productive cities evolved into regional governments and into imperial governments and national governments, etc.” (06/01/26)
“Nvidia has announced a new chip for PCs as it moves into the consumer market for devices integrated with AI technology. ‘This reinvention of the computer is as big of a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone,’ Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang said as he unveiled the RTX Spark chip. Huang made the announcement on Monday as he delivered a keynote speech ahead of the opening of the Computex technology show in Taipei, Taiwan. Separately on Sunday, the US tightened its rules on selling Nvidia’s most advanced chips to Chinese firms. The RTX Spark is ‘a new superchip … for the era of personal AI agents – offering a new class of computer that moves from tool to teammate,’ Nvidia said on its website.” (06/01/26)
“Tina Peters, the former clerk convicted of participating in a scheme to chase election conspiracy theories promulgated by President Donald Trump, was released from prison Monday after the president successfully pressured Colorado’s Democratic governor into commuting her sentence. Peters’ release was confirmed by the Colorado Department of Corrections. The state agency said it would have no more information about the 70-year-old inmate. Her sentence was shortened by Gov. Jared Polis last month after Trump waged a lengthy pressure campaign against the governor an d his state. Peters served less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence. Peters was the first local election official to be charged with breaching security after the 2020 election. She snuck in an outside computer expert affiliated with My Pillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell — who himself denied that Trump lost the White House in 2020 — and the person copied the county’s Dominion Voting Systems computer server as it was updated in 2021.” (06/01/26)
“Primary care physicians—internists, general practitioners, family doctors, and pediatricians—are the key point of patient contact with the medical system. They have been leaving the medical profession in droves because their conditions of practice have become intolerable. These doctors are being pressured to see more patients in shorter appointments despite ever more complex cases and treatment options, even as they are required to spend more time at computer terminals entering patient data. One recent paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine calculates that primary care doctors, to meet all of their clinical and clerical obligations, would literally need to work 26.7 hours a day.” (06/01/26)
“Over the past year, two military campaigns against Iran by the United States and Israel never triggered a popular uprising that would fell the Islamic Republic, as hoped. Instead, President Donald Trump has now reached a tentative deal with the regime to address two international concerns: ending Iran’s nuclear program and opening the vital Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Still, many Iranians, especially the millions living abroad, have been busier than usual. They are trying to unite behind new plans for what to do if the government does collapse – notably, how to ensure no violence against the regime and its followers as a way to entice defections. They are heartened by reports of a power struggle in Tehran.” (05/29/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Another AI atrocity propaganda project about Iran has been unleashed, this time in the form of a movie titled ‘Dreams of Violets’ at the Tribeca film festival. … The film’s trailer depicts sympathetic protagonists being brutally victimized by Iranian authorities, and concludes with the image of fighter jets soaring overhead while an English-captioned Persian voiceover says ‘If Iran gets liberated, celebrate for me. Enjoy it for us!'” (05/29/26)
“In a healthy democracy, we have a say in how our daily lives are run, how our neighbors are treated, and how our tax dollars are spent. Right now, the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with how the country is being run, and where it is going. In a healthy democracy, we would be able to demand the change of direction we need with our votes. Yet our democracy [sic] is not healthy. This fundamental right – for every vote to count and be counted – is being taken away from us as we speak. That is why it is our duty to rise up and restore the health of our democracy, while we still can.” (05/31/26)
“As a long-time death penalty abolitionist, I’ve often compared the death penalty in America to a train with no brakes: Once the machinery starts moving, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to stop. But the real problem is that the train should never have been built. Today, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are experimenting with nitrogen gas executions, a method officials claim is more humane. But from noose to needle to nitrogen, our constant search for a more acceptable way to kill is a story of failure, not moral progress. There’s no acceptable way to practice a form of state killing that, for Black Americans especially, has long been intertwined with terror. History should make us skeptical whenever governments begin searching for new technologies to make killing appear more acceptable.” (05/31/26)
