“Over the past 100 years of wars, one incentive for peace has been a shared interest in preventing or ending famines – by opening humanitarian corridors. Adversaries would pause hostilities to allow food-related products to reach blameless, hungry civilians. Such a moment of goodwill sometimes opened a diplomatic window for a war to end. A similar tenderness toward the innocent is now being expressed during the Iran war. A number of countries including Italy, as well as the United Nations, are probing a diplomatic deal in which Iran would allow ships to sail through the Strait of Hormuz carrying raw materials for agricultural fertilizer made in Gulf Arab countries. Until the current war with Iran started Feb. 28, about a third of the world’s supplies of petroleum-based synthetic fertilizer products passed through the maritime choke point.” (04/03/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The New York Times has printed an article with the headline ‘A North American Treaty Organization Without America?,’ apparently having spent the entire Ukraine war completely unaware that NATO stands for North ATLANTIC Treaty Organization. At the same time, CNN ran a segment on an American bomber whose plane was shot down over Iran in which analyst Amy McGrath suggested that the Iranians might help the pilot because they’re ‘happy’ he’s bombing their country, saying the pilot would be worried because they don’t know ‘if you’re gonna be picked by somebody who is going to turn you over to the Iranian forces that are gonna use you and capture you, or is the population happy that you’re there?’ Really illustrates how fucked western journalism is, doesn’t it?” (04/04/26)
“‘I think we’ve had regime change’ in Iran, President Donald Trump declared Sunday. In his prime-time address Wednesday night, he repeated it: ‘Regime change has occurred.’ Critics dismissed Trump’s claim out of hand. They’re wrong — because they’re measuring regime change by the wrong standard. ‘Regime change’ doesn’t necessarily mean an invasion, a decapitation strike, a new flag over the capital. That was Iraq and Afghanistan, where American power underwrote both the military campaign and the political reconstruction that followed. Iran is a different problem, and Trump is running a different playbook. Start with a basic fact: Iran is a revolutionary state. Its survival depends on three pillars — an ideology, a patronage network and a coercive apparatus drawing legitimacy from a founding idea. To bring such a system down, all three must fail simultaneously. And Iran was already decomposing when Operation Epic Fury began.” (04/03/26)
“Gladys Khoza had missed being able to see her family. Not because they couldn’t visit, but because the 84-year-old had vision problems. Now that has changed. Khoza is one of 133 people whose sight was restored during a ‘marathon’ of free cataract surgeries conducted by doctors in South Africa at two hospitals over two weekends last month. ‘Wow!’ a delighted Khoza whispered as a nurse peeled back a bandage a day after her operation, and the world came back into view. ‘Can you see me?’ the nurse asked. ‘Very well,’ Khoza replied, a big grin on her face. Patients in South Africa’s public health service can be on waiting lists for years for the simple 15-20-minute cataract operation. Officials said some of those who were selected from hospital waiting lists for the surgeries had been waiting since 2019 to see properly again.” (04/04/26)
“President Trump apparently has yet to appreciate Abraham Lincoln’s admonition that ‘You can’t fool all of the people all of the time’. Among others, oil and stock markets saw through the flimflam. Energy prices soared once again while stock markets from Manhattan to Manila took a dive. One has to wonder when the billionaires behind Trump, Vance, and their mandarins will conclude that it’s time to pull the plug, to insist on US regime change via the 25th amendment, for Congress to refuse to pick up the bill, or for the generals, admirals, and troops who have tolerated Secretary Hegseth’s white nationalist cheerleading to finally say one simple word: ‘No!'” (04/04/26)
“US President Donald Trump is seeking $152m (£115m) to reopen the infamous Alcatraz prison as part of his proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year. Located near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the site, also known as The Rock, was once regarded as one of America’s most notorious prisons, but has served as a tourist attraction in recent years. The budget request is seeking money ‘to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility’, with funds covering the first year of costs. The plan has been met with scepticism by a number of politicians in California, with questions raised about the final cost of the project and the challenges of running Alcatraz as an active prison. The maximum security facility was closed in 1963. As a tourist site, it is currently run by the National Park Service.'” (04/04/26)
“There is an old joke that scientists switched from lab rats to lawyers because you do not get as attached to lawyers. President Donald Trump has shown the same tendency to avoid becoming attached to either private or government counsel. Attorney General Pam Bondi is only the latest in a long line of lawyers let go by a president who was made famous with the tagline ‘You’re fired.’ There is no evidence of bad blood between President Trump and Bondi. The attorney general has been attacked over her loyalty to the president and has been by his side in some of the most precarious moments, from impeachment to criminal defense. As his ‘apprentices’ learned, this is not personal; it’s business.” (04/03/26)
“Now more than halfway to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts prepared for their historic lunar fly-around to push deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts. On the downside, their toilet is on the blink again. The three Americans and one Canadian are set to reach their destination Monday, photographing the mysterious lunar far side as they zoom around. It is the first moon-bound crew in more than 53 years, picking up where NASA’s Apollo program left off. ‘The Earth is quite small, and the moon is definitely getting bigger,’ pilot Victor Glover reported. Until the Orion capsule’s bathroom is fixed, Mission Control has instructed the astronauts to break out more of the backup urine collection bags. The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned following Wednesday’s liftoff and has been hit-and-miss ever since. A version of the Artemis II toilet was tested on the International Space Station several years ago.” (04/04/26)
“German males aged between 17 and 45 may need to seek approval for lengthy stays abroad, under changes introduced as part of a new law which introduced voluntary military service. The Military Service Modernisation Act, which came into force on 1 January, aims to boost defences following threats from Russia in the aftermath of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In a statement sent to the BBC, a defence ministry spokesman confirmed that males aged 17 and older were required to obtain prior approval for stays abroad lasting longer than three months. Under the current law, travel approvals must generally be granted and it remains unclear how the rule would be enforced if breached.” (04/04/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Matthew Cunningham-Cook & Don Wiener
“After President Trump went all in on crypto when he returned to office, Vivek Ramaswamy, the front-runner in the GOP primary for governor of Ohio, began betting big on Bitcoin through his asset management startup Strive, with limited success. Now, crypto industry players are pouring millions into funding his campaign. Why? If he becomes governor, the billionaire has pledged to expand state investments in a crypto reserve (starting with state revolving funds) that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in state assets ending up in Bitcoin. The largest donor to Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial super PAC in 2025 was Ross Stevens, who donated $14 million and is actively involved with Bitcoin and crypto. The second-largest donor was Jeff Yass, who donated $10 million to the PAC.” (04/04/26)
