“Britain and Norway conducted a weekslong military operation to deter Russian spy submarines near undersea cables in the North Atlantic, the U.K. defense chief said Thursday, accusing Moscow of using the distraction of the Iran war to ramp up malign activity against Europe. Defense Secretary John Healey said a Royal Navy frigate, aircraft and hundreds of personnel were involved in tracking a Russian attack sub and two spy submarines operating north of the U.K., and prevented the spy vessels from carrying out ‘nefarious’ activities against underwater infrastructure. He said the Russian vessels eventually left after the operation that lasted more than a month. There is no evidence of damage to any cables or pipes, he said. The U.K. said other allies were also involved in the operation, but didn’t name them.” (04/09/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“A two-week ceasefire has partially halted the Israel-US war on Iran. The war accomplished precisely nothing that a competent diplomat could not have achieved in an afternoon. The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war and it is open again now, but with more Iranian control. Meanwhile, the chaos continues. Israel is intent on blowing up the ceasefire, as this was Israel’s war from the start. Israel dazzled Trump with the prospect of a one-day decapitation strike that would put Trump in charge of Iran’s oil. Israel, in turn, was out for bigger prey: to bring down the Iranian regime and thereby become the regional hegemon of Western Asia. The foundation of the ceasefire is Iran’s 10-point plan, which Trump (perhaps unwittingly) called a ‘workable basis on which to negotiate.'” (04/09/26)
“Yet another member of a family within Minnesota’s Somali community is expected to plead guilty Thursday in the massive fraud scandal that has drawn national attention and prompted criticism of Attorney General Keith Ellison over a meeting he held with members of the family in question. Gandi Mohamed, 45, is expected to either plead guilty at a change of plea hearing scheduled for Thursday or choose to enter a plea of no contest, which would allow him to accept conviction and be sentenced without admitting guilt, according to court records. Mohamed is the sixth member of his family who would be pleading guilty in the scheme prosecutors say fraudulently claimed to be serving meals while instead pocketing $14 million from the federal child nutrition program, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.” (04/09/26)
“Anonymously sourced hit pieces have hammered Tulsi Gabbard the past few months in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, you name it. They are part of a relentless campaign to undermine President Trump’s director of national intelligence because she is almost single-handedly revealing the dirty secrets of the Deep State. Rumors swirl around Washington that the president is displeased with her and she will soon follow Pam Bondi out the door. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.” (04/08/26)
“In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorized direct negotiations ‘as soon as possible’ with Lebanon aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors. The two countries have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948. There was no immediate response from Lebanese authorities, but the announcement appeared to bolster the tentative ceasefire in the Iran war that had staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, Tehran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over whether planned peace talks can find common ground. Netanyahu’s announcement came amid disagreement over whether the ceasefire deal included a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes that resulted in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began on Feb. 28.” (04/09/26)
“Argentina’s Congress has passed a controversial amendment making it easier to mine in glacier regions, a move environmentalists say weakens protections for crucial water sources. The pioneering Glacier Law, approved in 2010, prohibited all mining and exploration activities in glacier regions by protecting them as water reserves. The reform shifts the responsibility of defining protected glacier areas from the Argentine Institute for Snow, Ice and Environmental Sciences (Ianigla) to the provincial governments. President Javier Milei, who backed the reform, said the change ’empower[s] the provinces to utilise their resources’ and allows mining activities ‘where there was nothing to protect’. The reform has proven divisive, with those opposed organising protest rallies. Argentina’s Senate had already approved the bill in February 2026, so approval by the lower house was the last major hurdle left.” (04/09/26)
“It took not even 24 hours for the tollbooth on the Strait of Hormuz to snap shut. Israel, whose desires to act as a saboteur and trap the United States into the war it desperately wanted us to conduct couldn’t be more obvious, spent Wednesday pounding central Beirut with airstrikes, hitting 100 targets in ten minutes, with at least 112 dead. Iran and the U.S. have very different conceptions of whether Lebanon counts as part of the nascent cease-fire. After Donald Trump confirmed that in his view Israel and Lebanon are in a ‘separate skirmish,’ which conflicts with the view of Pakistan, the country that mediated the dispute, Iran showed its displeasure by closing the strait to oil tankers, and now the Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened military action against ‘aggressors in the region’ (Israel) if the Lebanon attacks continue.” (04/09/26)
“For the second year in a row, the Trump administration is proposing slashing federal funding for tribal colleges and universities. President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal calls for a $1.5 trillion increase to defense spending and would carve billions of dollars out of programs that fulfill trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations, including entirely eliminating funding for the Institute for American Indian Arts, the country’s only federally funded college for contemporary Native American arts. The budget proposal released last week also calls for cutting funding for TCUs, as well as funding for two schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education: Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico. Students at both colleges sued the BIE last year over funding and staffing cuts made by the administration.” (04/09/26)
“There used to be a difference between famous and infamous – people aspired to be famous, no one wanted to be infamous. It was good attention versus bad attention. Now, the line between those two sides is gone and desperate narcissists who seek to fill the holes in their souls only see attention; numbers. These people are on full display right now; you should spot them and try to avoid them like the plague. You know the types – every time they’re challenged, they cite numbers of views or subscribers, as if that irrelevant information indicates anything other than the depths of their insecurity.” (04/09/26)
“An ‘opportunistic’ thief who stole a handbag containing an emerald-encrusted Fabergé egg and watch set worth up to £2.2m from a central London pub has been jailed for more than two years. Enzo Conticello, 29, took Rosie Dawson’s handbag which she had placed between her legs on the ground as she stood outside the Dog and Duck in Soho on 7 November 2024. The Fabergé items were in her handbag after she had taken them for display at a work event earlier that evening. They have not been recovered. Conticello — also known as Hakin Boudjenoune — was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud by false representation and one count of theft at an earlier hearing. The court heard Conticello was after ‘easy money’ and that he had handed over the bag, which also contained a laptop and credit cards, to buy drugs.” (04/09/26)
