Melissa Martin

So the US asked Israel to launch the attack on Iran [which the two countries planned together], in order to give the US war dubious legal cover. Once Israel attacked, Iran was likely to retaliate against the US, ergo US attack on Iran is defensive. QED.

Suez, the slapstick version.

The unthinkable happened. US-Israeli bombs have damaged the Qajar palace complex of Golestan in central Tehran. The hall of mirrors is damaged. 200 year old wooden panels are destroyed. I have no idea what else. This is now personal.

Allow me a moment to be human. This sucks. Displaced people are everywhere again. Strikes ongoing in Beirut and around the country. Not sure how much longer neighbor will trust neighbor.

We were already living in a difficult situation and now it’s much harder. Still, I’m one of the luckier ones

It’s sad when you look at the younger kids, about seven or eight, and realize this is literally the only life they know — it’s been over four years. War is so normal to them they cannot conceive a life or even just a school day without it. They’ve never had one.

I won’t take photos, but: air alarm in Kyiv right now. Nothing coming at us, but schools have to take kids to shelter every time. Often the closest subway station. So platform is crowded with hundreds of kids with activity books, each on own little camp chair. They do this multiple times a day.

Rhetorically at least, Merz’s statements are a green light to Putin in Ukraine and to Trump himself in Greenland. They also consign the resounding success of the JCPOA, including Germany’s laudable participation in it, to the dustbin of history.

At least 148 dead after reported strike on school, Iran says Iran has blamed the US and Israel for the strike; the US is looking into reports of the incident, while the IDF says it is

Utterly horrifying. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

thank you. they were all unforgettable characters, overflowing with life and incredibly brave. and they are never forgotten.

HAHAHAHAH

Part 3.

Part 2.

I walked through the memorial in Kyiv today. Maybe you would like to walk with me. It gives a sense.

This is not official. People just started putting flags here, and others joined them, and it grew and grew and took over more and more of the grass, and now there’s almost none left.

Part 1.

(Now also remembering weird debate I had on Reddit where someone was flipping out at a historian calling *Julius Caesar* a dictator, but that’s a whole other situation)

remembering weird debate I had on early Twitter with a guy raging about how Ahmadinejad was a dictator who had to be assassinated. I was like “he doesn’t even control military or foreign policy, + he’s term-limited with only 1 yr left in office.” A moment i saw how easily low-info people are swayed

It’s pretty strange that they went to the effort to specifically target, and reportedly kill, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has had no significant role in Iranian politics to my knowledge since the 2010s. Did they want to stop the weird hip-hop tweets?

Normalizing assassinations of heads of state/government is not a particularly wise thing to do for the stronger hegemon facing asymmetric conflicts.

Claims of 40 dead after an Israeli airstrike on a elementary girl’s school in Iran
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

it’s truly incredible how one could be like “oh I don’t like propaganda, so I get my news straight from RT”

predictable and still embarrassing.

I may never get over how many people — from a wide variety of political leanings — bought this obvious bullshit so easily.

This was so obviously a big part of the grift for the “prediction markets.”

US AND ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN; BAHRAIN SAYS US NAVY FLEET HQs TARGETED Multiple explosions heard in Tehran, elsewhere, as Israel and US launches attacks; Iran retaliates by targeting Israel.

Al Jazeera and Reuters reporting explosions in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, all sites that host major U.S. bases. www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

AFP: Loud explosions heard in Saudi capital Riyadh <article data-history-node-id="434280" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/afp-loud-explosions-heard-saudi-capital-riyadh" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/afp-loud-explosions-heard-saudi-capital-riyadh" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">AFP: Loud explosions heard in Saudi capital Riyadh</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Loud explosions were heard in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, the AFP news agency reported.&nbsp;</p> <p>Iran has announced that all US and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become legitimate targets after the country was jointly attacked by the US and Israel.</p> <p>Qatar's defence ministry on Saturday said that it has downed all missiles targeting the country. Explosions were also heard in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported.&nbsp;</p> <p>The US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain has also been subjected to a missile attack, the country's state media has reported.</p> </div> </div> </article>

AFP: Loud explosions heard in Saudi capital Riyadh - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/afp-loud-explosions-heard-saudi-capital-riyadh

Israel has now killed more journalists than any other government since the Committee to Project Journalists began collecting records in 1992.

The Israel-Gaza war is the deadliest conflict on record for journalists, the CPJ found. https://wapo.st/4aJGqBm

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya refugee dumped by CBP, dies in cold "They just left him."

A blind Rohingya man survived a genocide in Burma, escaped to the United States, and then died because immigration officers treated him with such callousness. This story is a tragedy www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/20...

Its not just guns: its the purchasing of warehouses to be turned into prisons. These are capacities that are meant to be used, and we have already seen they won't be limited to non-citizens. This is enabling a government that labels observers and protestors as terrorists.
bsky.app/profile/reic...

Hahaha You are the fourth journalist who got an interview with left babushka - Vira Ivanivna. But she is worth 10:13 AM HAHAHAHAH I guess she's just always there We literally just went to the first little old ladies we saw Replied to you I guess she's just always there Yeap. But she is brilliant. Really Yeah she was so beautiful, just such an animated face Seen 47m ago

A funny side note on this story: a Ukrainian journalist I know informed me I was the fourth media to interview Vira (on the left). I know all the conspiracy theorists will think this means it’s fake but I swear it’s just because she’s there all the time and has the most wonderfully lively face

Yep! It’s incredibly cruel and hurtful.

Not really! But it’s absolutely insane behaviour

A few meetings, in the fourth anniversary of the nightmare that doesn’t end.