Author: nick

A respected human rights activist has spoken repeatedly against the US-Israeli aggression on Iran. She recognizes the illegality of the war and does not shy away from condemning it in clear terms. Yet, almost invariably, she feels compelled to qualify her position, reminding her audience that Iran has killed “tens of thousands of protesters” during recent anti-government demonstrations. The number itself is highly questionable. Even widely cited figures from international reporting – such as Reuters coverage in January 2026 – place the death toll of the protests in the thousands, not tens of thousands. But the issue here is not…

Economic sanctions have become the defining coercive instrument of American foreign policy. Currently, roughly 27% of the world’s countries are under sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, or the United Nations—up from just 4% in the early 1960s. A landmark 2025 study published in The Lancet Global Health by economists Francisco Rodríguez, Silvio Rendón, and Mark Weisbrot has put a number on the cumulative death toll of these measures. Unilateral sanctions kill approximately 564,000 people per year, a figure comparable to the total annual mortality burden of armed conflict. Over the 1971 to 2021 period, the aggregate…

Image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen. Pittsburgh, the city where I live, has some very good art museums. The Carnegie Museum of Art has a large collection, focused on contemporary art. Thanks to the Carnegie International, this institution regularly has good presentations of present day artworks. There is, also, a branch of that museum, the Warhol, which has a display of his art and, also, an archive devoted to his studio. And the Frick museum, the smaller branch of the museum in New York, has a distinguished, small old master collection. I value these local institutions, and so I have often reviewed…

Keir Starmer, who has elevated the political U-turn to something approaching an art form, now appears ready to abandon his pledge to ban imports of foie gras and fur. The explanation, we are told, lies somewhere between trade negotiations and the lingering ambition to edge Britain back toward the European Union. Principle, once again, is invited to wait outside while pragmatism conducts its business.At first blush, the specifics may seem surprising. Animal welfare is assumed to sit only within the modern center-left’s moral repertoire. Starmer, a North London pescetarian, seems almost comically well-cast for the role of animal defender. But…

Date of discovery: April 26, 2026Location of discovery: Earths sunSource: Helioviewer.orgGuys check this out. I caught a 7-10 mile UFO disk shooting slowly across the NASA satellite view of our sun. The object is barely making a trail at all so that truly rules out comet. However NASA calls it a comet labeling as Comet R3 pan-starrs also called comet C/2025 R3. Take a look at the video yourself and you too will notice that there is barely any trail at all…that alone is enough because its flying near our sun and heat and radiation is hitting it at incredible…

Gen Z Longs For the 90s, Can Democrats Lean Into This? Source link

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he no longer plans to oppose President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell now that the DOJ has dropped its investigation into Powell. He suggested that allowing President Trump to create the appearance of using a DOJ investigation to intimidate, pressure, or force Powell to resign could have undermined the institution’s global credibility and had “devastating” consequences for U.S. financial markets.”We can move on and let the Fed be independent,” Tillis said. “Thank God we avoided that.”Tillis said he thinks…

Here is a salient place to start regarding the economic impact of the Donald’s misbegotten war on Iran: To wit, approximately 7 billion ton-miles of freight moves by truck each and every day in the USA, which heavy truck fleet consumes upwards of 2.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) of diesel fuel. Alas, the price of diesel fuel was about $3.55/gallon both a year ago and as of early January 2026, but has since soared by more than+$2.00 per gallon to $5.60. That’s a 56% rise in the cost of pumping goods and commodities through the arteries of the US…

One of the important conclusions to draw from the Iran War is how much importance Tehran attaches to Hezbollah, its long-time Lebanese Shiite ally.  This is not to be dismissed as business as usual, but rather reflects a major shift whereby supporting Hezbollah has become even more necessary for Iran’s national security.  Lebanon emerged as a major sticking point during the Islamabad talks to end the war. After apparently agreeing to an Iranian demand for a Lebanese–Israeli ceasefire as part of a potential broader deal, the Trump administration appeared to renege on this demand at the behest of Israel’s Prime…

Another Venezuela? Negotiations are ongoing between the US and Cuba as the Trump administration decides whether or not to apply the Venezuela model to Cuba. The US embargo remains in effect, with only one oil tanker—a Russian ship, loaded with 730,000 barrels of oil—allowed to pass through. Cuba’s economy, and especially its health systems, are on a knife’s edge. Questions persist about US aims: Does the US want regime change or economic change? Regime change would require another military squeeze, which Trump may want to avoid while the Iran war rages. Cuba’s warning of resistance to a military intervention also…