The Israeli military has intensified its attacks on Gaza amid President Trump's visit to the region | At least 115 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday, as the Israeli military has intensified its strikes on the besieged territory amid President Trump’s visit to the region. ● Health officials told Al Jazeera that at least 61 were killed in a barrage of overnight attacks on the southern city of Khan Younis. Heavy Israeli strikes were also reported in Jabalia, northern Gaza, for the second day. ● According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, at least 15 Palestinians, including 11 children and one woman, were killed by the strikes on Jabalia. Photos and videos from Gaza on Thursday show many children among the casualties. ● WAFA also reported that among those killed in Khan Younis was a journalist named Ahmad al-Helou. Based on a previous report from WAFA, al-Helou’s killing brings the total number of journalists killed by the IDF in Gaza to 213.

President Trump reportedly decided to end his short-lived war on the Houthis after being informed that the US had "burned through weapons and munitions at a rate of about $1 billion in the first month alone" and couldn't even establish air superiority. [...] If Trump had read a bit more about the Houthis this whole war could have been avoided but at least he had the wisdom to cut his losses. This could have been a lot worse if the Houthis managed to down a US fighter jet or sink an aircraft carrier. The claim the Truman had to make a "hard turn" to avoid incoming Houthi fire clearly implies they were under a serious threat. I strongly suspect Trump's purported anger with Israel is being driven in large part by this humiliating defeat. This was a war exclusively for Israel and it blew up in the Trump administration's face.

■ Trump Praises Houthis' 'Bravery' (Information Liberation)
■ Bypassed by Trump, 'Israel' dismayed, silent amid shifting alliances (Al Mayadeen)
■ US takes over Iran, Yemen, Gaza talks, sidelines 'Israel' (Al Mayadeen)

Harold Turner | The irrefutable facts reported above cannot be disputed or explained-away. The US National Security Archive document PROVES that the US promised "NATO will not move one inch east" and later, it was President Bill Clinton who BROKE THAT PROMISE and signed approval of NATO doing exactly that. | In a statement that quickly caused a wave of comments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the special envoy of the administration of President Donald Trump, Keith Kellogg, confirmed that Washington is actively discussing with its allies the deployment of military units from Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland in the territory west of the Dnieper River.This move, as stated, is part of a wider plan to stabilize the situation in Ukraine and establish an initial ceasefire. There's just one minor problem: Russia has already refused this about fifteen times before! The ENTIRE point of the Russia-Ukraine conflict was Russia's insistence there be no NATO presence in Ukraine. Ukraine could not join NATO, it could not have NATO troops in country, and could not have NATO infrastructure on Ukraine soil. The expansion of NATO is what caused this ENTIRE conflict, and (now former) NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg, [has] ADMITTED.

Shameful that @dkhos & @shervin are speaking at a NUFDI event—an Iranian monarchist group pushing for military strikes on Iran, collective punishment via sanctions, & viciously attacking other opposition voices more than the regime itself.

Maybe they don’t know. But they should. pic.twitter.com/OeEcL8jtBQ

— Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) May 3, 2025

Wyatt Reed | A livestreamed Iranian royalist chat revealed a network of foreign-educated elites plotting to plunder Iran’s economy after realizing their dream of regime change. | The CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, has drawn criticism following his participation in an online discussion workshopping ways to exploit Iran in the event of regime change. The event wad hosted by NUFDI, the main DC-based advocacy group for the monarchist movement surrounding Reza Pahlavi, whose father was the last reigning Shah of Iran. ■ The discussion, marketed by one prominent online Pahlavi booster as an effort “to present designs that could be quickly implemented in Iran after the fall of the Islamic Republic” and “the establishment of a sound government,” was held to cobble together a loose plan for the privatization of Iran’s economy following an apparently to-be-determined regime change scenario. It’s unclear whether the vision laid out by the two Iranian expats represents a concrete blueprint for toppling the government, but the content of the chat suggested the Uber CEO seeks lucrative gains in the event of a successful regime change operation. ■ Asked by fellow uber-wealthy US-based Iranian venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar what he would do in the “first 100 days” of a “Free Iran,” Khosrowshahi explained, “If you look at the potential GDP of the country… As a marketplace, I think, Uber and pretty much every single other major technology company and services company and brand company, would look at Iran as a very, very significant new market to come into. So I think that we would absolutely come into Iran and invest aggressively in the local marketplace as well.”