On Sunday, May 10, while millions of Mexicans were celebrating Mother’s Day, 18-year-old Kevin González died of colon cancer, just one day after reuniting with his parents in Durango, Mexico.
His parents, Isidoro González and Norma Anabel Ramírez, had arrived after being detained in Arizona for entering the United States without documents.
Kevin had been diagnosed in January with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. He had been living in Chicago with his brother Jovany after his parents were deported to Mexico. The severity of his illness and the specialized treatment he required made it impossible for him to travel to see them.
After doctors informed the family that Kevin was no longer responding to treatment, his parents applied for humanitarian permits to enter the United States, according to his grandmother, Virginia Amaya, who spoke to Telemundo Chicago, the first outlet to report the story. The requests were denied.
As Kevin’s condition rapidly worsened, González Avilés, 48, and Ramírez Amaya, 43, attempted to cross the border without authorization in a final effort to reach their son.
They were detained by immigration authorities on April 14 near Douglas, Arizona, and transferred to a detention center. According to Fernando Sánchez, Mexico’s consul in Tucson, González Avilés had previously been deported in 2011 and did not have legal permission to reenter the United States.
During a court hearing in Tucson, González Avilés, visibly emotional, asked a federal judge to allow his return to Mexico so he could see his son.
Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva urged federal authorities to release the couple, calling the case one of “basic human decency.” After 45 days in custody, a federal judge authorized their expedited deportation to Hermosillo, Sonora, on May 7.
“This breaks my heart. I am asking ICE to act so Kevin can see his parents one last time. This is not about politics—it is about human decency,” Grijalva wrote on X.
The judge, noting his own role as a parent, approved their urgent return.
By the time the process was completed, Kevin’s condition had sharply deteriorated. He was no longer able to eat or drink water and could barely speak. Family members told Mexican media they feared the worst, saying Kevin refused to sleep out of fear he would not wake up in time to see his parents.
Mexican officials coordinated the reunion, and Isidoro and Norma traveled 16 hours by road from Hermosillo to Durango.
The family was finally reunited on the afternoon of May 9. Kevin was able to fulfill his final wish: to be surrounded by his parents and loved ones to say goodbye.
Mandelson was given secret spreadsheet to vet left-wing MPs in Labour power struggle
Whistleblower’s revelation shows extent of his direct involvement in bitter battle to gain control of the party ahead of 2024 election
February 04, 2026 12:24 pm (Updated 4:13 pm)
5 min read
A Labour source revealed Mandelson helped to identify potential candidates who were seen as too left-wing to run for the party (Photo: Jaimi Joy/Reuters)
Disgraced peer Peter Mandelson was directly involved in helping Morgan McSweeney select Labour’s parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2024 general election, a party whistleblower has told The i Paper.
The Labour source revealed how Mandelson helped to identify potential candidates who were seen as too left-wing to run for the party.
He was given access to a secret Google spreadsheet of potential candidates that McSweeney and his allies used, the source said.
McSweeney was the party’s campaigns director at the time and is now chief of staff at No 10.
A Labour Party spokesperson said Mandelson had “no role” in official candidate selection, but The i Paper understands the spreadsheet was an “off the books” exercise conducted amid the power struggles within the party.
The prime minister – who is clinging on to his premiership amid growing calls to resign – has been constantly embattled by the fallout from his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
The former Labour peer was sacked last September when new information about his links to Jeffrey Epstein emerged, and the scandal has threatened to bring down the government several times since.
MPs ordered the government to publish a huge tranche of documents connected to the appointment in February, but so far only a handful have been released.
According to Sky News, parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee – which decides which documents are excluded on the basis of being prejudicial to the national interest or damaging to international relations – is expected to announce the release of further files, which could come as soon as next week.
Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the US has been disastrous for the prime minister (PA)
Following his sacking, Lord Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party and the House of Lords in March when fresh emails and photographs surfaced in the latest tranche of the so-called Epstein files in the US.
Lord Mandelson was arrested in late February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following claims he had leaked sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary under then prime minister Gordon Brown.
Sir Keir has faced repeated calls to resign over the scandal, which Labour politicians said had hurt the party on the doorstep ahead of their devastating defeat in local elections last week.
Last month, Sadiq Khan warned the “omnishambles” of his appointment had left Labour in danger of “being stonked” across London in the local elections. The party went on to face defeats both in the capital and in historic strongholds across the country.
The party’s losses at the polls have left Sir Keir fighting for his political life, with almost 100 Labour MPs having publicly called for his resignation so far.
The party’s losses at the polls have left Starmer fighting for his political life, with almost 100 Labour MPs having publicly called for his resignation so far (AP)
As pressure continues to pile on the prime minister, his health secretary Wes Streeting is said to be preparing a leadership challenge, despite the prime minister stating he retained “full confidence” in the health secretary on Wednesday.
His former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, also appeared to pave the way for a bid on Thursday, as she revealed she has been cleared of deliberate wrongdoing following an investigation into her tax affairs.
The further release of Mandelson files will undoubtedly pile further pressure on Sir Keir if he has not yet resigned, but also threatens to implicate potential leadership challengers in government at the time of the appointment.
Mr Streeting last month admitted he failed to take reports of Lord Mandelson’s links to paedophile Epstein seriously when they emerged in 2023.
Wes Streeting is said to be preparing to stage a leadership challenge (PA)
The health secretary, who has faced questions over his political relationship and friendship with the disgraced peer, said he “absolutely” questioned his own judgement on the matter and said there had been a political and media failure to ask enough questions about their relationship before Lord Mandelson took up his post.
In February, Mr Streeting published a series of texts between himself and Lord Mandelson, revealing his criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, after Sky News suggested that he was “close friends” with Lord Mandelson.
The health secretary dismissed the claim as a “smear” by his critics within the party, although he admitted Lord Mandelson had helped him in the past, and he went on to delete social media posts with pictures of the two.
And so The Plan unfolds before our eyes. Bring Venezuela under US control and halt vital oil to Cuba. Put pressure on Iran and reduce supplies to China. Price of oil is at its highest, so US sells its reserves to the desperate world:
5/12/2026 2:00:54 PM NEWS CENTER Türkiye prepares to receive first shipment from US strategic oil reserves WORLD
Türkiye is preparing to receive its first crude oil shipment from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East and growing concerns over global energy supply routes.
The move comes as United States continues releasing large volumes of crude oil from its strategic reserves following disruptions linked to the conflict involving Iran and fears over the security of the Strait of Hormuz.
Western media reports stated that Washington has released around 172 million barrels from its reserves as part of coordinated international efforts led by the International Energy Agency to stabilize rising oil prices and ease pressure on global markets.
The broader initiative reportedly aims to inject nearly 400 million barrels of oil into world markets following supply concerns triggered by tensions in the Gulf region.
According to energy analytics firm Kpler, the Greek-flagged Aframax tanker North Star loaded approximately 680,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil in April from the Brian Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve facility near Seaway, Texas.
The vessel is expected to arrive at Aliaga Port in mid-May.
Ship-tracking data and trading sources also indicated that the Hong Kong-flagged tanker DHT Antelope loaded nearly 1.1 million barrels of high-sulfur crude through a ship-to-ship transfer operation near Galveston, Texas, and is expected to unload its cargo in Türkiye later this month.
Kpler data reportedly showed that the tanker is carrying another shipment of American crude oil destined for the Turkish market.
Reports further indicated that additional shipments released from the US strategic reserves are already heading toward European destinations including Italy and Netherlands.
The development highlights growing volatility in global energy markets as geopolitical tensions continue to affect maritime trade routes and international oil supplies.
Biden sold off nearly half the U.S. oil reserve. Is it ready for a crisis?
Biden tapped the SPR last year when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices soaring. Now Republicans blame him for putting the nation’s energy security at risk.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserves’ diminished volumes limit President Biden’s options to respond to a future shock to the oil markets. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images
An energy crisis spawned by a Middle East war 50 years ago spurred the U.S. to create a huge crude oil stockpile to shield the country from threats by unfriendly nations.
Now the oil lying in half-filled salt caverns along the Gulf Coast is posing a political quandary for President Joe Biden.
Biden’s administration sold off more than 40 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year to help limit rising fuel prices after Russia invaded Ukraine, leaving the stockpile at its lowest levels since the early 1980s. That’s fueling Republican accusations that Biden has left the U.S. vulnerable to a disruption of global oil supplies — at a time when Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel are stoking fears of a wider regional war disrupting fuel shipments from the Middle East.
“That’s Joe Biden’s fault for trying to lower the price of gas before the election,” House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) told POLITICO.
Earlier, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) lamented to reporters that “our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to nothing.”
In fact, the reserve still holds 351 million barrels — equivalent to nearly 56 days of total U.S. oil imports last year — though well below the peak of 727 million barrels it held during the Obama administration. That’s on top of 424 million barrels that private companies were storing in the U.S. as of early October.
The administration has defended its handling of the reserve, saying it still holds ample crude to protect the nation’s strategic needs and offer a cushion against price shocks. “I am not worried about the reserve levels at all,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a House committee in September, adding: “It is the largest strategic reserve in the world.”
For years, Trump hid his tax information from the public. Now he could be paid billions by the Internal Revenue Service or have his IRS audits dropped altogether. Does anybody care?
It sounds like the plot from a George Clooney-Brad Pitt summer blockbuster. A group of wise guys get together and come up with a scheme to steal $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Call it “Ocean’s 47.” Except this taxpayer-supported “bank heist” is unfolding right before our eyes, according to former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer.
“This is like a bank heist if, you know, the teller, the bank teller’s in on it, the security guard at the door is also in on it. Everybody is conspiring to steal the money from the bank,” Oyer told me on my podcast Wednesday.
Of course, the star of “Ocean’s 47” is none other than Donald Trump (who’s no Clooney, granted). The New York Times is reporting that Trump and two of his sons could be paid at least $10 billion in a massive settlement with the IRS or have his audits dropped by the tax agency altogether. That’s because the Department of Justice is considering settling a lawsuit filed by Trump against the IRS over a leak of his tax information to news outlets, including the Times back in 2020. Trump is still steamed over the release of that information as it demonstrated how he had been paying little to no taxes for years. Trump to Fleece IRS Next?
“His Justice Department is willingly making themselves complicit in what is really just a straight flat out theft of taxpayer money, of your money, my money, our money. He is just dipping into taxpayer money and taking it for himself,” Oyer told me.
Trump has been dogged by tax questions since 2016 campaign. Photo by Jim Acosta
During the 2016 campaign, I was out on the trail with Trump when he repeatedly insisted he could not release his tax information to the public, something presidential candidates had done since Richard Nixon, because he was being audited by the IRS. At that time, Trump claimed he had nothing to hide.
“And when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I don’t know when that is going to be. But when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I have no problem with it. It doesn’t matter,” Trump said a decade ago.
Little did the public know at the time that Trump had just made up that excuse on the fly, according to Times journalist Maggie Haberman, who wrote about it in her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
“Well, you know my taxes are under audit. I always get audited,” Trump said at the time, as Haberman reported in her book.
“So what I mean is… well I could just say, ‘I’ll release them when I’m no longer under audit. ‘Cause I’ll never not be under audit,’” he added, according to Haberman. Trump audit excuse
Even if Trump and the DOJ settle without any kind of award going to the first family, he could still take the taxpayers for a ride. Were the IRS to suddenly drop its years of Trump audits, the president could avoid paying some $100 million in taxes owed to Uncle Sam. Back in 2024, during Trump’s third campaign for the White House, the Times and Pro Publica reported that the disgraced ex-president “used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million.” Trump Could Owe $100 Million in Taxes
Headline from NYT/Pro Publica investigation into Trump taxes in 2024
Sherritt International Corporation has turned to the Canadian courts in an effort to maintain its corporate framework, highlighting the significant impact of the Trump administration’s sanctions on the mining company, which has been closely linked to the Cuban regime for the past three decades.
This Monday, the company will file a request with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to secure two judicial orders: one to allow its reduced board of directors to continue operations with a quorum despite vacancies, and another to extend the deadline for holding its annual shareholders’ meeting to no later than September 30, 2026. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 14.
The governance crisis erupted on Wednesday when three board members—Chairman Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards—resigned with immediate effect, just hours after the company announced it was halting its direct involvement in all joint ventures in Cuba and beginning to repatriate its employees from the island.
The catalyst was Executive Order 14404, signed by Donald Trump on May 1, which expands sanctions against Cuba and introduces secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions dealing with blocked Cuban entities.
While Sherritt clarified it was not formally designated under this order, it acknowledged that its issuance “materially alters the corporation’s ability to operate normally.”
On May 6, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel S.A.—the joint venture between Sherritt and the Cuban state—under the executive order, accusing the latter of “exploiting Cuba’s natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people.”
Rubio also warned that “additional sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks,” signaling that the pressure on the regime has not yet peaked.
The Impact on the Cuban Regime
Sherritt’s exit leaves the regime without its largest direct foreign investor since the early 1990s, with production at the Moa mine reaching 25,240 tons of nickel and 2,728 tons of cobalt in 2025, valued at approximately $490 million in gross annual revenue.
Additionally, the company was involved in electricity generation through Energas S.A., with an installed capacity of about 506 megawatts, equating to 10-15% of Cuba’s national electrical capacity, in a country already experiencing blackouts affecting over 55% of its territory.
HAVANA TIMES – Canadian mining company Sherritt International announced this Thursday, May 7, 2026, the immediate suspension of its direct participation in the joint ventures operating in Cuba, amid the new sanctions offensive driven by the Trump Administration. The company also confirmed the immediate resignation of three members of its board of directors — Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards — following the signing of a US Executive Order issued on May 1 that expands restrictions against businesses linked to Cuba.
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stationed in Canada. The decision marks one of the most severe business blows suffered by Havana in recent years within the strategic nickel and cobalt sector.
The company maintained key operations in Moa, Holguin, through the joint venture Moa Nickel S.A., considered one of the Cuban regime’s main sources of foreign currency. However, for years Sherritt had been warning about the growing financial and operational risks of working on the island. In May 2025, the company reported losses of 40.6 million dollars in the first quarter and directly pointed to Cuba’s economic crisis as one of the central causes of the downturn.
The deterioration of the island’s electrical system has been another determining factor. Nickel production in 2024 reached only 83.3% of the planned target due to constant blackouts, fuel shortages, and industrial problems. According to the company’s financial reports, the power outages reduced the operating capacity of the plants and also affected cobalt extraction, a mineral Cuba uses to pay part of its debt to the Canadian company.
Havana (AFP) – The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military conglomerate that controls nearly 40 percent of the island’s economy, as well as a Canadian mining company, as part of a mounting pressure campaign.
Issued on: 07/05/2026 – 21:29
Sherritt’s operations or other business activities.”
In mid-February, the company had already announced the suspension of its operations in Cuba due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States on the island.
Trump has mused about taking over arch-foe Cuba, which has been under a US embargo almost continuously since the 1959 communist revolution of Fidel Castro.
In January, he halted oil shipments from Cuba’s main supplier Venezuela and threatened other countries with tariffs if they sought to make up the shortfall.
Since then he has allowed only one Russian oil tanker through.
Three UN special experts said jointly Thursday that the fuel blockade amounted to “energy starvation,” and had “grave consequences” for human rights and development.
These Billionaires Bet Big On Greenland—After Trump Took Interest
ByMartina Di Licosa,Reporter. Martina Di Licosa is a reporter covering consumer businesses
Follow AuthorJan 09, 2026, 06:30am EST
Jan 21, 2026
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Ronald Lauder: The heir to the Estée Lauder fortune, is credited with giving Trump the idea of taking over Greenland during his first term, former White House national security adviser John Bolton confirmed to Forbes.
Lauder has since invested, according to the Danish newspaper Politiken, in an unprofitable Greenlandic freshwater bottling company co-owned by Jørgen Wæver Johansen, local chair of the governing Siumut party in Nuuk and husband to Greenland’s minister of foreign affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, raising concerns about political interference.
Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg: All have invested since 2019 in Kobold Metals, which has looked for valuable rare earth minerals used in electronic devices through AI-powered exploration of the island.
Marc Andreessen: Also invested in Kobold through Andreessen Horowitz Growth, a fund within his venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Update: Kobold told Forbes in a statement: “KoBold has no exploration claims, personnel or activities in Greenland.”
Sam Altman: The OpenAI CEO invested in Kobold in 2022.
Peter Thiel: The Paypal and Palantir tech titan funded in early 2021 the startup Praxis, which aims to build a technologically advanced “freedom city” on the island.
Howard Lutnick: Trump’s Secretary of Commerce served as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which has invested in Greenland mining company Critical Metals Corp. for over three decades (he has since divested from Cantor and transferred his shares to his adult children).
Andreessen Horowitz just announced the firm has raised a little more than $15 billion in new funding. The haul represents over 18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025, according to firm co-founder Ben Horowitz, but even more jaw-dropping is that it brings the organization to more than $90 billion in assets under management, putting it neck-and-neck with Sequoia Capital as among the largest venture firms in the world. Which is fitting, since a16z appears to be very friendly with actual sovereign wealth funds, including at least one from Saudi Arabia.
The firm, which employs many hundreds of people across five offices — three in California, plus New York and Washington, D.C. — has become a globe-spanning operation with employees on six continents. In December, it opened its first Asia office in Seoul for its crypto practice.
That newly committed capital breaks down across five funds: $6.75 billion for growth investments, $1.7 billion each for apps and infrastructure, $1.176 billion for “American Dynamism” (more on that shortly), $700 million for biotech and healthcare, and another $3 billion for other venture strategies. It’s the kind of money that makes you wonder where it all comes from and, more importantly, where it all goes.
The “where it comes from” question is one the firm has historically declined to answer. When we asked a16z this week about its limited partners and its distributed-to-paid-in capital ratio — the DPI, or how much actual cash the firm has returned to investors over its 16-year history — the firm didn’t respond. What we do know is that CalPERS invested $400 million in 2023, marking the first time in a16z’s history it took money from a major California pension fund, probably because institutions with transparency requirements don’t really align with the firm’s preference for opacity. We also know that Sanabil Investments, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, lists Andreessen Horowitz among its portfolio holdings.
The Saudi connection isn’t subtle. Back in 2023, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen appeared onstage with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann to discuss their $350 million investment in his then-new residential real estate venture, Flow. The venue was a conference backed by one of Saudi Arabia’s largest sovereign funds. Horowitz praised Saudi Arabia as a “startup country,” adding that “Saudi has a founder; you don’t call him a founder, you call him his royal highness.”
But Marc Andreessen has found another royal to admire. Since President Donald Trump’s November 2024 election victory, Andreessen has logged a lot of hours at Mar-a-Lago, by his own account, helping shape policy on tech, business, and economics. Early last year, he became an “unpaid intern” at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, vetting candidates for the Trump administration — not just for tech roles but for positions in the Defense Department and intelligence agencies. Scott Kupor, a16z’s first employee back in 2009, was sworn in as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management this past summer.
The biggest name in crypto venture capital closed another mammoth fundraise. The digital assets arm of Andreessen Horowitz, which goes by a16z crypto, announced Tuesday morning that it’s drummed up $2.2 billion for its fifth venture fund. The firm also announced it has promoted its CTO Eddy Lazzarin to general partner.
COPENHAGEN, May 12 (Reuters) – Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was part of ongoing negotiations with Washington, as the United States’ desire to own or control the territory remains alive.
President Donald Trump’s assertion that the U.S. must acquire or control Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has sparked tension between Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen, and more broadly within the NATO alliance.
“From the beginning, one of the issues has been that they don’t think we do enough in terms of national security and surveillance in our region, so security and more military presence in Greenland is part of the discussions,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Copenhagen.
US pushes for new military bases in Greenland amid quiet talks with Denmark
GREENLAND OPTIMISTIC ABOUT DEAL
Seeking to calm tensions, Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. earlier this year agreed to hold high-level diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis, although the outcome of those ongoing talks has yet to be presented.
The BBC on Tuesday reported that U.S. officials in the talks had signalled they aim to open three new bases in southern Greenland, with one source saying Washington had floated designating the facilities as U.S. sovereign territory.
“Right now we have a defence agreement with the United States where it’s already possible to have more bases,” Nielsen said, adding that the existing defence framework was one possible basis for any expansion but that other arrangements could be explored.
Greenland has repeatedly said it is open to wider military and business cooperation with the U.S., including on mineral resources, but that its sovereignty is non-negotiable.
The United States has one active base in Greenland, the Pituffik Space Base in the northwest, down from around 17 facilities in 1945 when thousands of U.S. personnel staffed facilities around the island.
General Gregory Guillot, head of the U.S. Northern Command, first disclosed the three-base plan in Senate testimony in March. Guillot was in Copenhagen last week, an Instagram post by the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen showed.
Two of the locations under consideration have been identified by local media as Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and Kangerlussuaq in the southwest, both former U.S. bases with existing airstrips and port infrastructure. A third location has not been named.
The airport manager at Narsarsuaq confirmed to Reuters that a U.S. envoy from the embassy in Copenhagen visited recently to inspect the runway, harbour and whether the facilities could be reopened.
Sources have previously said the expansion is being negotiated under a 1951 U.S.-Danish defence agreement that gives Washington broad military access to Greenland. Experts say Denmark has little practical ability to block U.S. requests under the pact, which was last updated in 2004 to include Greenland as a signatory.
Trump envoy Jeff Landry is scheduled to visit Greenland next week to attend a business conference in the vast Arctic island of 57,000 people. He has not been confirmed to meet any Greenlandic politicians.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Soren Jeppesen, editing by Terje Solsvik, Rod Nickel)
Wajeed Lion, on May 12th Substack, explained the Israeli covert “Third Circle” strategy. Here are some extracts:
Nukhayb desert secret military base built for a purpose, then destroyed
Satellite imagery, ground battle reports, and electronic signals confirm that Israel built a secret military base in Iraq’s western Nukhayb desert at coordinates 31.66697°N, 42.44864°E. The base was designed to support Israel’s “Third Circle” strategy—a plan to fight distant enemies directly. During the February 2026 air campaign against Iran, this secret facility served as a vital refueling and rescue hub, allowing Israeli jets and helicopters to reach Iranian targets much faster. For a brief period, an unwritten truce kept the base hidden, as all countries involved quietly ignored it to avoid a larger war. This silence shattered on March 4, when Israeli forces guarding the site clashed with an Iraqi army patrol. The battle killed one Iraqi soldier, injured two, and sparked a major political crisis in Baghdad.
Operation Rising Lion:
Israel tested this theory during the “12-Day War” of June 2025, codenamed “Operation Rising Lion.” Israeli jets successfully destroyed roughly 80 Iranian air defense batteries. However, the operation exposed a major weakness: the extreme danger posed to Israeli pilots flying far beyond the reach of rescue helicopters. When operations flared up again in late February 2026 with “Operation Epic Fury,” Israel realized that hunting mobile Iranian missile launchers required a staging ground much closer to the target. The empty western Iraqi desert offered the perfect, if dangerous, solution.
Use of radar jamming:
Satellite photos from the area, a dry lakebed 70 kilometers from the Saudi Arabian border, show exactly how Israel built this site.
Israel quickly graded a 1.7-kilometer dirt runway. This specific length is the exact requirement for heavy military transport planes, like the C-130J Super Hercules, to land in rough conditions. These heavy planes brought in specialized rescue personnel from the Israeli Air Force’s Unit 669. They also dropped off collapsible fuel bladders to create a Forward Area Refueling Point (FARP). This allowed Israeli helicopters to land, refuel, and wait closer to Iran without relying on vulnerable mid-air refueling tankers. Finally, the transport planes brought in the massive electronic jamming systems needed to hide the base from the outside world.
The Electronic Shield and Blinding Iraqi Radar
To remain undetected by the Iraqi government, Israel had to hijack the local electromagnetic spectrum. In the days leading up to the conflict, commercial aviation networks detected massive interference over Baghdad. Civil aviation groups, including the Italian aviation authority and the ICAO, warned pilots to expect severe GPS jamming, fake GPS signals (spoofing), and forced radar changes in western Iraq.
This interference matched the exact flight path Israeli jets and rescue helicopters used to cross into Iran. The GPS spoofing was so intense that local delivery apps failed and civilian drones refused to fly. While Iraqi media blamed temporary election security measures, the sheer scale of the blackout points directly to military-grade jamming equipment.
Israel likely deployed the Scorpius-G, a powerful ground-based radar jammer built by Israel Aerospace Industries. This system shoots invisible, targeted beams of energy to blind enemy communications, drones, and radars. This electronic shield explains why Iraqi military radar failed to spot the base. Some Iraqi politicians later claimed the United States ordered the radars shut down, but the truth is that Israeli jamming equipment blinded them.
A shepherd spotted the military base and would seem to have reported what he saw:
Before the shepherd spotted the base, the situation functioned smoothly because everyone benefited from pretending it did not exist. Israel got a secure rescue hub. The Iraqi government kept up the illusion that it fully controlled its borders, which kept radical militias from attempting to overthrow the Prime Minister. The U.S. avoided a fight between its ally (Israel) and its host (Iraq). Iran avoided having to launch a direct, costly attack into the Iraqi desert.
The shepherd’s discovery broke this silence, forcing everyone into a dangerous political game. To survive domestic anger, the Iraqi government filed UN complaints against generic foreign forces—a cheap political move that avoided an unwinnable war with Israel. Israel used deadly force to secure its escape, a costly move that exposed the base to the world and turned the Iraqi army permanently hostile. Iran escalated by pushing proxy militias to bomb U.S. bases. The U.S. scrambled to contain the damage, publicly denying involvement while issuing severe warnings to Baghdad to stay out of the area.
The truth is not to be found on Truth Social. Today Trump’s response to the Iranian proposal is not truly reflecting historical fact about monies refunded to Tehran by Obama. Trump merely repeats a Republican lie regularly promoted since his first term as President.
US payment of $1.7 billion to Iran made entirely in cash
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration acknowledged late Tuesday that its transfer of $1.7 billion to Iran earlier this year was made entirely in cash, using non-U.S. currency, as Republican critics of the transaction continued to denounce the payments.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Dawn Selak said in a statement the cash payments were necessary because of the “effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions,” which isolated Iran from the international finance system.
The $1.7 billion was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the U.S. and Iran. An initial $400 million of euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency was delivered on pallets Jan. 17, the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.
The Obama administration had claimed the events were separate, but recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. The remaining $1.3 billion represented estimated interest on the Iranian cash the U.S. had held since the 1970s. The administration had previously declined to say if the interest was delivered to Iran in physical cash, as with the principal, or via a more regular banking mechanism.
Earlier Tuesday, officials from the State, Justice and Treasury departments held a closed-door briefing for congressional staff on the payments, according to a Capitol Hill aide familiar with the session. The officials said the $1.3 billion was paid in cash on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5. The aide was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The money came from a little-known fund administered by the Treasury Department for settling litigation claims. The so-called Judgment Fund is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the event it’s needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement. The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.
The Brookings Institute gives an in depth historical account, here is an extract:
Why did the United States pay Iran?
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iran was the largest partner of the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. As an Obama administration official explained earlier this year, “As part of the FMS Program, a Trust Fund was established with Iranian funds to pay U.S. contractors as work progressed on the various contracts.” In February 1979, days before the culmination of Iran’s revolution, the United States and Iran agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that halted these payments and voided many of the remaining purchases. The MoU also called for Iran’s unexpended FMS funds to be placed in an interest-bearing account.
Later that year, after Iran’s seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the detention of the American diplomats, the Carter administration froze all Iranian assets in the United States. The standoff was resolved nearly 15 months later, with an agreement that freed the hostages and established the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal to resolve the labyrinth of financial and commercial disputes that had emerged.
In 1982, Iran filed a claim with the Tribunal pertaining to the FMS Trust Fund, which Lisa Grosh, Assistant Legal Advisor at the Department of State, has described as “a multi-billion dollar breach-of-contract dispute covering 1,126 huge military sales contracts.”
Grosh stated that the two sides engaged in some 40 rounds of negotiations “at this level” over several decades. Iran ramped up efforts to adjudicate the claim in 2015, asking the Tribunal to schedule comprehensive hearings on the outstanding FMS claims and requesting a preliminary ruling. The FMS Trust Fund amounted to $600 million until the George H. W. Bush administration returned $200 million to Iran in a partial settlement in 1990.
Who paid who? And how?
The settlement announced in January involved two parts: return of the $400 million principal and payment of $1.3 billion in interest.
To return the principal, the Treasury, working with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, made a $400 million wire transfer from DFAS to the Swiss National Bank. The $400 million was then converted into Swiss francs and withdrawn in franc banknotes, which were transferred to Geneva. On January 17, the banknotes were disbursed to an official from the Central Bank of Iran.
The interest was paid from the Judgment Fund, which pays “court judgments and Justice Department compromise settlements of actual or imminent lawsuits against the government.” For a payment to be made by the Judgment Fund, Treasury must receive confirmation from the Attorney General that the settlement is in the United States’ best interests. According to Mary McCord, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division at the Department of Justice, “[a]ssessment of a settlement payment from the Judgment Fund includes consideration of the exposure that the United States faces from the claim proposed for settlement, … likelihood of an adverse ruling against the United States, the likely size of such an award, the background of the litigation, the tribunal, relevant legal arguments, relevant facts and governing legal doctrines.”
Since the Judgment Fund does not allow the processing of individual claims of amounts over ten digits, the agreed upon interest—$1.3 billion—was split into 13 claims of $99,999,999.99 and one claim of the remaining $10,390,236.28. These amounts were transferred from the Judgment Fund to the Dutch National Bank, where they were converted into euros and withdrawn in euro banknotes. The Dutch bank then disbursed the notes to a representative from the Central Bank of Iran.
Why was interest paid?
The 1979 MoU stipulated that the unexpended funds would be placed in an interest-bearing account. As it turns out, these funds were not based in such an account—no U.S. administration implemented that requirement. The reasons for this are not clear. Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman, who testified on this issue before the Senate, noted that the United States “does not let [FMS accounts] accrue interest.”
Still, most if not all other claims before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal have incorporated compensation for accrued interest. This is consistent with the position adopted by the Treasury Department at the outset of the 1979 assets freeze, although in nearly every case the amount of the interest to be paid has been subject to some haggling between Washington and Tehran.
Obama administration officials maintain that a Tribunal decision may have resulted in a much larger judgment on the issue of accrued interest.
Simultaneously, the cyber domain has become a primary vector for Iranian strategic retaliation. State-aligned threat actors, notably the “Handala Hack” collective and “MuddyWater,” have executed destructive data-wiping attacks against commercial entities and critical infrastructure.
In a direct psychological operation dubbed “Operation Premature Death,” Handala Hack doxxed 400 United States Navy officers. Concurrently, other Iranian intelligence-linked actors exfiltrated and published highly sensitive personal data on over 2,300 American service members stationed in the Persian Gulf. This massive force protection failure included the public release of home addresses, family details, and daily activity logs.
Iranian cyber doctrine has clearly shifted from simple website disruption (DDoS attacks) toward advanced persistent threat (APT) behavior. Attackers are now utilizing “living-off-the-land” techniques—leveraging legitimate administrative tools already present within a network’s cloud environments and operational technology to bypass traditional, signature-based security detections. They have also deployed ransomware, such as the Brain Cipher variant which utilizes military-grade AES-256 encryption. However, these deployments are not for financial extortion, but for systemic data destruction.
Handala hacker group leaks names of 400 US Navy officers in what it calls ‘Operation Premature Death’ —— The cyber resistance group Handala announced the successful breach and exposure of 400 senior US Navy officers currently deployed in the Persian Gulf as part of “Operation Premature Death.” The group published a detailed list including ranks and operational units, claiming their “shadows” are monitoring every movement within the US fleet. Handala stated that a direct alert was sent to the secure phones of these officers, warning them that “the sea is no longer safe” for those choosing the path of aggression in West Asia. The statement emphasized a complete breakdown of US operational security, quoting, “This is proof that our eyes remain wide open and ever vigilant in the heart of your fleet.” Handala framed the leak as a final warning to the US and its regional allies, asserting that no base or alliance can shield them from retribution. The group concluded the message with a promise of “death and destruction,” declaring that the “executioner of justice and vengeance is closer than ever.”
Stryker devices wiped, the email of the FBI boss Kash Patel breached, and now, personal details of thousands of US Marines leaked. The Iranian hacking group Handala clearly doesn’t care about any ceasefire between the US and Iran, as fragile as the agreement is.
Last week, US Marines stationed around the Persian Gulf began receiving WhatsApp messages from strangers suggesting they call home and make their final goodbyes.
One of the messages, for instance, reads: “Your identities are fully known to our missile units, and every move you make is under our surveillance. Very soon, you will be targeted by our Shahed drones and Kheibar and Ghadeer missiles. We suggest you call your families now and say your final goodbyes.”
This flurry of threats came from Handala, the Iranian hacking group that calls them “rapid signal alerts.”
Firing of 130 CISA staff worries cybersecurity industry
News
Feb 21, 2025
‘It’s like you can see the iceberg and you decide to speed the Titanic up,’ said one cybersecurity professional.
The firing of upwards of 130 cybersecurity professionals at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a disaster for the US, but also for many of its allies that count on close collaboration, a security expert said Thursday.
David Shipley, CEO of Beauceron Security, said he “struggles to think of another government agency that has built so much credibility and goodwill and respect across the private sector as what CISA has done. [The dismissals] are wholly undeserved, foolhardy and it’s like you can see the iceberg and you decide to speed the Titanic up. That seems like a bad thing to me.”
He added that the cuts orchestrated by Elon Musk’s US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “will raise questions of and put further strains on alliances. How much trusted information sharing will allies be willing to do with CISA going forward?”
Shipley said, “everything that I’ve heard from the national security and intelligence community has thus far been mostly that the trusted relationships at the staffing level endure despite the political noise. As a Canadian, I am seeing an unprecedented level of political noise, and leaning on that reassurance that ‘don’t worry, the people that keep the lights on still keep the lights on.’ [Now] I am watching those people lose their jobs.”
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) of 2015 expired on September 30, 2025, which means the legal protections for sharing cybersecurity information between the private sector and the government are no longer in effect. This lapse creates uncertainty around cybersecurity information sharing practices. mayerbrown.com Wikipedia
White Supremacy should be dead, yet those who would try to revive it symbolise the wild writhing of the concept in its death throes. White Supremacy will not persist as dehumanisation and disrespect of our fellow humans is no longer acceptable to evolved humans.
Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa
The parallels between South Africa then and the US today are striking
Justin Jamal Pearson is an American activist and politician. He is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 86th district, covering parts of the city of Memphis.
Brother of Rep. Justin Pearson among protesters reportedly detained during special session at TN Capitol
Pearson posted videos on Facebook saying his brother was removed from the House chamber before being taken into a law enforcement van to be booked by officers in Nashville.
‘Political lynching’: TN Rep. Justin J. Pearson responds as congressional maps passes
Vivian Nguyen
Thu, May 7, 2026 at 11:20 PM GMT+1
0
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — State Representative Justin J. Pearson said the passing of the map of redrawn congressional districts is a “political lynching” that has set Tennessee back over 150 years.
State Rep. Justin J. Pearson said the following in a response:
“Today’s vote to redraw the congressional districts in Tennessee set our state back over 150 years. It was a political lynching that violated the rights of every Tennesseean. This racist and reckless action was also an attack on Black political power that should appall everyone in the state, whether you are Black or not, a voter or not, live in Memphis or not, or are a Democrat or not. This injurious legislation has made it harder to tackle the urgent challenges that impact working families who are grappling with skyrocketing gas, food, housing and health care costs while their wages and job prospects remain stagnant.
“The authoritarianism that has taken over Tennessee and other state houses across our country not only is a threat to democracy, it drains resources that are better used to improve the quality of life for marginalized communities and increase civic education and engagement. Instead, Tennessee has become the model for abuse of power in the name of racism and political ideology. But we are not powerless.
“We will organize, mobilize and activate People Power across Tennessee, the South and the country to include more voices rather than shut people out as republicans do. We will out-organize despair and out-mobilize racist maps to overcome political malpractice. I am proud of and grateful to everyone who traveled to Nashville and the capitol building to show what People Power and democracy look like. These angelic dissenters are the conscience of America. They are the guardians of America’s soul and the backbone of what truly makes her great. This is not over. We will fight and will not stop until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
This comes after Gov. Bill Lee, the State Senate, and the House passed the new proposed congressional map, redrawing district lines on Wednesday.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images and Supreme Court of the United States.
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There is something deeply incongruous about the formal letterhead Chief Justice John Roberts used to lobby his colleagues against President Barack Obama’s signature climate policy. On Saturday, the New York Times published this document as part of a report on a stunning set of leaked internal memos from 2016 that effectively launched the Supreme Court’s modern shadow docket. At first glance, the documents look like a legitimate judicial product. A “Memorandum to the Conference” from the “Chambers of the Chief Justice” certainly appears as if it might have been penned by a judge doing law. But these trappings of formality cannot elevate Roberts’ partisan efforts into a principled judging. The substance of his arguments, as Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck has carefully explained, is riddled with errors and oversights, and it appears to be cheap ornamentation gilding a petty vendetta against the Obama administration. And yet, in a time before the current conservative supermajority took hold, the chief’s views carried the day, leading SCOTUS to issue an unprecedented 5–4 stay against the climate plan. And the shadow docket, as we know it today, was born.
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