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
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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.
They will put medals on television. They will speak about sacrifice, history, glory, memory, the defeat of Nazism, the greatness of their country.
And here in Ukraine, we listen for air alerts.
That is the whole obscenity of it.
A country that came to destroy us will stand in public and pretend to honor the defeat of evil.
The dictator who bombs Ukrainian cities will speak about liberation.
The same madness that sends missiles into homes, hospitals, schools, railway stations, power plants, and sleeping neighborhoods will tell the world it understands what victory means.
This project of evil called Russia does not understand victory.
It only knows the sadistic pleasure of seeing someone kneel and calling that peace.
For so many years they have tried to make this date look sacred by making real grief serve a project of power.
They turned the dead of the Second World War into permission for new graves.
Russians are celebrating victory from eighty years ago because they have nothing left to celebrate from this one.
They know that.
And I need to say this from Ukraine, because my life has been interrupted by the country that dares to call itself victorious.
For four years now, I do not have a life. I have a hope of a life. I have a plan of survival.
I have one ordinary morning waiting somewhere in the future when my first thought is not war.
Russia took that morning from millions of people and still walks into the calendar to celebrate itself.
This is not history. It is happening now.
It is happening while Ukrainian families are still burying people.
While soldiers are dying in trenches at this very hour. While children in this country know the sound of drones before they know the sound of peaceful childhood.
I have spent more than four years choosing love over hate in everything I write, but today I will not choose it.
I want to tell this clearly, because I have earned the right to say it:
I hate the country that did this to mine.
Completely.
I hate what it has shown me about what a people can become.
I hate that it took so many in the world years of war to understand how rotten a nation can be while still calling itself great.
How a country can lose its soul before it loses a war.
Russia did.
Every missile they launch proves it. Every stolen child, every ruined village.
Russian mothers are told to be proud of sons sent to kill people who never attacked them.
They were swallowing this lie for so long that they no longer remember what victory is supposed to mean.
And now even their parade carries the smell of fear.
No tanks on Red Square this year. Security everywhere. Signals blocked.
The man who promised to take Kyiv in three days is afraid of its own holiday, in its own capital.
Good.
Let them be afraid.
Fear is the only honest thing left in that celebration.
They can call May 9 whatever they want.
But here in Ukraine, we know what victory is.
Victory is the life they failed to erase.
Victory is a woman in Kharkiv sweeping glass from her kitchen and still making tea.
It is a soldier who has not seen his child in months and still holds the line.
It is a city repairing power after another strike.
It is a country waking up after another night and choosing to exist.
The ones who need to destroy another nation to feel great have already lost.
Anyone who turns memory into permission for murder has already lost.
It’s already May 9 in Kyiv.
In Moscow too.
Moscow will perform today.
But somewhere beyond the performance, Ukraine will still be here.
Alive.
And that is the victory Russia could never understand.
—Viktor
🇺🇦
Russia spends today telling the world what it wants the past to mean. This journal spends every day telling the truth of what is happening now. The readers who decided this record was worth protecting are the reason it can keep doing that.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has claimed that its forces inflicted significant damage on US naval assets during a large-scale combined operation on Thursday evening, forcing three American destroyers to withdraw from the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement, the commander of the IRGC Navy said the operation was launched in response to what he described as two provocative actions by the US military, News.Az reports, citing Iran’s English-language Press TV.
According to the statement, the first incident involved an alleged violation of the ceasefire through an attack on an Iranian oil tanker near the port of Jask. The second was the approach of US Navy destroyers towards the strategic Strait of Hormuz despite what the commander described as clear warnings from Iran.
The US and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire.
Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation.
Screengrab from video footage of the Iranian navy firing a missile at an unknown location. Photograph: WANA/Reuters
The US military said it targeted sites responsible for attacking three US destroyers transiting the strait, in what it called “unprovoked” hostilities by Tehran. Iran’s Press TV reported that after several hours of fire “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the strait of Hormuz is back to normal now”.
The United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks hours after the US said it thwarted attacks on the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason.
The fresh skirmishes threw into question the viability of a shaky ceasefire that had largely held for the previous month. But Donald Trump, the US president, insisted it remained intact despite the strikes, which he described in an interview with ABC News as a “love tap”.
UAE attacked again: Missile, drone strike injures 3 in latest escalation in US-Iran war
Story by Sudeep Rawat
• 1h
UAE attacked again: Missile, drone strike injures 3 in latest escalation in US-Iran war
India, May 8 — On Friday, May 8, the UAE activated its air defence systems to respond to Iran’s attack. The UAE Defence Ministry issued a statement saying that the air defence system engaged two ballistic missiles and three Unidentified Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
Israel sent laser system to UAE to help intercept Iranian missiles and drones — report
Sources say Jerusalem also sent a surveillance system and other weapons to the Gulf state, marking a major development in security cooperation with the Abraham Accords ally
The IDF’s first operational Iron Beam high-power laser air defense system, displayed during a handover ceremony at a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems facility, December 28, 2025. (Defense Minister’s Office)
Israel dispatched a version of the Iron Beam laser-based air defense system to the United Arab Emirates during the recent fighting with Iran to help protect the Gulf nation from missile and drone attacks, according to a report on Thursday, in a significant step for the defense ties between the two countries.
According to The Financial Times, Jerusalem also sent over an advanced surveillance system known as Spectro to help the UAE detect Iranian drones from up to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away.
The report comes on the heels of a piece by Axios earlier in the week, which asserted that Israel deployed an Iron Dome Battery to the Gulf nation and sent several dozen troops to operate it.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, The Financial Times reported that Israel also sent additional, unspecified weapons systems to the UAE.
“It’s not a small number of boots on the ground,” the source said.
The newspaper reported that in addition to the equipment, Jerusalem also provided the UAE with real-time intelligence on missile launches from Iran heading toward the Gulf state.
More than half of the world’s petroleum derived from Permian times has come from the Permian Basin. Although some older strata are also productive, the majority of the oil and gas obtained from the Permian Basin has been recovered from Permian rocks. Though oil and gas were already being extracted from the Permian Basin by the mid-1920s, most of the petroleum production activity has taken place since the 1950s. As a result, for a large part of the 20th century the Permian Basin played a significant role in the economic development of the state of Texas, including such towns as Midland, Odessa, and Marathon. Petroleum geologists often use the Permian reef system as a model for the exploration of other petroleum source and reservoir rocks.
The contribution to the US economy is vast:
The Permian Basin is projected to contribute $350 billion and create 1.2 million jobs for the U.S. economy by 2050, making it a significant driver of economic activity in the country. It supports various infrastructure developments and plays a crucial role in energy security. Yahoo dallasfed.org
Outcompeting Saudi:
Permian shale output closes gap with Saudi Arabia as rig count doubles, confirming US’ powerhouse status
Exxon’s 1.6 million acres in the Permian means it can approach the field as a “megaproject”
The majors’ Permian investments position the field to compete with Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil-producing region
The World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker is the only global and independent indicator of gas flaring. The estimates allow us to monitor global flaring levels and assist in tracking progress towardZero Routine Flaring by 2030. You can view the lastest Global Gas Flaring Tracker (July, 2025) here and each of GFMR’s interactive visualizations below:
CloseIsraeli Prime Minister Served Birthday Cake With Gold Noose
Israel’s national security minister celebrated his 50th birthday with a golden noose on his cake just over a month after he successfully campaigned for the death penalty for Palestinian terrorist convicts.
Footage on social media showed Itamar Ben-Gvir receiving a cake from his wife with a golden noose which wished the minister a Happy Birthday and added: ‘Sometimes dreams come true’, per translation.
The politician could be seen wearing a golden noose pin as his wife Ayala handed him the cake to mark the milestone. The event, attended by senior Israeli officials and police figures, reportedly took place at a villa in southern Israel.
The golden noose became a core symbol for Ben-Gvir’s far-right party Otzma Yehudit as they campaigned for the death penalty exclusively for Palestinian terrorism convicts. Many politicians wore a golden noose pin as they attended Knesset amid the campaign.
Trump dismisses China friction over Iran war, touts Xi ties before Beijing summit
US halts Hormuz escort mission, says Beijing is not pushing back as Xi talks loom
ublished: 3:45am, 6 May 2026Updated: 7:21am, 6 May 2026
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected suggestions that China has challenged his administration over the Iran war, highlighting his “very good relationship” with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ahead of their planned summit next week.
China’s foreign minister holds talks with Iranian counterpart
Abbas Araghchi’s trip to Beijing comes ahead of Trump’s visit to China
Diyar Güldoğan
06 May 2026•Update: 06 May 2026
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Araghchi’s visit came ahead of US President Donald Trump’s scheduled summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping from May 14-15 amid tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains blocked.
[1/2] BEIJING, CHINA – MAY 6: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi in Beijing, China on May 6, 2026.
This marks Araghchi’s first in-person meeting with his Chinese counterpart since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. The two have held several phone calls during the conflict.
A separate Washington Post investigation found that, even after the U.S. imposed its blockade, Iranian oil continued moving through covert ship-to-ship transfers near Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago. According to the Post, at least 13 tankers transferred roughly 22 million barrels of Iranian oil, worth more than $2 billion, after the blockade began.
Global Hunger Crisis: Facing Escalating Threats in 2026
The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises highlights worsening global food insecurity due to conflict, drought, and reduced aid. Acute hunger has doubled in the last decade, with millions in Africa and the Middle East facing severe conditions. Global instability is exacerbated by conflicts and financial constraints impacting food markets.
The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises warns of a worsening hunger crisis due to conflict, drought, and reduced aid.
An estimated 266 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2025, with severe conditions expected in fragile regions like Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen.
Geopolitical tensions, particularly the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, threaten to disrupt energy and fertilizer trade, exacerbating food market instability.
Declining funding for humanitarian efforts further complicates the response to rising hunger levels, especially in West and East Africa.
Hormuz war risk drives sevenfold insurance spike, $40 bln global safety net for shipping
Bossy Abdel Gawad, Sunday 3 May 2026
The Strait of Hormuz has shifted from a key route for global trade into a major pressure point draining billions of dollars through war risk insurance costs, as rising geopolitical tensions reshape marine insurance dynamics and global shipping expenses.
A large container ship passes through the Suez Canal. Photo courtesy of UN Trade and Development.
Reports issued in April indicate that insurance exposures in the Gulf region, now beyond the capacity of private markets, have reached approximately $352 billion. This has prompted international intervention, with governments stepping in as insurers of last resort and deploying more than $40 billion in additional capacity to prevent disruptions to global trade flows.
The mounting insurance burden is not confined to balance sheets. The strait handles around 20 percent of global oil supplies, equivalent to roughly 21 million barrels per day, as well as nearly 30 percent of the liquefied natural gas trade. At the peak of recent escalation, Brent crude prices surged above $120 per barrel, while marine insurance premiums spiked sharply, rising tenfold on some routes.
This surge has been compounded by a wave of cancellation notices issued by major global reinsurers to reduce their exposure to high-risk zones.
The impact has extended beyond the shipping industry to consumers worldwide. According to International Monetary Fund estimates released in April 2026, the combined shock from higher energy and shipping costs linked to Hormuz tensions has added about 0.5 percentage points to global inflation, while potentially lowering global GDP growth to 3.1 percent.
Ahram Online spoke to industry leaders about the dynamics of war risk insurance in the Strait of Hormuz, exploring how transit risks are managed and who ultimately bears the cost of rapidly rising premiums.
Historic First: Netanyahu Deploys Israel’s Iron Dome to UAE as Iranian Missile Barrage Reshapes Gulf War Alliance
Israel’s unprecedented deployment of an operational Iron Dome battery and IDF personnel to the UAE marks the deepest military integration yet under the Abraham Accords, creating a new Gulf air defense architecture against Iran’s missile and drone campaign.
by layered air defense systems but several still reaching military and civilian targets.
Israeli officials stated that the Iron Dome battery intercepted dozens of incoming Iranian missiles aimed at the UAE, while the Israeli Air Force simultaneously struck Iranian short-range missile infrastructure in southern Iran to reduce launch pressure against Gulf states.
This dual approach—forward missile interception and offensive suppression of enemy launch sites—demonstrated a strategic shift in Israeli doctrine from homeland defense alone toward regional defensive projection in support of aligned Gulf partners.
The presence of Israeli troops operating one of the country’s most symbolically important defense systems on Emirati soil also signals that the Israel-UAE relationship has moved decisively beyond political normalization into the realm of functional wartime alliance.
Such a move carries strategic consequences not only for Tehran, but also for Riyadh, Doha, and Washington, because it suggests the architecture of a future integrated Middle Eastern air defense network is already being built under combat conditions.
See also the above covering the impact of the Abraham Accord, here is an extract:
UAE–Israel Military Convergence After the Abraham Accords
The 2020 Abraham Accords fundamentally restructured Middle Eastern security alignments by formalising UAE–Israel relations, unlocking rapid expansion in intelligence sharing, defence technology transfers, and joint threat-perception frameworks focused on Iran and its regional proxies.
Bilateral trade between the UAE and Israel has exceeded USD 2.5 billion annually, equivalent to approximately MYR 11.8 billion, with defence-related transactions encompassing surveillance technologies, cyber capabilities, and missile-defence cooperation.
In the Yemeni theatre, this partnership potentially translates into shared intelligence on Iranian arms smuggling routes, real-time maritime domain awareness, and forward basing options to compress response timelines against asymmetric threats.
Analysts have suggested that Mayun’s runway could enable Israeli aerial refuelling for long-range sorties or persistent ISR operations monitoring Iranian maritime logistics moving through the Red Sea corridor.
Analyst observed that “The Houthis, like any insurgent group, win by not losing,” underscoring why coalition forces increasingly seek structural advantages rather than decisive battlefield victories.
Another prominent analyst noted that “The Houthis feed off war—war is good for them,” explaining why symbolic escalation narratives resonate within Houthi mobilisation strategies.
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs corroborates ongoing UAE-linked infrastructure expansion across nearby islands such as Zuqar and Abd al-Kuri, where runways approaching 2,000 metres have been documented.
Ardemagni assessed that “A likely Emirati airstrip in Zuqar could serve to improve surveillance and monitoring off the Hodeida coast to better support Yemeni forces in tackling smuggling,” indicating an integrated network rather than an isolated installation.
Israel have given many awards to Donald Trump for his role in promoting Israel as a dominant force of change in the Middle East.
Iran’s Missile Math: $20,000 Drones Take On $4 Million US Patriots
US-made Patriot air-defense missiles have been largely successful in stopping the Iranian Shaheds and other ballistic missiles, with interception rates over 90%, according to the UAE.
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