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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: J.B. Lenoir

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist J.B. Lenoir. Enjoy!

^{J.B. Lenoir - The Whale Has Swallowed Me}

“President Trump—and Congress if it does not act to stop him—has effectively ceded American war-making authority to indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and dragged our nation into an unconstitutional war.”

-- Robert McCaw

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News and Opinion

If Westerners Could Wrap Their Minds Around What War Really Is

Drop Site News has a new article out which includes incredibly disturbing witness accounts of the carnage from a double-tap airstrike by the US-Israel alliance on a densely populated part of Tehran.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We were sitting here around 8:00–8:30 p.m. and suddenly there was the noise and explosion. We got up and a few people ran away. We turned around to get our belongings and we saw that blood was spraying everywhere. Someone’s hand had fallen on the floor, a head had fallen on the floor,” said Shahin, a witness who had been at the cafe and asked to be identified by first name only. “There were scalps torn off, hands severed, a few people were laying here all cut up and two people were martyred.”

…

“One hit and it wasn’t that bad but when the second one hit, suddenly everything exploded. The windows all shattered. Whoever had hookahs were thrown to the floor,” Shahin said. “One of my friends whom I don’t know that well he was sitting here. His hookah was in his hands until the last moment. He was severed in half. Half of him was thrown to the side. I put him back together and placed him where he was. A piece of his brain was thrown here on the floor.”

Eyewitness to double tap strike in Iran: "We turned around to get our belongings & we saw that blood was spraying everywhere. Someone’s hand had fallen on the floor, a head had fallen... There were scalps torn off, hands severed, a few people were laying here all cut up." https://t.co/ofWN1WdHkJ

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) March 2, 2026

War is the worst thing in the world. Westerners talk about it like it’s a fucking video game, like “hurr durr, we just go in there and achieve our objectives and win,” when really war means shredding human bodies to bits.

Children burning to death in front of their parents.

People holding their own guts in their hands as their life slowly slips away.

People getting trapped under rubble and dying excruciatingly slow deaths of suffocation or dehydration.

People picking up pieces of their beloved family members.

Westerners are able to hold this compartmentalized video game mentality about war because war isn’t something that happens to us. We’ve never had bombs dropped on our neighborhoods. We’ve never had the experience of seeing a severed hand on the ground after an explosion and trying to figure out who it belonged to. We’ve never had the experience of seeing our child’s shredded body after a blast and thinking about how we’d carefully helped them dress that precious body for school just hours before.

We just see the movies. The propagandistic war documentaries. The sanitized news reports.

It’s not real to us. It’s not personal. It’s just this cutesy Hollywood image of sexy Good Guys doing flips and spin-kicking evil Bad Guys off cliffs.

You know this is true, because if it wasn’t then nobody would support US wars. If westerners had an actual, visceral understanding of what war really is and what it actually means, and if they could truly, deeply grasp that the people on the receiving end of those airstrikes are human beings just like them, there’s no way they’d support inflicting such nightmares upon their fellow man.

Which is why everything in our civilization is aimed at hiding that reality from us. War is made to look heroic and glamorous. Middle easterners are framed as deranged subhuman savages. The flesh-and-bone consequences of western warmongering are hidden from public view as much as possible.

They need to do this because the western empire depends on war. War is the glue that holds the empire together. They need the mass-scale bloodshed to continue, and they need the public to provide no resistance to the bloodshed. The empire cannot exist without war. Peace cannot exist without the removal of the empire.

You watch these bespectacled pundits and pampered politicians babbling about war the way they’d talk about their plans to remodel their kitchen or take a trip to Paris, and you just know if actual war ever showed up on their doorstep they’d literally soil themselves. They’d never recover. They’d spend the rest of their lives in shock and trauma, because what they saw would have shaken them irreparably to their very core.

It would impact them in this way because war is the worst thing in the world. Anyone with a functioning empathy center and a truth-based worldview would move mountains to prevent war from happening. And yet we are ruled by sociopaths who actively seek it out. War is the worst thing in the world, and we are ruled by the worst people in the world.

The world will never know peace until we cease to allow such creatures to rule over us.

Trump PANICS After Rubio BLAMES ISRAEL For Iran War

In other news, Trump's pants are on fire.

Trump denies that Israel forced US’s hand in launching strikes against Iran

Donald Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters on Tuesday by denying suggestions that he had been bounced into attacking Iran because Israel had already decided to do so. Amid growing criticism among opponents and allies alike, Trump rebuffed claims that he had struck Iran only because Israel had forced his hand, a suspicion fueled by comments made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state.

Asked whether Israel had pushed him into launching military action, Trump told reporters: “No. I might have forced their hand. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”

Senate Democrats reacted furiously after Rubio suggested on a visit to Capitol Hill that Saturday’s strikes were driven by the need to pre-empt Iranian retaliation against US interests in response to Israeli attacks that Washington knew was coming. Rubio’s comments – made after a briefing conducted with the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and Gen Dan Caine, chair of the US armed forces’ joint chiefs of staff – fueled suspicions from some on both the left and right of the political spectrum that Israel’s interests, rather than those of the US, dictated the decision to resort to open warfare.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” he told reporters on Monday. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” That rationale has provoked anger among Democrats, as well as segments of Donald Trump’s base, who see the attack on Iran – and specifically its timing – as at odds with his previously proclaimed “America first” foreign policy goals.

Democrats seized on Rubio’s explanation as grist for forthcoming votes on war powers resolutions, which have been brought before the Senate and House of Representatives this week to assert the constitutional principle that a president must consult Congress before waging war.

Col. Larry Wilkerson: $3M Missile vs. $300 Drone: America’s Costly Trap

Trump administration has still not settled on reasons for going to war with Iran

It took months for the Bush administration’s falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to come to light, after an invasion, regime change, an investigation, and then, finally, the truth. For the Trump administration’s warnings of an imminent threat from Iran, it took an afternoon.

On Capitol Hill on Monday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, swiftly undercut the Trump administration’s claims that Iran was planning a preemptive strike by adding a key piece of information: Israel was planning to strike first. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said on Tuesday. ...

Since Trump began mustering his “armada” in the Middle East in the largest buildup since the Iraq war, the administration has run through a number of justifications for the attack on Iran. And it still doesn’t seem to have settled on why the US is now at war.

It began with Trump’s claims that he was sending warships to the Middle East because of Iran’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, which he said had killed 35,000 people (other estimates have been more conservative). Then it was the Iranian nuclear programme, which US special envoy Steve Witkoff claimed had reconstituted itself since it was “obliterated” last summer and could allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon within a week.

Then it was Iran’s ballistic weapons programme, which Trump claimed could soon deliver a strike not just against US interests in the region, but also against the US itself. He didn’t provide evidence, and US intelligence estimates had said the opposite: that Tehran wouldn’t have that capability for at least a decade. Most recently, it was the warning that Iran was planning for an imminent strike, which Trump said was not linked to the negotiations at all.

Lawmakers should have no doubt that this will be their equivalent of the Iraq War vote. https://t.co/RTnPfquTIL

— Dylan Williams (@dylanotes) March 3, 2026

Pepe Escobar : Ten Hours That Shook West Asia

Middle East attacks intensify as Trump says he rejects Iran’s attempt to talk

Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Donald Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations. Iran retaliated with hundreds of missile and drone attacks against Israel and across the Gulf region, targeting US military bases, embassies and civilian infrastructure.

Despite acute international fears, there appeared little chance of any de-escalation of the conflict as violence and chaos continued across a fast-widening swathe of the Middle East for a fourth day. Hundreds of people have been killed, mainly in Iran where the Red Crescent said 787 were dead and thousands injured. Billions of dollars of damage has been inflicted on oil refineries, tankers, airports, luxury hotels and much else, with the world economy threatened with a severe crisis as energy prices soar.

“Their air defense, Air Force, Navy and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!’,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying the US was prepared “to go far longer” than a four to five-week war against Iran.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva denied on Tuesday that Tehran had approached the US for negotiations. A spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guards threatened that “the gates of hell will open more and more” on the US and Israel.

US officials offered varying justifications for launching a war on Iran, with Rubio saying the US’s hand had been forced by Israel. Trump has at times said the goal was regime change in Iran, and at others that he was solely trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and to curb its ballistic missile programme. Iran has consistently denied it is developing nuclear weapons. Benjamin Netanyahu was more plain in his objectives, saying the US and Israel were “creating the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple their government. Israeli analysts suggested the Iran campaign came at a good time for the Israeli prime minister and would boost flagging poll numbers before legislative elections.

I worked at State Dept before and the safety of Americans overseas is the highest responsibility. Warnings to citizens to evacuate 3 days into this war, when airspace is closed, is a clear sign of ZERO strategy and planning by the Trump admin.

Now Americans have limited options… pic.twitter.com/FLetYBpxM6

— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) March 3, 2026

... to evacuate at an extremely dangerous moment with no government assistance. This administration is failing its citizens.

Gas Prices SOAR As Trump Floats TROOPS In Hormuz Strait

Iran has largely halted oil and gas exports through strait of Hormuz

Iran has in effect closed the strait of Hormuz to oil and gas exports for the past four days with a mixture of drone strikes and fear that has halted commercial maritime traffic despite intense US attacks on Iran’s navy. At least four tankers have been struck and Lloyd’s List Intelligence reported that seaborne traffic had dropped by 80% on Sunday, with little sign of a return as key maritime insurers cancelled cover the next day. ...

Gen Dan Caine, the head of the US military, said in a briefing on Monday that the US attack on Iran began with strikes by Tomahawk cruise missiles which “closed in on Iranian naval forces” and were accompanied by “strikes across the southern flank in Iran”. Satellite imagery showed that Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval base was heavily targeted.

Iran’s strategy, meanwhile, has quickly evolved to bombing infrastructure and ships at port, with seemingly more effective results. Satellite imagery showed damage to two parts of the Saudi Ras Tanura oil refinery, the country’s largest. It shut down on Monday after two drones were intercepted over the site, their debris causing a fire.

Qatar’s state-run energy firm halted liquefied natural gas production “due to military attacks” on Monday. A day later, a fire broke out at Fujairah in the UAE after a drone was intercepted in the city’s port area, a key oil storage and trading centre.

The result so far is that oil and gas prices have soared. Brent crude, a global benchmark, surged to $83 a barrel, up 15% from its level on Friday. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is considering proposals for the US government to help oil tankers in the region obtain insurance to restore confidence after a war the US and Israel started.

Thank you to all who joined us in Brewer yesterday to fight to stop this senseless war.

Full remarks and video below.

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First, I want to say thank you to Food and Medicine for having me. The work of Food and Medicine, the Eastern Maine Labor Council, quite frankly,… pic.twitter.com/mi3BqmyuGl

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) March 2, 2026

U.S. Says DEEPER STRIKES in IRAN COMING /Lt Col Daniel Davis

US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’

US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) says it has received more than 200 complaints from service members across all branches of the armed forces, including the marines, air force and space force.

One complainant, identified as a noncommissioned officer (NCO) in a unit that could be deployed “at any moment to join” operations against Iran, told MRFF in a complaint viewed by the Guardian that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ”.

“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth’”, the NCO added. The NCO’s complaint was filed on behalf of 15 troops, including 11 Christians, one Muslim person and one Jewish person. The complaint was first shared by MRFF with Jonathan Larsen, an independent journalist.

“Anytime Israel or the US is involved in the Middle East, we get this stuff about Christian nationalists who’ve taken over our government, and certainly our US military,” Mikey Weinstein, MRFF’s president, who is an air force veteran, told the Guardian. “Military members are not really able to stand up for themselves, because your military superior is not your shift manager at Starbucks,” he added.

In a statement, Weinstein suggested the reports indicate an increase in Christian extremism in the military, noting that the complainants “report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders” who perceive a “‘biblically-sanctioned’ war that is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’.”

Prof. Theodore Postol: The Ammo Crisis: Can Israel and the U.S. Outlast Iran’s Barrage?

Middle East war could be decided by who runs out of missiles or interceptors first

The outcome and duration of the war in the Middle East may be decided by a grim calculus based on the size of Iran’s drone and missile stocks v vital air defence munitions held by the US, Israel and Gulf states, analysts and officials say. Since Saturday, Iran and its proxies have sought to counter the intensive joint US and Israeli offensive with more than 1,000 strikes against targets across almost a dozen countries spread over 1,200 miles. With its antiquated air force unable to compete with those of Israel and the US, Tehran has relied on its arsenal of missiles and drones. ...

Stacie Pettyjohn, the director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, said the conflict had become “a bit of a salvo competition”, a military strategic concept describing an exchange of simultaneous volleys of large numbers of precision-guided weapons between opposing forces. “The question is who has the deeper magazines of key weapons, and the big unknown is how deep Iran inventories are,” Pettyjohn said.

Tehran’s strategy may be to attempt to wear down its enemies by undermining the morale of citizens and raising the financial costs of the conflict. “There is no such thing as 100% defence. It’s a war of attrition … If a single missile strikes something like a university, a hospital or a power plant it can be very costly,” said Tal Inbar, an Israel-based senior research fellow at the Missile Defence Advisory Alliance.

During the 12-day war with Iran last summer, when massive barrages of missiles were fired at Israel, crucial weapons in Israel ran low, some reports have suggested. “In previous wars and clashes, the duration has been determined in part by the amount of [air defence missiles] that we had … You can never have enough interceptors,” Inbar said.

“It is very hard to know the level of inventories [of these weapons] in the Gulf but they are burning through a lot of them and soon there will be some difficult decisions to make about what to protect”, Kelly Grieco, a strategic and military analyst at the Stimson Center in Washington, said. “The Iranians know this, and that is why their salvoes are not so large. They are aiming to keep the campaign running. It’s death by a thousand cuts, and so much the preferable strategy for the weaker [combatant] in the fight.”

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Trump’s War: A Mess of His Own Making

Iran, Hezbollah Launch Unprecedented Attack On Israel + NATO Shoots Down Missile Over Turkey

‘Imperialist undertones’: global south condemns US-Israeli war with Iran

The US-Israeli war on Iran has been condemned as illegal across much of the global south, with China saying it was unacceptable to “blatantly kill the leader of a sovereign state”. Many countries objected that negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme and missile capability were not given a chance to succeed before Washington and Israel began bombing, and analysts often saw the war in terms of a colonial-style exercise of might.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, offered condolences over the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that international law prohibited the targeting of heads of state. South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, questioned the “pre-emptive” justification provided for the war, saying that self-defence was only permitted in response to an armed invasion and that “there can be no military solution to fundamentally political problems”.

Brazil said that it had grave concerns, adding that “the attacks occurred amid a negotiation process between the parties, which is the only viable path to peace”. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, deplored the attacks, which he said were “instigated” by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who had said on the eve of the attack that a deal was within reach, said: “I urge the US not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.” Oman downed two drones, while another crashed near its Salalah port on Tuesday, state media said.

Cuba, whose regime is under substantial pressure from Donald Trump, said: “Once again, the US and Israel threaten and seriously endanger regional and international peace, stability, and security.” Malaysia, condemning the attack, said that “disputes must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy”.

Analysts said the conflict should be understood in the context of past wars of regime change in Iraq and Libya, Israel’s impunity for its war in Gaza since 2023, and colonialism – pointing to a speech of US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, last month, where he appeared to glorify past western conquests of developing nations.

Siphamandla Zondi, professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg, said that in the west, wars were viewed as having moral purpose, while in the global south, conflict was seen as evil and a failure to behave as adults. He said that the US and Israel had cajoled some countries through the Abraham Accords for diplomatic recognition of Israel, and used force against others. “This is a war of domination and subordination, therefore it has imperialist undertones and motives,” said Zondi. “It makes the world unsafe for all of us.”

Kristi Noem refuses to retract statement calling Minnesotans killed by federal agents ‘domestic terrorists’

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, on Tuesday would not retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”, while also claiming that agents do not abide by quotas for arrests.

Appearing before Congress for the first time since the killings, Noem evaded a question by the Senate judiciary committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, about whether she would take back the false accusations about Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “When we have these situations happen, we always offer our condolences to those families, and I offer mine as well,” Noem said during the oversight hearing.

Durbin noted that the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – both of whom testified before the House judiciary committee last month – said they did not provide information to Noem that Pretti was a domestic terrorist. “I was getting reports from the ground, from agents at the scene, and I would say that it was a chaotic scene,” Noem said.

Noem also told the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, that she believes there are about 650 federal immigration agents still stationed in Minnesota after Donald Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, announced there would be a substantial drawdown of immigration enforcement in the state last month. Throughout Operation Metro Surge, there were about 3,000 agents in Minnesota. “What I want to know is, when are you going to get down to the original footprint as promised to us?” Klobuchar asked Noem. Prior to the crackdown, there were about 150 federal immigration officers present in the state. ICE and CBP’s actions throughout the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota drew condemnation from both parties.

Minnesota launches investigation that could bring charges against US immigration officers

A Minnesota state prosecutor announced an investigation on Monday that may lead to charges against federal officers, including Greg Bovino, for misconduct during an immigration enforcement crackdown. The Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a news conference that her office is already looking into 17 cases, including one in which Bovino, a border patrol official, threw a smoke canister at protesters on 21 January.

Her office is also investigating federal agents’ shooting deaths of 37-year-old US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti on 7 and 24 January, respectively. And she is “confident” they will be able to pursue charges in the cases which led to nationwide demonstrations and criticisms of federal immigration enforcement use-of-force policies.

Another case on 7 January involved federal officers making an arrest outside a high school and deploying chemical irritants while students and staff were in the area. “Make no mistake – we are not afraid of the legal fight, and we are committed to doing this correctly,” Moriarty said. The immigration enforcement operation known as “Metro Surge caused immeasurable harm to our community”.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees immigration enforcement, responded in a statement on Monday night that such enforcement is a federal responsibility and states cannot prosecute federal officers.

Moriarty’s office has set up an online portal to which photos, videos and eyewitness accounts from any point during Operation Metro Surge can be uploaded. ... While Moriarty addressed the challenges her office would face in bringing charges against federal agents, she said they are committed to transparency and accountability. Mark Osler, who served as director of the criminal division for a year under Moriarty in 2023 and 2024, said regardless of whether there are charges, he thinks the public can look forward to more clarity. “One of the most important roles that prosecution has … is truth-telling, is to bring to the surface what actually happened at a given time,” said Osler, who is a law professor at the University of St Thomas. “We’ll all know more than just what we saw in those initial videos by the time she’s done. I’m confident of that.”

Howard Lutnick agrees to appear before US House panel on Epstein network

Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, has agreed to appear voluntarily before the House committee on oversight and government reform as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network, the committee’s chair announced on Tuesday. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the panel, said Lutnick had “proactively” agreed to the transcribed interview. ...

Lutnick has acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with family members – a trip that contradicted his earlier claim that he had severed ties with Epstein in 2005. Last week, the Department of Justice briefly deleted and then restored an undated photo of Lutnick and Epstein in an island setting. CBS News reported earlier this month that Lutnick and Epstein were in business together as recently as 2014.

The announcement came just days after Democrats on the committee publicly threatened to subpoena Lutnick if he refused to cooperate. Representative Ro Khanna of California told reporters on Friday that the votes were there to compel his testimony.

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James Talarico CLOBBERS Jasmine Crockett, Dem Turnout EXPLOSION

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Showdown over datacenter politics at heart of North Carolina primary

A North Carolina congressional primary on Tuesday is an early test of datacenter politics – a fight increasingly shaping elections nationwide. In the Durham-area fourth district, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is seeking her third term against progressive challenger Nida Allam, a Durham county commissioner she defeated in 2022.

The heated rematch comes against the backdrop of a major datacenter battle in the district. Allam has come out staunchly against a massive new proposed facility, and is supporting a federal datacenter moratorium. Foushee, meanwhile, said she does not personally support the new development, but that datacenter decisions should be left to local leaders, not federal ones.

Until mid-February, Allam’s campaign donations dwarfed Foushee’s, thanks to Pacs such as Justice Democrats and gun control activist David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve. In the last two weeks, that picture has changed dramatically as major Pacs have raced to back the incumbent. Chief among them is Jobs and Democracy, a Super Pac whose sole disclosed donor is Anthropic, the AI firm behind Claude. The group has spent about $1.6m on Foushee’s re-election campaign since 21 February. Though Anthropic has no known links to the local datacenter proposal, opposition to it has left some local residents especially skeptical of all political funding tied to big tech.

Hundreds of people signed an open letter urging candidates to oppose the datacenter proposal in the fourth district and reject big-tech Pac money. Allam, who agreed to the terms of the letter, said: “I wear it as a badge of honor that [big tech] sees me as a threat.” But when a high school student asked Foushee if she would accept funding from the AI sector last month, she said: “I have not made any pledge.”

Foushee’s Anthropic-tied funding has drawn sharp criticism from constituents opposing Maryland-based Natelli Investments’ plan to build a sprawling 190-acre (75-hectare) datacenter near Apex, 20 miles (32km) south-west of Raleigh. The proposal has sparked pushback over energy and water use and potential increases in toxic and planet-warming emissions. Some 5,000 people have signed a petition opposing it.

Global economy must stop pandering to ‘frivolous desires of ultra-rich’, says UN expert

The global economy must be reordered to ensure it serves ordinary people around the world rather than the “frivolous and destructive demands of the ultra-rich”, according to a leading UN figure. Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says politicians must stop prioritising “socially and ecologically destructive growth” that only increases the profits – and serves the consumption demands – of the world’s richest individuals and corporations.

Instead, to tackle the interwoven crises of rising inequality, ecological collapse and resurgent far-right politics, a new economic agenda is needed. “The scarce resources we have should be used to prioritise the basic needs of people in poverty and to create what is of societal value rather than serve the frivolous desires of the ultra-rich.”

De Schutter said an economy that uses its limited resources to prioritise building large mansions rather than social housing, or powerful cars rather than public transportation systems, was “grossly inefficient” and “will inevitably fail to satisfy the basic needs of people living on low incomes”.

De Schutter said he would publish his “roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth” in April, the result of an informal “beyond growth coalition” he has formed that includes UN agencies, academics, civil society and unions. The aim of the roadmap is to expand the range of policy options available to governments, multilateral institutions and development agencies in the fight against poverty. Among the moves it is considering are a universal basic income, job guarantees, debt cancellation and an extreme wealth tax.

Critically, De Schutter says the roadmap will coincide with two other initiatives: one instigated by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, which looks at replacing GDP as the key measure of economic success, and a second report by a G20 panel of independent experts on global inequality led by the renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz. ... As part of this process, De Schutter is calling for a permanent UN body to be established to oversee the fight against inequality. It would aim to oversee a number of measures designed to ensure “the economy is redistributive and sustainable by design rather than encouraging destructive growth and then trying to make up for the mess that creates.”

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Pressure Builds on US Lawmakers to Support Iran War Powers Resolution

Competing Dem War Powers Resolution Would Give Trump a Monthlong Free Pass in Iran

Hakeem Jeffries Whipping Votes Against Trump’s So-Far-Unbridled War on Iran

Iran, Epstein & Human Sacrifice

Iran girls’ school targeting likely ‘deliberate’

Khameini Is Responsible For Every Single Iranian Death

Chris Hedges: Going to War, Again, for Israel

War On Iran – Regional Participation – U.S. Blames Israel

Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

Trump Considers Backing Kurdish Militants Against Iranian Government

Iran War: Israel Air Defenses Crumbling, US Base Attacks Continue as Markets Set for Wile E. Coyote Moment

US Schedules Overnight Minuteman III Nuclear Missile Test at Vandenberg

Trump Threatens Full Trade Embargo Over Spain’s Refusal to Be Complicit in Iran Attacks

Police misconduct cost New York City taxpayers more than $117m in 2025

US antifa trial tests limits of Trump administration’s domestic terror claims

‘The concert ticket industry is broken,’ justice department says as Ticketmaster trial begins

“Utter Disaster for All Involved”: Is Trump’s War on Iran Repeating Bush’s “Forever War” in Iraq?

IRAN SHOOTS DOWN US & ISRAELI F15s

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A Little Night Music

J.B. Lenoir – I Feel So Good

J.B. Lenoir – If I Give My Love To You

J.B. Lenoir – Slow Down

J.B. Lenoir – Alabama Blues

J.B. Lenoir – Let's Roll (Take 2)

J.B. Lenoir – I've Been Down So Long

J.B. Lenoir – Tax Payin' Blues

J.B. Lenoir - Down in Mississippi

J.B. Lenoir - Good Advice

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