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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Clarence Frogman Henry

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer and piano player Clarence Frogman Henry. Enjoy!

^{Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - I ain't got no home}

"On Monday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Iran for spending its money on weapons instead of investing it toward the benefit of the Iranian people, saying “Imagine if instead of spending billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons, Iran had spent that money helping the people of Iran. They would have a much different country.”

Again, this is an official from the United States of America saying this. Literally the funniest country that could possibly utter this criticism of another country’s military spending."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

The Empire Is Losing Its Ability To Hide Its Ugly Nature

It used to be hard to help westerners see the depravity of the US empire. Now it’s just right in everyone’s face with raw genocide footage and insanely evil warmongering of direct economic consequence.

It took a lot of work to help the average westerner understand that NATO aggressions actively provoked the war in Ukraine, or that western interventionism played a major role in the violence and chaos in Syria, or that US economic warfare was largely responsible for the suffering of Cubans and Venezuelans. The murderous savagery of the empire was hidden behind layers of obfuscation, allowing the propagandists to frame the western power structure as a passive witness to the abuses of foreign regimes.

Now the propagandists have very little to work with, so those obfuscations can no longer take place. There’s no way you can spin a school full of children blown up by an American double-tap airstrike as anything other than what it is. There’s only so much narrative manipulation you can exert on raw video footage of a western-backed genocide playing out in full view of the entire world day after day for years. There’s no way to propagandize westerners into believing they want to pay a lot more more money for their fuel and groceries.

I saw former EU parliament member Luis Garicano complaining on Twitter that Trump’s actions are making it look as though leftists have been correct about the US empire this whole time, saying “Many of us, liberal Europeans, spent decades pushing back against the European extreme left’s cartoon version of America ( it’s all oil/ imperialism/getting rich at the expense of others) and then one dumb administration walks in and performs the caricature to perfection.”

Many of us, liberal Europeans, spent decades pushing back against the European extreme left's cartoon version of America ( it's all oil/ imperialism/getting rich at the expense of others) and then one dumb administration walks in and performs the caricature to perfection. https://t.co/S1WWvl9lZn

— Luis Garicano (@lugaricano) March 31, 2026

Garicano’s entire worldview depends on his ability to avoid recognizing the obvious truth: that the so-called “extreme left” has always been correct, and that the empire he worships has always been evil. It’s just having a harder and harder time masking its true nature, because of the very evils it has tried to conceal.

Everything’s becoming more and more revealed. More and more transparent. What was once done solely by whistleblowers, investigative journalists, activists and dissident media is now being done by the empire itself, because there’s only so long you can hide the truth about something so malignant. An empire that is held together by lies, corruption and endless slaughter was never going to remain unseen. The brutality necessary to dominate the planet had to come out into the light eventually.

“May all be revealed” has been my prayer for our world for many years now. That dearly held wish is now being answered, and the truth is looking every bit as ugly as expected.

May all be revealed. May all that is hidden become seen. In the empire. In our governments. In our culture. In our community. In our interpersonal relationships. In ourselves.

All abusiveness ultimately boils down to a lack of clear seeing. Governments are able to abuse people because the dynamics of corruption and tyranny aren’t clearly seen by the public, who would violently revolt if they truly understood what their leaders are doing to them and to their world. Domestic violence and family sexual abuse can only continue when the rest of the community doesn’t see and understand what the abuser is doing. Our own abusive tendencies can only persist for as long as our trauma responses and maladaptive coping mechanisms remain hidden in the shadows of our subconscious mind.

May All Be Revealed

"The fight for humanity’s future begins at your own eyelids."https://t.co/j1JQcolxIh

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 24, 2020

All of these dysfunctional dynamics will lose their durability as we become more and more conscious of what’s really going on, in ourselves and in our world. Things look ugly now because the truth is ugly, but it is only by truth revealing itself that we can move toward health and harmony as a species.

Our rulers pour so much energy into maintaining influence operations like news media propaganda, Hollywood psyops, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation and government secrecy in order to obstruct our clear seeing and understanding.

But it’s all coming tumbling out into the cold light of day now. More and more is becoming visible.

May the lies and obfuscations continue to unravel. May the truth continue to reveal itself.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Is Netanyahu Getting Desperate?

Israel hits Iran with waves of attacks and says it killed top Hezbollah commander

Israel unleashed two waves of attacks on Tehran and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday with little sign of the war easing up despite Donald Trump repeating a claim that Iran’s leadership was seeking a ceasefire.

The US president, writing on social media, said that Iran’s president had “just asked” for a ceasefire and that American troops would be “out of Iran pretty quickly” as he sought to extricate the US from the war. He indicated that he was not concerned about leaving Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) – often cited as a justification for the war - in its presumed underground hiding place, arguing it could be monitored by satellite. Trump repeated his earlier unfounded assertions that Tehran was anxious to do a deal, but appeared confused about who was running the country.

On Wednesday night, [Iranian president] Pezeshkian posted a letter to Americans on his X account, asking: “Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war? Was there any objective threat from Iran to justify such behavior?” He said Iranians “harbor no enmity towards other nations, including the people of America” and that “despite possessing military superiority over many of its neighbors, Iran has never initiated a war”.

Iran fired about 10 missiles into central Israel a couple of hours before the start of the annual Jewish Passover festival on a day when its allies, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, also attacked with rockets and missiles. Qatar also reported in the morning that a fuel oil tanker used by its state-owned energy company was struck by an Iranian missile, though there were no casualties reported among its 21-strong crew or environmental damage.

Israel’s military said it had struck approximately 400 Iranian regime targets over the past two days, including two waves on Wednesday, while Iranian media reported areas in northern, eastern and central Tehran had been under attack in the morning. At least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured in Iran since the start of the war, according to estimates from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, though precise figures are hard to come by. An Israeli navy strike on Beirut killed seven people including Youssef Hashem, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, the most senior leader of the Iranian proxy group to have been killed since the start of the war.

Israel Takes Massive Iran Missile Fire As GULF Wants Invasion

‘Fossil-fuel imperialism’: Trump’s hankering for Iranian oil runs deep

Donald Trump said this past weekend he wants to “take the oil in Iran” by seizing control of a key export hub, echoing a refrain he has returned to for over a decade. It’s a sign of his disregard for international law and belief in “fossil-fuel imperialism”, experts say. “Trump truly believes that the US is entitled to whatever resource it so desires,” said Patrick Bigger, co-director of the Transition Security Project, a research initiative focused on the climate and geopolitical concerns of militarization. “It’s a real ‘might-makes-right’ logic that is both abhorrent and spectacularly miscalculated.”

Trump is due to provide an update on the Iran war on Wednesday. On Tuesday, he said the conflict could end within weeks, leading the stock market to soar in anticipation of the de-escalation. But Iran has said it would need guarantees against future attacks to halt its counteroffensive. And for now the war is continuing. And earlier on Monday, the president said that if the strategically crucial strait of Hormuz were not “immediately” reopened and a peace deal not reached “shortly”, the US planned on “blowing up and completely obliterating” Iran’s energy infrastructure.

The previous day, Trump told the Financial Times that he wanted US forces to take over Kharg Island and the oil it houses. “To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran,” he said, “but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.”

With his Sunday statement, Trump “completely discredited” his war on Iran, said Amir Handjani, an energy lawyer and resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a thinktank promoting military restraint and diplomacy. “It undermines all of the other reasons Trump has given for waging this war, and makes it look like what everyone always suspects when the US engages in military confrontation, which is a play for natural resources,” said Handjani, who is also a partner at the communications firm Karv Global.

It’s not just Iran whose oil Trump has called for the US to take. During his first presidential campaign, he repeatedly suggested that the Bush administration should have seized Iraq’s oil to “reimburse” itself for the costs of the conflict. Handjani said: “It was an asinine thing to say, because it’s not like the Iraqi people said to the US: please come and invade us and overthrow our government … we’ll repay you with our oil.”

James (Jim) Webb : Why Should US Troops be Mercenaries for Israel?

COL. Douglas Macgregor : US Boots on the Ground a Disaster

Iran Accuses Trump Allies of ‘Fascist Mindset’ Akin to Hitler for Invoking Ancient Empires to Justify Aggression

As President Donald Trump and his allies invoke the conquests of ancient empires to justify waging war across the Middle East, a leading Iranian diplomat says they have adopted a “fascist mindset.”

“Even though the US has no ancient empire, it now claims to represent the ‘West’ and uses European history to justify its brutal military aggression on the Iranian nation,” wrote Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a post to social media Tuesday.

The regional war launched at the end of February by the US and Israel has entailed numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, residential areas, and water and energy facilities in Iran and Lebanon.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Tuesday that at least 1,598 civilians have been killed in Iran, including 244 children. The Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 1,318 people had been killed since Israel began its assault on Lebanon, including 125 children.

Such distorted historical references are revealingly similar to Nazi and Fascist thinking; Adolf Hitler justified invading other countries by invoking “Lebensraum” and praising Roman empire.
Mussolini used the glory of the Roman empire to excuse his aggressions in North Africa.… pic.twitter.com/efcvZZ7G14

— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) March 31, 2026

As Baqaei pointed out, multiple figures in Trump’s orbit have justified the carnage by portraying the war as an existential conflict of civilizations.

He referenced a comment made by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, who is now one of MAGA World’s most popular podcasters.

In a recent episode of Bannon’s War Room show, he called for “total war” against Iran and said the US was “gonna go back and redo what Alexander the Great did 2,300 years ago.”

Bannon was referring to the Macedonian general’s famous invasion of Persia in 330 BCE. Alexander’s conquest, which led to the absorption of Persia, was carried out with historic brutality—from the mass killing, displacement, and enslavement of countless people to the razing of entire cities like Persepolis and Tyre.

Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), perhaps the most vocal proponent of a full-scale invasion of Iran, asserted on Fox News Sunday that with overwhelming military might, the US could end a “2,000-year-long conflict,” as if to imply that the modern hostilities between the West and Iran are ancient and intractable when they are actually less than 50 years old.

“Such distorted historical references are revealingly similar to Nazi and fascist thinking,” Baqaei said, said, pointing to the German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

“Adolf Hitler justified invading other countries by invoking ‘Lebensraum’ and praising the Roman Empire,” he said. “Mussolini used the glory of the Roman Empire to excuse his aggressions in North Africa.”

Baqaei’s comments also come as Israel has launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, which it has suggested will result in an indefinite occupation. Defense Minister Israel Katz has described plans to fully demolish Lebanese villages adjacent to Israel’s border without allowing displaced residents to return.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Israeli officials are also privately discussing plans to press Lebanon’s Christian and Druse communities to “force out any Lebanese from neighboring Shiite Muslim communities who have sought refuge among them as Israeli bombardments flatten Shiite towns.”

Some figures in Israel’s growingly influential far-right have described the conquest of Lebanon as part of a broader project to establish “Greater Israel,” which would expand the nation’s territory to neighboring states across the Middle East and clear out local populations to be colonized by Jewish settlers.

The expansionist vision, and the accelerating violent displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, has been described by critics as an eerie parallel to the Nazi goal of creating “Lebensraum” by pushing out or killing ethnic groups viewed as racially inferior, particularly Jews, in order to create “living space” for Germans.

Portrayals of the war in Iran as a civilizational clash are omnipresent among Trump’s closest allies. Some, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, portray it as part of a holy “crusade” by Christendom against the Muslim world. Others like White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt have described it as a war to defend “Western civilization” from “brutal terrorists” who want to destroy it.

Baqaei said, however, that comments lionizing the war as a renewal of bloody old-world conquest is “reviving” a “dangerous pre-World War II fascist mindset—torpedoing the very modern values of human rights and international law the West claims to stand for.”

Prof. Marandi is right.

Don't allow the recent statements by Trump to fool you. The invasion is imminent. https://t.co/dBm6ygAgy1

— Narjes Rahmati (@Narjes_Rahmati) April 1, 2026

Trump’s Iran War Has Unleashed an Attack on Healthcare Every Six Hours

The US-Israeli war on Iran and the resulting regional conflict have unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on healthcare workers and infrastructure across the Middle East, from paramedics in southern Lebanon to medical facilities and ambulances in Tehran.

The international humanitarian group Save the Children estimated on Tuesday that, since the US and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, the Middle East has seen an average of one attack on healthcare every six hours. Overall, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded at least 120 attacks on healthcare since the start of the Iran war—86 in Lebanon, 28 in Iran, and six in Israel.

The head of the WHO said nine paramedics were killed in five separate Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon this past weekend.

“We cannot accept a world where those who save lives are targeted,” Nora Ingdal, country director at Save the Children Lebanon, said Tuesday. “Governments have long championed international humanitarian law that protects aid and health workers, and now is the time to act to prevent continued harm in Lebanon and across the wider region.”

Iranian officials have said that dozens of hospitals and other healthcare facilities are among the tens of thousands of civilian buildings damaged or destroyed by US-Israeli bombing over the past month, along with dozens of ambulances. Iran’s Emergency Medical Services Organization said Tuesday that at least 24 of the nation’s healthcare workers have been killed by US-Israeli attacks since late February.

In southern Lebanon, the Israeli assault has been devastating for the country’s healthcare system and workers. According to Save the Children, at least 55 of the country’s health facilities have been forced to close due to airstrikes and forced displacement orders from the Israeli government.

MedGlobal said Wednesday that Lebanon’s “already fragile health system is buckling under relentless pressure” of “systematic and severe” attacks,which the group emphasized are violations of international law.

“Attacks on healthcare workers are not collateral damage. They are alarming, unacceptable violations of international law,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal. “The international community cannot remain silent while Lebanon’s health system is targeted and dismantled—just at the moment when it is needed more than ever to save lives and help the vast numbers of internally displaced people.”

Inside the Strait of Hormuz: Eyewitness to US-Israeli War Crimes in Iran | w/ Dimitri Lascaris

Iranian livelihoods are being blown apart by US and Israeli bombs

As the US and Israel boast of the military success of their bombing campaign in Iran, ordinary Iranians describe a very different reality – one defined by profound losses. The war has wrought destruction, relentless fear, financial ruin and the sudden collapse of years of hard work. Ahmadreza, a shop owner in central Tehran, is one of them. The 40-year-old ran a small optical store until an air strike destroyed everything he had worked for. "My entire life savings are gone," he told Middle East Eye. "Everything I had built over the years just disappeared in seconds."

Ahmadreza said there were no military sites near his shop, leaving him struggling to understand why the area had been targeted. "No base, no police station, nothing," he said. "This was just a commercial area, a place where people came to buy glasses." His voice turned bitter. "They [the US and Israel] said they were bringing us freedom. Is this what freedom looks like?"

The US‑Israeli bombing campaign has increasingly struck civilian infrastructure across Iran, leaving tens of thousands of non-military sites, such homes, schools and hospitals, damaged or completely destroyed.

As the war enters its second month, many Iranians say the nature of the strikes has changed. While Israeli officials maintain that they are targeting military infrastructure, people on the ground say civilian areas are increasingly being hit.For many, the distinction no longer feels meaningful.

LEBANON FIGHTS BACK AS ISRAEL WAGES WAR ON JOURNALISTS, PARAMEDICS, CIVILIANS

Trump says he is ‘absolutely’ considering withdrawing US from Nato

Donald Trump has said he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “beyond reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to join the US-Israeli war against Iran. The president’s threats, his most determined to date, have left the alliance facing its worst crisis in its 77-year history, a former US ambassador has said.

He told Reuters news agency on Wednesday he was “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing, after telling the Telegraph the matter was “beyond reconsideration”, insisting he had never been “swayed by Nato”. He signalled that he would express his disgust for Nato in an address to the nation scheduled for Wednesday evening. It could be politically and constitutionally difficult for Trump to formally withdraw from the 1949 Washington treaty, Nato’s founding document, but Ivo Daalder, the US permanent representative at Nato headquarters from 2009 to 2013, said the serious damage to the alliance had already been done.

“This is by far the worst crisis Nato has ever confronted. Military alliances are, at their core, based on trust: the confidence that if I am attacked, you will come help defend,” Daalder wrote in an online commentary. “It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defence.”

Trump has swung between claiming a negotiated end to the war is imminent and threatening a ground assault, while calling on US allies to join the fight and force the strait back open. None of Washington’s traditional partners have come forward. Some European allies have declared the US-Israeli attack to be illegal and several have withheld the overflight rights and use of bases on their territory.

In an effort to “Trump-proof” the alliance, Congress passed the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2024, prohibiting a US president from unilaterally withdrawing the US from Nato without two-thirds Senate approval or an act of Congress – a provision co-sponsored by Rubio. The NDAA also prohibits using any federal funds to facilitate a withdrawal.

Death of Rohingya refugee left in parking lot by US border agents ruled a homicide

Authorities have ruled that the death of Nurul Amin Shah, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who was left by immigration agents at a restaurant in Buffalo, was a homicide. Shah, who was visually impaired, died on 24 February, five days after US Border Patrol agents dropped him off in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons on a cold winter night without notifying his family or attorney.

In a statement, the Erie county medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was “complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration”, and ruled the manner of death a homicide. The office said the final determination was made on 31 March. The examiner added that, for death certification purposes, “homicide” refers to a death resulting from the actions of another person, including negligent acts or omissions, and does not imply intent to cause harm or establish criminal liability.

The ruling adds new weight to an investigation into the circumstances of Shah’s death. In a statement, New York attorney general Letitia James, who opened a formal investigation earlier in March, said: “Mr Shah Alam fled genocide to build a life in this country. Instead, he was abandoned and left to suffer alone in his final hours. No New Yorker should be treated this way. My office is continuing our review of the circumstances and treatment that led to Mr Shah Alam’s death.”

Following the breaking news, New York congressman Tim Kennedy said: “Mr Shah Alam would be alive today with his family if he had access to medical care. Instead, he was callously abandoned on a cold winter night by the Department of Homeland Security. In light of this determination, DHS must fully cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation and ensure a transparent review of what happened.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to the Guardian that Shah’s death “had nothing to do with Border Patrol” and described the findings as “another hoax being peddled by the media and sanctuary politicians to demonize our law enforcement”.

Republican leaders agree to advance funding deal to end DHS shutdown

An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement.

The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called out of work after going weeks without pay. Wait times eased earlier this week, after Donald Trump signed an order for TSA employees to receive paychecks.

In a joint statement, Mike Johnson, House speaker, and John Thune, Senate majority leader, said they would move to pass a measure, approved by the Senate unanimously last week, which would fund DHS while excluding money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection. They would also abandon an attempt pushed by House Republicans to fund all of the DHS for 60 days, which Senate Democrats vowed to block with a filibuster.

Democrats have objected to funding ICE and other agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign unless the administration agreed to new rules governing agents’ conduct when making immigration arrests, including a ban on wearing masks and a requirement that they seek judicial warrants before entering residences.

To get around their objections, Thune and Johnson endorsed a plan from the Senate budget committee chair, Lindsey Graham, to write a measure funding ICE that could be passed with Republican votes alone, using the budget reconciliation procedure.

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Leading in Primary by 38 Points, Platner Takes Aim at Collins’ Wall Street Cash and Iran War Support

As Maine’s US Senate primary draws near, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has gone negative—focusing on online posts that her rival, political newcomer Graham Platner, wrote more than a decade ago.

But with poll after poll showing Platner beating the governor by double digits—and with the gap getting larger with each attack ad Mills releases—Platner this week turned his attention away from the primary race altogether, releasing an ad focusing on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whom the Democrats are hoping to unseat next November.

In a one-minute ad released online Tuesday evening, Platner is seen in black and white at one of the many rallies he’s held across Maine since launching his campaign last August, where he’s spoken in support of Medicare for All, condemned President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and war in Iran, and spoken out against oligarchy.

Collins, Platner tells the audience in the ad, “is the epitome of the establishment politician who serves the donors and serves herself, who is cynical and duplicitous, who’s willing to say one thing and do another.”

“We had to shed her from our politics. Quite frankly, we have to shed all the people like her,” Platner continues as a musician plays the labor movement anthem, “Which Side Are You On?”

While Platner addresses the crowd, text appears on screen:

“Collins raked in Wall Street cash before advancing Trump tax bill,” it reads at one point, referring to the $2 million donation Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman gave to the senator’s super political action committee (PAC) one day before she voted to advance President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which contained tax cuts for the rich as it slashed public programs like Medicaid and federal food assistance.

“Collins accepts thousands from insurers while health costs soar,” the text continues, citing a Maine Beacon article about $120,000 in campaign donations from PACs associated with for-profit health insurance companies—“the same companies now raising premiums on Mainers by as much as 23% in 2026.”

“Collins expresses support for Trump’s war in Iran,” the text reads at another point, regarding the senator’s comment last month that Trump has “inherent abilities as commander-in-chief to react” to what he claimed was a threat posed by Iran when he began attacking the country along with Israel.

A poll released by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research last week showed nearly 6-in-10 Americans say the war has gone too far. Fifty-six percent of respondents to a Data for Progress survey last month said the war would benefit Israel more than the US, and this week two polls found a majority of Jewish Americans oppose the war.

“We need to defeat Susan Collins. That work can’t wait until June,” said Platner on Tuesday, referring to the June 9 primary. “So we plan to make clear to Mainers starting today: Susan Collins is not on our side.”

The ad was released as the latest polling from Impact Research found 66% of likely Democratic primary voters backing Platner, with just 28% supporting the governor.

Janet Mills going negative backfired, which doesn’t bode well for Collins either https://t.co/F7q7nUL7cF

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 31, 2026

That poll bolsters other recent surveys that have found Platner with a commanding lead, including at least one other that was taken after Mills launched her first negative ad against her opponent. A second ad was released days later, focusing on the same subject matter: comments Platner made on Reddit in 2013 about sexual assault survivors, which the candidate has said don’t represent his current views.

“Janet Mills going negative backfired,” said Ryan Grim of Drop Site News, “which doesn’t bode well for Collins either.”

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Invisible plumes and ‘terrible pollution’: the reality of the US gas sites rated ‘grade A’

A rapidly expanding certification scheme run by a UK nonprofit and used by major gas companies may be [mis]understating the actual methane emissions it purports to certify, a Guardian investigation has found. BP, ExxonMobil and EQT are among the producers that have turned to London-based MiQ to demonstrate that their US-produced natural gas complies with the European Union Methane Regulation, or EUMR, which aims to curb energy-related emissions.

The findings raise questions about whether third-party certification schemes can credibly demonstrate exporters’ compliance with the bloc’s new methane rules, an approach championed by the gas industry and now supported by the European Commission. MiQ runs the largest voluntary methane certification programme globally, covering about a fifth of US natural gas production and 7% globally. It maintains that its framework is specifically designed to comply with the EU methane regulation.

In July 2025 the energy publication Gas Outlook travelled with Oilfield Witness, an environmental monitoring group, to 10 MiQ-certified sites across the Permian Basin, the country’s largest oil and gas field, which straddles the Texas-New Mexico border. Using optical gas imaging cameras that detect methane invisible to the naked eye, they documented what Tim Doty, a former air quality inspector at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality who reviewed the footage, described as “huge emissions” at multiple sites.

At BP’s State Ella Mae Hall gas well, images showed an unlit flare that appeared to be malfunctioning, “acting as a vent pipe rather than a combustion device”, Doty said. Further south, the camera picked up “significant emissions” that Doty said were generated by flaring and maintenance issues at the BP-operated Gretchen Northrup well. BP says on its website that all its onshore upstream operations in the US are certified under MiQ. The company does not disclose individual ratings, but available information suggests these sites received grades from A to C, implying leakage rates below 0.2% of production.

A February 2026 report from MethaneSAT, a methane-monitoring satellite launched by Environmental Defense Fund and Harvard in 2024, found emissions in the Permian Basin from May 2024 to June 2025 to be four times higher than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s official estimates, which are largely based on operator-reported emissions. Researchers estimate average methane emissions across the basin range between 2.4-4% of production, among the highest worldwide and exponentially higher than even a C grade from MiQ. Similar patterns emerged across the border in New Mexico, where methane was observed leaking from tanks, inefficient flares and faulty equipment at ExxonMobil’s Poker Lake complex, which has held an A rating from MiQ since 2022.

‘On a whole other level’: rapid snow melt-off in American west stuns scientists

Snow surveys taking place across the American west this week are offering a grim prognosis, after a historically warm winter and searing March temperatures left the critical snowpack at record-low levels across the region. Experts warned that even as the heat begins to subside, the stunning pace of melt-off over the past month has left key basins in uncharted territory for the dry seasons ahead. Though there’s still potential for more snow in the forecast, experts said it will probably be too little too late.

“This year is on a whole other level,” said Dr Russ Schumacher, a Colorado State University climatologist, speaking about the intense heat that began rapidly melting the already sparse snowpack in March. “Seeing this year so far below any of the other years we have data for is very concerning.” Acting as a water savings account of sorts, snowpacks are essential to water supply. Measurements taken across the west during the week of 1 April are viewed as important indicators of the peak amounts of water that might melt into reservoirs, rivers and streams and across thirsty landscapes through the summer.

During a critical survey in California’s Sierra Nevada on Wednesday, grass and mud could be seen through the thin white patchwork as state officials attempted to measure the meager snowpack. “Normally we’d be standing right here,” Andy Reising, manager of California department of water resource’s snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit said, gesturing at chin height. The 5ft-tall tool typically thrust deep into the high berms on 1 April poked into the brown earth next to him. “There is actually no measurable snow.”

With zero depth and zero water content, this year’s annual April snow survey conducted at Phillips Station, was the second worst on record, beaten only by 2015 when officials “walked across a dry field”, Reising said. It’s not just the amount of snow left on mountaintops that’s concerning experts, but the amount of moisture still frozen within them. “Snow water equivalent” (SWE), a measurement of what could melt off to supply natural and manmade systems, is exceptionally low.

California’s Sierra Nevada had just 4.9in of SWE, or 18% of average on Wednesday, according to the state’s department of water resources. In the Colorado River headwaters, an important basin that supplies more than 40 million people across several states, along with 5.5m acres of agriculture, 30 tribal nations, and parts of Mexico, had just over 4in of SWE on Monday, or 24% of average. That’s less than half what was previously considered the record low.

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Also of Interest

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

When Does Money Matter?

‘You Are Not Our Enemy’ – Iran’s President Sends Message to Americans – FULL TEXT

Israel Is Making Sure Trump Can’t Find an Off-Ramp in Iran

Iran War: Israel Would Thwart Trump TACO Even if Genuine; US Forces Still Arriving in Middle East as Trump to Speak This Evening; Could Strait of Hormuz Traffic Rise Meaningfully With Less Hot Conflict?

DAYS 30-32: WAR ON IRAN — An Insulting War of Insults

War On Iran: The Best Choice Is To Retreat – More Likely Though Is Escalation

UAE has an active role in Iran war and will be pounded if US invades, Iranian sources say

What the War on Iran Means for Palestine

Strange figures and unexplained killings: The clues Mossad infiltrated Iran’s protests

‘Human tragedy’: Leqaa Kordia on how ICE jail echoes life in occupied Palestine

Manhattan judge delays Luigi Mangione state and federal trials

Hitler phones Hegseth

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A Little Night Music

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - A Little Too Much

Clarence Frogman Henry - Little Suzy

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - Your Picture

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - Troubles, Troubles

Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry – Have You Ever Been Lonely

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - Just My Baby And Me

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - It Won't Be Long

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - Loving Cajun Style

Clarence "Frogman" Henry - You Can't Hide a Tear (Parrot) 1965

Madeline Kahn - Ain't Got No Home

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