The Evening Blues - 5-26-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues saxophone player J.T. Brown. Enjoy!
J.T. Brown - Walking Home
"[General Curtis] LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"
-- Robert McNamara
News and Opinion
International flotilla activists say they were subjected to torture and sexual assault by Israeli forces after being abducted in international waters while attempting to bring aid to Gaza.
A statement from the Global Sumud Flotilla reports that the IDF held the activists on a makeshift “torture boat”, asserting that “At least 12 sexual assaults have been documented on that vessel alone, including anal rape and forcible penetration by a handgun.”
This comes after a New York Times report on Israel’s systemic use of sexual torture in its prison camps sent hasbarists howling in outrage for days, and after a Haaretz report on the Israeli military’s internal findings that sexual assault is soaring among its own ranks.
If you knew someone who was constantly being accused of rape by different people on a daily basis, at some point you’d have to conclude that that person is a rapist. When you see the Israeli military being constantly accused by people from all walks of life of using rape and sexual torture, you have to conclude that Israel is a rape country.
Prof. John Mearsheimer : Neocons Want More War
US launches strikes on southern Iran
The US military’s Central Command is saying US forces have carried out strikes on southern Iran in “self-defence”.
The strikes targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, Centcom is quoted as saying.
Explosions were heard earlier in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and the Iranian state news agency Mehr later said the situation was “completely under control” and there was no reason for residents to worry.
U.S.-Iran Agreement in the Balance, Israel Escalates Attacks Against Gaza and Lebanon
Iran denies deal with US is imminent despite some progress
Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure. Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.
Referring to the state of the talks, Baghaei said: “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.” He also insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon had to be included in the memorandum of understanding that would lead to Iran allowing commercial shipping through the strait, and the US lifting its blockade of Iran’s ports.
By contrast, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, still held out hope that a deal could be reached on Monday, but there appeared to be a mounting list of unresolved problems in what was intended to be a roadmap to reopening the nuclear talks that Trump abandoned in February in favour of war. Rubio said it took time to receive an answer from the Iranian political system but he emphasised: “Either we will have a good deal or we will deal with this issue in another way, and we prefer to have a good deal.”
The US president, Donald Trump, said in a post on Truth Social on Monday that the deal would either be “great and meaningful, or there will be no deal at all”. Trump added that he had asked countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to join the Abraham accords en masse to normalise relations with Israel.
Barbara Leaf, a former US assistant secretary for near east affairs, said: “Suffice to say there are no takers among those who are not part of the Abraham accords to join that agreement. You are not going to get Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to do that. Absolutely not.” She said the proposal had been greeted with “stunned silence” when Trump put it to the regional leaders by phone at the weekend. The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, suggested the Abraham accords plan would not make the emerging deal any more palatable to Israel, describing the deal as disturbing and bad for the region. He said the Israeli government was at “an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington”.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: US Fighter Jets Target Iranian Speedboats in Persian Gulf
Israel escalates strikes in Lebanon as Netanyahu vows to ‘crush’ Hezbollah
The Israeli army has intensified strikes in southern Lebanon, as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah in a further erosion of an already fragmented ceasefire. In turn, Hezbollah said it staged several attacks on Monday on three barracks and a military post in northern Israel “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.
The intensifying conflict comes amid waning hopes for an imminent deal between the US and Iran, with Tehran pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in northern Israel: at least four drone attacks on Shomera barracks, attacks on two barracks in other towns in the region, and another on a military post in Misgav Am, carried out around midday at short intervals. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted on 2 March. Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on 17 April, both sides have continued to exchange fire on a near-daily basis.
“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on his Telegram channel. “It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fibre-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures and we will solve this issue … We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”
Two far-right ministers called for an expansion of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. “There is an urgent need to put an end to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s explosive drones,” the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an occupied West Bank settlement, said on Telegram. The national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, called for a “return to intensive warfare” and for “taking control” of further territory.
Trump BOMBS Iran As Israel LIGHTS Up Potential Deal
Shock of Iran war unites Middle East rivals in pushing Trump towards peace
The shock of the Iran war and its fallout has driven rivals in the Middle East to get behind a peace deal, pushing the Trump administration to accept a tentative agreement in the face of furious opposition from Israel and its supporters in Washington. The diplomatic efforts come as the region is reshaping to adapt to diminished US power after Washington’s inability to land a knockout blow on Iran, force the opening of the strait of Hormuz or safeguard its Gulf allies. Tehran has few friends in the region, but the regime’s survival has meant that its neighbours have had to find an accommodation.
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at Kings College London, said the Gulf was shocked at the degree to which Washington protected Israel first against Iranian drones and missiles, despite the trillions of dollars of Gulf investment pouring into the US. “We’re probably seeing the final days of American empire in the Middle East,” he said. “Across the Gulf, there is complete disillusionment with American influence and the ability of America to lead.”
The provisional deal was agreed at the end of last week after Pakistani and Qatari officials travelled to Iran in a final push for an outline agreement between Tehran and Washington. In a call with Trump on Saturday, leaders from a group of eight Muslim-majority nations urged him to accept a deal that would end the war, reopen the strait of Hormuz, and relaunch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The same countries lost the argument in Washington to the Benjamin Netanyahu before the war, but now they have managed to outweigh the Israeli prime minister – who spoke to Trump on the same day – with the US president declaring that the deal was “largely negotiated”. Trump said last week that Netanyahu “will do whatever I tell him to do” on Iran. An analysis piece published on Monday in the Times of Israel was headlined: “Israel began the Iran war as a partner of the US — and is ending it on the sidelines”.
The United Arab Emirates, which had reportedly urged fellow Gulf countries to join the war against Iran and carried out its own airstrikes, swung behind the peace deal alongside Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt. HA Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank in London, said the region had calculated that regime change in Tehran was too risky because it could bring a collapse of the state and chaos, something that only Israel wanted. It had also become clear to Trump that the war would not deliver what he wanted, so the region did not so much persuade him to accept a deal as allowed him to say that he had overwhelming regional support, he said.
Alastair Crooke : Fear as a Deterrent to War
Warning of US Unreliability and Israeli ‘Sabotage,’ Iran Refutes Trump Claim of Peace Deal
Officials in Tehran on Monday swatted down President Donald Trump’s assertion that an agreement to end the nearly three-month Iran War was imminent, citing frequently shifting US positions and Israeli “sabotage” as obstacles during ongoing talks.
“It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion,” Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said during a press briefing. “But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent—no one can make such a claim.”
Trump tempered his own Saturday claim that a peace deal had “been largely negotiated” with Tehran, “subject to finalization.”
“Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely!” the president said Monday on his Truth Social platform. “It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all—Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before—And nobody wants that!”
A 14-point memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran reportedly contains a ceasefire and 30-day negotiation period for a broader agreement, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, easing or lifting the US naval blockade on Iran, unfreezing Iranian state assets abroad, relief from US sanctions, and restrictions on Iranian nuclear development.
Naming countries including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan, Trump wrote that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords,” the US-brokered normalization pacts between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, Kazakhstan, and Israel that the Palestinian writer Karim Kattan called “a fever dream of dictators.”
Trump suggested that Iran could also normalize relations with Israel by signing the Abraham Accords and said that “it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition.”
However, Baghaei threw cold water on Trump’s optimism, stressing Monday that “the focus of the negotiations is on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon,” and that this critical point is “one of the core elements of understanding in any agreement.”
What negotiators aren’t discussing at this time, according to both sides, is ending Iran’s nuclear development.
“The focus of the negotiations is on ending the war, and at this stage we are not discussing nuclear issues,” Baghaei said.
Also not under current discussion is the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian-controlled maritime chokepoint through which around 20% of the world’s oil is shipped.
“How this region should be managed concerns the littoral states,” Baghaei said, referring to Iran and Oman. “We understand that the security of the Strait of Hormuz is a concern for the entire world.”
Baghaei affirmed that negotiations on the 14-point memorandum of understanding would continue over the next two months, but that the US blockade of Iranian ports and shipping “must stop.”
According to Iranian state media outlet Press TV, Baghaei “criticized the inconsistency in US policymaking, saying contradictory positions within short periods complicate negotiations.”
A major sticking point in the talks is Iran’s insistence that any agreement to end hostilities must also include an end to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, which have killed or wounded more than 12,000 people, according to officials there. After the current Pakistan-brokered ceasefire took effect on April 7, Israel responded by escalating its war on Lebanon, killing or wounding more than 1,400 people, many of them civilians, over a 24-hour period.
Baghaei said Monday that “one should expect nothing from Israel except the sabotage of any process.”
It’s not just Israel; Iranian, Pakistani, and Omani negotiators have accused US officials of blowing up previous Iran peace talks when they were on the verge of success.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sunday that while he supports the US effort to end the war, “President Trump and I agreed that any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear danger.”
Israeli and US intelligence agencies have said for decades—including under Trump—that Iran is not trying to build nuclear weapons and stopped trying to do so in the early 2000s.
Pro-war Republican US lawmakers joined many Israeli leaders in both government and the opposition in expressing alarm over a potential peace deal that is widely viewed as a major win for Iran.
“Details of the deal between the United States and Iran are so disturbing,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Monday in West Jerusalem. “The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran.”
“Netanyahu has failed to achieve every single one of the war’s objectives as he himself defined them,” he added.
Some US Congressional Democrats also said the outcome of the illegal US-Israeli war of choice is likely to favor Iran, even as airstrikes have killed or wounded more than 30,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
“If this deal with Iran is real, I will welcome it because every day this insane war goes on, America gets weaker,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday. “The priority is to end the war—now. But make no mistake: These are Iran’s terms. Our nation emerges humiliated.”
“The deal is basically this: We give Iran billions to get back to where we were before the war. And reports suggest the deal might codify Iran’s right to control the strait,” he continued. “There are reports there may be a tiny nuclear concession from Iran in the deal and if so, great. But I doubt it—they are most likely postponing all the nuclear issues.”
“But a promise to ship out enriched uranium (the reported concession) was also in [Former President Barack] Obama’s deal (as well as a lot of other things Trump will never get),” the senator noted, referring to the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—that Trump unilaterally abrogated during his first term.
“And now that we are dropping sanctions, we have less leverage to get them to give more in future negotiations,” Murphy said. “And just remember, Trump hasn’t accomplished ANY of his constantly shifting goals. Iran still has its ballistic missile and drone program. They still have a navy that can close the strait. A hardline regime is still in charge.”
“Of course, none of those things could be accomplished by an air campaign—which is why so many of us opposed this war,” he added. “And now the new regime is emboldened. They took our best shot and beat us. Iran emerges more powerful.”
Iranian leaders underscored their readiness to continue the fight should negotiations fail.
“Look, Americans talk too much and keep changing their story by the minute,” Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Commander Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi said Monday. “We’ve said it many times before: On the battlefield, we’ll show what we’re capable of.”
Scott Ritter : Why Bother to Negotiate With Trump?
Russian Fiercest Warning; Kiev Decision Centres Will Be Attacked; Patience Exhausted; West Quit Kiev
Oil prices fall below $100 a barrel on hopes of Iran peace deal
Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Monday and stock markets rose on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were down 6% to $97.43 a barrel, the lowest level in two weeks, with hopes that an agreement to end the near three-month US-Israeli war on Iran can be struck.
However, while a framework has been negotiated, the US and Iran remain at odds over key issues such as Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz. An Iranian government spokesperson cautioned that an agreement was “not imminent”. The strait’s de facto closure sent energy prices soaring after the US and Israel first launched missile strikes on Tehran on 28 February.
Warren Patterson, the head of commodities strategy at ING, told Reuters: “We’ve been at this stage before, only for talks to break down. Therefore, the market will likely be more cautious about overreacting.” Even if the strait reopens, analysts say a return to normal oil flows will take months, while damaged energy infrastructure in Qatar and elsewhere is repaired. Last week, Barclays stuck to its average Brent crude oil price forecast of $100 this year, but said there were risks it could be higher.
Two tankers carrying liquefied natural gas were exiting the strait on Monday, heading to Pakistan and China, while a supertanker with Iraqi crude left the Gulf bound for China on Saturday after being stranded for almost three months, Reuters reported, citing shipping data. The UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said: “We continue to believe that the key factors for the oil market to watch should be the physical oil flows, and so far flows through the strait remain restricted.”
Despite the fall on Monday, oil prices remain much higher than in the run-up to the Iran war, when a barrel of Brent crude was trading at about $70.
Hasan Piker SUBPOENAED By Trump DOJ Over Cuba Trip?
Humanitarians for Cuba Speak Out Over Alleged Subpoenas
The antiwar group CodePink it has yet to be served with any subpoenas after it was reported over the weekend that the Trump administration has opened an investigation into a recent humanitarian trip it helped organize to Cuba, but vehemently denied wrongdoing and said any government probe, if there is one, would only show that “this administration is beyond grotesque.”
“Taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime?” asked co-founder Medea Benjamin on social media on Saturday after Fox News reported that organizers had been served subpoenas. “Saving the lives of babies is a crime?”
Fox reported that Benjamin and left-wing commentator Hasan Piker had been subpoenaed by federal investigators two months after they were among 40 Americans who sailed to Havana on the Nuestra America Convoy, which carried 20 tons of humanitarian aid to the island nation.
The Fox reporting claimed the subpoenas issued to Benjamin and Piker seek to obtain financial, logistical, and communications information related to the trip, which was organized in response to the Trump administration’s decision in late January to threaten to impose tariffs on any country that provided Cuba with oil.
The administration cut off Cuba’s main source of fuel at the beginning of the year when it sent US troops into Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and took control of the country’s vast oil supply.
White House officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have long desired regime change in the communist country, and rights advocates have warned the administration appears to be moving toward just that as it strangles the island’s oil supply—causing frequent blackouts and impacting the healthcare and food systems—and claims the Cuban government poses a threat to the US.
In organizing the Nuestra America Convoy, said Benjamin on Sunday, the advocates were acting “as moral US citizens trying to bring some relief to a population being deliberately starved by the cruel policies of our own government.”
“This policy has contributed to catastrophic shortages of medicine and electricity, massive blackouts, transportation collapse, and a public health crisis that has hurt the most vulnerable, especially children and the elderly,” said Benjamin. “It is a policy that is, literally, killing babies, as we have seen in the recent tragic doubling of the infant mortality rate. This is why we focused our donations on medical supplies for pediatric hospitals.”
The blockade is compounding the suffering caused by the trade embargo the US has imposed for decades, said Benjamin.
The Cuban Assets Control Regulations law prohibits US citizens from conducting unlicensed travel-related transations with Cuba, but the law makes exceptions for humanitarian endeavors and other activities aimed at supporting the Cuban people.
“We traveled to Cuba under the US government-authorized category of providing humanitarian aid to the Cuban people. We brought desperately needed medicines and medical supplies at a time when Cuba is suffering catastrophic shortages caused by the crippling US blockade,” said Benjamin.
Benjamin, Piker, and Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim emphasized that the group stayed in Spanish-owned hotels that are “explicitly permitted under” the US law—while right-wing influencer Nick Shirley allegedly stayed in a sanctioned hotel on a recent trip to Cuba.
This is amazing: “According to public statements, it's believed that delegation members stayed at a hotel the U.S. State Department has put on a "Cuba Restricted List," as businesses directly tied to the communist government of Cuba, designated a state sponsor of terrorism.”
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) May 24, 2026
“It is outrageous that the US government would target people for bringing humanitarian aid to suffering Cuban children,” Benjamin said. “But even more disturbing is the cruel and deeply immoral policy the United States continues to impose on Cuba—a policy designed to strangle the island economically, deprive people of food, fuel, medicine, and basic necessities, and make daily life unbearable.”
Piker said the reports of the investigation indicate that “the American government would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’ve starved, than punish the Epstein class.”
Benjamin emphasized that the reports of the probe come as the administration intensified its threats against Cuba, having indicted former President Raúl Castro last week on charges related to the shooting down of a plane operated by Cuban-American exiles in the 1990s. Trump and his allies have repeatedly mused about invading the country following his military attacks on Venezuela and Iran.
“President Trump already has his hands full trying to disentangle himself from the disastrous US war with Iran,” said Benjamin. “He should not start another one in Cuba. The American people are tired of endless wars, interventions, sanctions, and suffering imposed in our name.”
Bolivia Lawmakers Overturn Limits on ‘Martial Law’ as Mass Uprising Demands Ouster of President
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, who is facing calls for his resignation as Indigenous and labor organizers lead protests across the country, could declare a “state of exception”—described by local reporters as “essentially martial law”—as soon as Monday night after the country’s Senate overwhelmingly voted to overturn a law regulating the government’s ability to crack down on protests.
According to Bolivian reports, the Chamber of Senators on Sunday overturned Law 1341, which since 2020 had imposed strict time limits on emergency measures, ensured certain violable rights could not be suspended under a state of exception, required legislative oversight, and made the president criminally liable for exceeding the law’s perimeters.
“Abrogating Law 1341 does not remove the state of exception from Bolivia’s legal architecture,” according to The Rio Times. “It removes the apparatus that prevented that constitutional clause from being exercised at the executive’s sole discretion.”
Joseph Bouchard, who has reported for Drop Site News and The Intercept from Latin America, said far-right groups linked to the 2019 coup in Bolivia have demanded “a return to martial law, to use lethal force against opposition with impunity, and crack down on opposition as much as possible.”
“Many of these groups are openly fascist and white supremacist,” said Bouchard.
The law was overturned about three weeks into nationwide protests against Paz, who took office about six months ago. Protesters allied with former President Evo Morales have expressed anger over the administration’s decision to end a fuel subsidy that was essential for working people amid an economic crisis. The demonstrators—comprised of a broad coalition which includes Indigenous groups, labor unions, and farmworkers—have demanded higher wages and an end to privatization and the broader neoliberal project under Paz.
Bolivia: Tens of thousands of Kataristas march from El Alto to the seat of government in La Paz. Paz's resignation is top of the list, along with anger about land privatization, diesel shortages, and state repression. "They call us all bandits and thugs. We are democracy." pic.twitter.com/nrhBkYv2TB
— Joseph Bouchard (@GeopolWonk) May 25, 2026
The protests have been met with a crackdown by police, in La Paz and at the sites of dozens of road blockades around the country.
Last week, the country’s public prosecutor issued arrest warrants for at least two organizers, including Mario Argollo, executive secretary of the top Bolivian labor union, Central Obrera Boliviana (COB).
On Monday, TeleSUR reported that COB refused to engage in talks with Paz’s government until the charges against Argollo are dropped.
Bouchard reported that if Paz’s government implements a state of exception, “the measures would mean security forces could arrest anyone, for any reason, and use extraordinary measures against all opposition.”
The overturning of Law 1341 struck down limits on “the use of lethal force by the security forces,” he said.
Only three senators aligned with Vice President Edmand Lara voted against repealing the law.
According to The Rio Times, Lara “has been politically distancing himself from Paz almost since inauguration.”
Bolivia: Vice President Lara rejects the call for the implementation of a state of exception, calling for human rights and democracy to be respected, without violence. https://t.co/SWY6CSnyiv
— Joseph Bouchard (@GeopolWonk) May 25, 2026
“No measure can stand above human life,” said Lara, expressing “profound concern and indignation” over the Senate vote.
Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ driving rise of AI
Pope Leo has denounced the “culture of power” driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that the technology must be subject to the “most rigorous” ethical constraints as it infiltrates everything from work to war. In his encyclical – the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy – he also apologised for the Catholic church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory”, and spoke of the “new forms of slavery” due to the digital economy.
In a break from tradition, Leo, who soon after being elected in May last year said he considered AI to be the biggest threat to humanity today, presented the document himself on Monday during an event at the Vatican. Among those in attendance was Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a US-based AI firm thatis embroiled in a lawsuit with Donald Trump’s administration over the ethics of AI.
In the document, called Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Leo, who was born in Chicago and is the first US-born pope, referred to “a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics” and said AI was helping to facilitate the “normalisation of war”.
“For this reason, the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,” he wrote. Leo urged the “disarming” of AI, while stating that some autonomous weapons systems are “practically beyond any human reach” to control. “Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” he wrote. “To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” adding that the technology should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all and opened to discussion and debate.
In a passage that appeared to be targeted at Silicon Valley, the pope warned that power over digital systems, infrastructure and data “does not rest with states but with major economic and technological actors”, and that when such power was concentrated “in the hands of the few” it tended to “become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities”.
Protesters clash with ICE agents outside New Jersey detention center
Protesters outside a New Jersey migrant detention center where a hunger strike is under way alleged that US immigration agents deployed pepper spray and batons against them during a demonstration on Monday. The protesters tried to stop ICE from transferring Martin Soto – who announced the strike – but officials said that they were able to move him to the Elizabeth contract detention facility.
Demonstrators claimed that the incident unfolded early this morning outside Delaney Hall in Newark, which has been roiled by an ongoing hunger strike, ABC 7 reported. Protesters have stood outside Delaney Hall since Friday.
Tensions mounted late on Sunday, however, when dozens of protesters heard that guards were preparing to move detainee Soto – who on Friday announced a hunger and work strike. The strike is demanding the immediate release of elderly and young detainees, as well as those with medical conditions, according to The City.
Soto’s wife, Gabriela, has been organizing protests outside the facility. Gabriela , 28, tried visiting him on Sunday and as she was in the queue, spotted a man being pushed into a van. Some visitors to Delaney Hall told Gabriela, who is reportedly several months pregnant with their third child, that this was Martin and she rushed toward the vehicle, The City reported.
Demonstrators gathered with Gabriela, blocking the entrance to stop Martin from being transferred. “Free Martin!” Gabriela and the crowd reportedly shouted. “Free them all!” At about 1am Monday, ICE agents blocked the roadway along Delaney Hall’s back gate, Gothamist reported, seemingly to let out ICE vehicles. Demonstrators confronted ICE agents and some tried blocking their vehicles. ICE agents allegedly responded by clearing the area with force.
Why Michigan is emerging as one of America’s worst-hit climate states
The tornado hit west Ann Arbor at 1.45am on 15 April, passing through Veterans Memorial park, where it knocked several mature oak trees and ripped up baseball field fences before setting its sights on a local ice rink. The state averages 15 tornadoes a year but last year saw 33. This year, it’s already experienced 15.
The tornado outbreaks follow some of the worst flooding the state has seen in decades. Last month, several Michigan dams and levees were at risk of failure, and an evacuation order was issued in Cheboygan in the north of the state. Florida, California and the mountain west are often held up as US regions worst affected by climate change now and into the future. But recent events suggest parts of the Great Lakes, sometimes referred to as being “climate proof”, are suffering too.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) officials this month find themselves on the ground across 30 Michigan counties, assessing the fallout of the tornadoes and flooding. This year’s flooding and tornadoes appear to be part of a wider trend in a state where severe weather events from past years are still placing huge financial burdens on residents.
Michigan’s newfound susceptibility to extreme weather is down to a few factors, experts say, noting that in the spring, the state often finds itself caught in the transition boundary of the jet stream between warm, moist air from the south and cold, dry air from Canada. This spring, it’s been unusually active. “When you have warm, moist air that clashes with dry air, you get a very sharp boundary in temperatures that will cause severe weather. And that’s what we’ve seen,” says Lisa DeChano-Cook, a professor at Western Michigan University’s school of environment, geography and sustainability.
“We also have a strong temperature contrast between the Great Lakes water temperatures and the Gulf moisture. More precipitation can come down, and we can have more extreme outcomes.” Warmer temperatures in the Arctic weaken the polar jet stream, which in turn can cause it to bend more to the north and south. For the Great Lakes region and southern Canada, that can lead to more extreme weather events across a larger area.
Seven in ten American farmers cannot afford all the fertiliser they need for 2026 pic.twitter.com/CmyQbwkFyA
— PiQ (@PiQSuite) May 24, 2026
Explosion threat at southern California chemical tank eliminated, firefighters say
Firefighters contending with an overheating tank of hazardous chemicals in southern California said they had eliminated the threat of the tank exploding in an overnight operation, Orange county fire officials said on Monday. The damaged chemical tank in southern California had cracked over the weekend, which authorities were hopeful would relieve pressure and reduce the risk of an explosion.
Officials said crews conducted tank temperature checks at night to reduce risks to firefighters, avoiding daytime operations when heat from the tank made conditions around it most dangerous. The overnight mission allowed crews to verify the crack and confirm temperatures were falling, the Orange county fire authority division chief, Craig Covey, said on Monday morning. Covey said the results of overnight evaluation of the tank – that the temperature inside had dropped and that pressure had been released – was “incredibly positive news”.
Some 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, a city of roughly 170,000 about 40 miles (60km) south of downtown Los Angeles, have been evacuated and were waiting for a resolution.
The tank overheated on Thursday and began venting vapors, leaving local and state officials scrambling to evade a worst possible scenario at the aerospace company site.
Drones were monitoring temperatures at 10-minute intervals to watch for any spikes. Containment barriers have been set up to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean in the event of a spill, Covey, said on social media.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Jonathan Cook: Western Democracy?
War On Iran: – Netanyahoo Blocked Imminent Deal
Each side spins a different story about the US-Iran peace talks – but Tehran may have the last word
President Sheinbaum allows Iran team to stay in Mexico during World Cup after US refusal
Written under collapsing ceilings, typed on phones: the poetry bringing Palestine to the world
'Israelis Are More Genocidal Than People Think'
‘A bridge, not an obstacle’: is Armenia a new crossroads between east and west?
Far-right Elam party inspired by Golden Dawn makes gains in Cyprus election
Freedom To, Freedom From & Capitalism (Freedom Series #3)
A Louisiana state senator helped secure Meta’s largest datacenter. Then he sold the land beside it
A Little Night Music
J.T. Brown - Give Her Plenty Of Money To Spend
J.T. Brown - Boogie Baby
J.T. Brown - Cheatin' and Lyin'
J T Brown - Round House Boogie
J.T. Brown - It's a Shame to Tell the People
J.T. Brown - Sax-ony Boogie
J.T. Brown - Blues for Job
J. T. Brown & Jeremy Spencer - Black Jack Blues
Jeremy Spencer & J. T. Brown - Madison Blues
