The Trump administration has launched a website with a space aesthetic that compares undocumented immigrants with extraterrestrials, boasts about the total number of detentions it has carried out and encourages reporting any "suspicious alien activity" to immigration agents (ICE).

After weeks of statements – in one direction and the opposite – from Donald Trump on the viability of an agreement with Iran to stop the war, this Thursday it seemed that the options for this to become a reality were closer than ever. Several media outlets, citing White House sources, have reported that the negotiating teams of the United States and Iran have reached a preliminary agreement to unblock the Strait of Hormuz and extend the ceasefire for 60 days, and that only the definitive green light from the American president was missing. Shortly thereafter, however, Tehran denied it and assured that the agreement is not yet closed, while the American vice president, J.D. Vance, stated that both sides are "very close" to an agreement, but that the understanding has not yet been reached.

“Netanyahu’s promises of victory over Iran end in a glorious capitulation by the United States”. “Israel entered the war as a partner of the United States and ends it on the sidelines.” These have been some headlines in the Israeli press in recent days to describe the negotiations between Washington and Tehran to agree on an end to the war. The military campaign that Israel presented as an existential battle against Iran would be closing with an uncomfortable image for Tel Aviv: Israel has gone from being a key player to being progressively left out of the talks. Israel's leader "will do whatever I want him to do," Trump said last week to the press. These were statements that in Israel were interpreted as an explicit demonstration of the current relationship between both governments. The divergence between the objectives of the United States and those of Israel is evident: Washington prioritizes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and regional stabilization, while Tel Aviv continues to defend a strategy of sustained pressure on Iran and its allies. “Trump wants to see if it is possible to reach an agreement with Iran, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting to resume military action”, Leonie Fleischmann, an expert in Israeli policy at Saint George’s University of London, explains to ARA. According to her, in Israel there is an increasingly clear perception that the United States prioritizes regional containment above Israeli strategic objectives.The feeling that Netanyahu had been sidelined was further accentuated when Trump, last Saturday, had a conversation with several regional leaders to inform them about the negotiations with Iran without including the Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu and Trump spoke later. In parallel, Reuters has cited two Israeli officials according to whom the prime minister would have admitted in private conversations the difficulty of influencing the White House's decisions while negotiations with Tehran advance. According to these sources, the Israeli leader has expressed concern about the content of the agreement.In this regard, several Israeli political and security officials have described the emerging pact as a “bàd deal” because, as they claim, it does not address key issues such as Iran's ballistic missile program or the network of Tehran's allied groups in the region. Others warn that the understanding “dòes not serve Israel's interests” and could give Iran time to recover economically and militarily, according to the Israeli media outlet Channel 12. All of this, for the moment, is based on information published by various media outlets, but still without any official document. Internal criticism is growing

The Israeli opposition has also taken the opportunity to lash out at the government. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has stated that the supposed agreement "is bad for Israel, bad for the region, and even bad for the Iranian citizens." Lapid accuses Netanyahu of having allowed Washington to negotiate practically without coordination with Israel and affirms that the Israeli government is "at the lowest point of its influence capacity in Washington."This perception is compounded by growing criticism within Israel, particularly from sectors of the political right and the security establishment, who believe that Netanyahu's initial promises have not been fulfilled. The Iranian regime remains, retains a significant part of its ballistic arsenal, and maintains its regional influence.At this time, the agreement is not yet finalized but, according to the latest information, Iran could agree to hand over its enriched uranium reserves and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and the end of the American blockade on Iranian ports. The most sensitive issues of the nuclear program would remain pending negotiation for a period of sixty days and it is not yet clear whether the agreement will address Iranian missiles or support for regional armed groups, one of the main red lines for Israel.The Lebanon front, a political objective for Netanyahu

It is precisely in this context that the Lebanon front has acquired central importance. In the last few hours, Israel has intensified military operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley.“There are real security concerns on the northern border, but at the same time, Israel must hold elections before October and Netanyahu is also acting with internal political calculations”, describes Fleischman. According to the analyst, the prime minister's image as “Mr. Security” has been greatly eroded since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and now also by the results of the war with Iran. “The escalation in Lebanon can be understood as an attempt to rebuild this image and maintain political relevance”, he concludes. In this fragile balance, while Washington and Tehran continue to define an agreement and Israel seems to have little capacity for direct influence, Lebanon functions as a political space. A space where Netanyahu tries to preserve his power through the most active front: the northern one.

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After weeks in which Russia has attacked Ukraine with force and announced it will bomb command centers of the Ukrainian state in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky sent a letter this Wednesday to Donald Trump requesting to address the shortage of air defense missiles that Kyiv claims to be suffering from. This was reported by the media The Kyiv Independent and later confirmed by Zelensky's communication advisor, Dmytro Lytvyn. In a text also addressed to the United States Congress, the Ukrainian president states that the current rate of missile delivery "is not enough" to intercept Russian attacks.

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The Iranian state broadcaster said on Wednesday that it had obtained the draft of a preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the lifting of the US naval blockade. According to this information, which referred to the agreement as "initial and unofficial," Iran would manage the strait in cooperation with Oman, so that both "consolidate their power" in the area.

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The United States launched new attacks against southern Iran early Tuesday, targeting missile bases and ships attempting to lay mines, the U.S. Central Command reported. In a statement, it affirmed that these were "self-defense" attacks designed to protect American troops from "threats posed by Iranian forces." Iranian media reported that three explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, a major port and Iranian naval base.

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When the agreement between the United States and Iran seemed imminent, Donald Trump has made a new U-turn and has conditioned the understanding on the Gulf countries normalizing relations with Israel, its historic regional rival. In a message on his Truth Social network, the American president has urged the mediating states, starting with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to sign the so-called Abraham Accords – which explicitly include this normalization – if they want the pact that would allow the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened to prosper.

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Before bombing Tehran on February 28, the White House already knew that the Pentagon's dwindling ammunition stock was a decisive element in the war. With three months of the campaign in Iran about to be completed, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is trying to convince Congress of the need to approve a new military budget of 1.5 trillion dollars. Although the Pentagon officially denies it, this 40% increase in spending aims to replenish the army's reduced arsenal. But money cannot buy time, and it certainly cannot make a Tomahawk missile be manufactured overnight in less than two years. Iran is forcing the US to confront for the first time the problem that has existed in the Department of Defense for years.

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The visits within a week of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to Beijing have placed China at the center of gravity of world diplomacy. It seems that all roads lead to Beijing, as Trump and Putin have been only the latest and most relevant of a long list of visitors. In recent months, Xi Jinping has received the French president, the German chancellor, the Irish prime minister, the one from the United Kingdom, the one from South Korea, the one from Canada... Pedro Sánchez has also been on the list and his meeting with Xi Jinping coincided with that of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, another example of the Chinese president's intense agenda.

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Iran and the United States are very close to an agreement. Members of both delegations stated this Saturday that significant progress has been made in the peace talks. Pakistan, which is mediating, even considers that the possibility of an agreement "is closer than ever" and expects "a crucial breakthrough over the weekend".

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The number of US soldiers who Rutte has issued several warnings to European allies during the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting this Thursday and Friday in Sweden. When asked about the withdrawal of 5,000 US soldiers from Germany, the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance has repeatedly justified it and warned European partners that this is the path the Pentagon will follow and that, therefore, they had better get used to the idea of ​​"a fairer distribution of responsibility for collective security".In turn, the foreign ministers of the European allies have publicly admitted that they already expected a progressive reduction of US military presence in Europe, and the vast majority have claimed that they are already increasing military spending at forced marches. In fact, a significant portion of European partners have embraced the concept coined by the Trump administration: NATO 3.0. It is about moving towards an organization that no longer depends on the US military and, therefore, Europeans must gain autonomy and be capable of defending themselves (or at least defending themselves better) without the support of the Pentagon.

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It has taken almost three months since Donald Trump started the war in Iran for the United States Congress to show signs of life. On Tuesday, the Senate managed to approve for the first time a resolution to try to force the US president to end a conflict that the legislature never authorized. The milestone was possible due to the change of mind by four Republican senators, some of whom had already warned the tycoon that if the campaign exceeded 60 days, they would withdraw their support. This Thursday, a similar resolution was also expected to successfully pass the vote in the House of Representatives. But the Republicans cancelled it at the last minute, given the certainty that they would not have enough support to overthrow it.

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The United States is not easing its threat against Cuba. The day after indicting the former president and one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Raul Castro, the US military has reported deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the US "Nimitz", and a strike group in Caribbean waters. "Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group!", the Southern Command, responsible for operations on the continent, wrote on X in a message threatening the "unmatched" reach and lethality of the deployed vessels.

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In his legal battle against the U.S. Treasury Department, known as the IRS for its English acronym, Donald Trump has achieved tax immunity for himself and his entire family. The resolution is the result of the out-of-court settlement that the magnate has signed with the IRS in exchange for withdrawing the multimillion-dollar lawsuit he had filed against the agency. The administration will definitively close the investigations for alleged tax non-payments and evasions that were open against him and his family, according to the document published Tuesday night by the Department of Justice and signed by interim Attorney General Todd Blanche. Previously, Blanche had been one of Trump's personal lawyers.

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The United States has “permanently banned” the fiscal inspection of past tax returns of President Trump, his family, his companies, and his associates. Trump filed a lawsuit against the American treasury because he considered himself persecuted, and now he has withdrawn the complaint in exchange for this fiscal immunity and a multi-million dollar compensation fund that could also benefit attackers of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

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Turning religion into a political actor, even physically eliminating progressive and secular forces, has historically been done in the service of imperialist militarism. In 1978, the Carter administration, with its security advisor, the Pole Zbigniew Brzezinski, began to sponsor the anti-communist far-right of different religions. They financed Sunni jihadists to dismantle the socialist government of Afghanistan and Ayatollah Khomeini's Shia jihadism to abort the Iranian democratic revolution. And, in the same year, while financing Lech Walesa's pseudo-workers' union in the People's Republic of Poland, they installed John Paul II at the Vatican, the center of the soft power of global capitalism, a Polish anti-communist and opponent of liberation theology. All these were maneuvers related to countries that, by "coincidence," were neighbors of the Soviet Union.

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The United States Department of Justice has formally charged former Cuban President Raul Castro, 94, in an unprecedented escalation of the pressure campaign against the Caribbean island. The formal indictment against the younger of the two brothers who led the Cuban Revolution in 1959 represents a frontal attack on the military-economic power structure that currently controls the island. Although the current president is Miguel Díaz-Canel, Castro and a dozen military personnel linked to the Gaesa conglomerate are the ones pulling the strings of the regime. The charges were announced this Wednesday, just as Cuba celebrates its independence from Spain in 1902 thanks to US support.

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The United States Senate has voted to advance a resolution on war powers aimed at forcing Donald Trump to end the war with Iran, unless he receives congressional authorization to continue it. With 50 votes in favor and 47 against, it is the first time the chamber has allowed the initiative to be debated, after seven failed attempts since the United States launched the coordinated attack with Israel against Iran on February 28. Four Republican senators have joined the Democratic senators, who voted in favor with a single exception.

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San Diego police (California, in the United States) are investigating as a possible hate crime a shooting that occurred this Monday at noon in one of the city's main mosques. "Due to the location of the Islamic Center, we consider it a hate crime until proven otherwise," said the local police chief, Scott Wahl. There are at least three dead and, according to authorities, the alleged perpetrators of the crime have also been found dead inside a car. The identity of the individuals has not yet been released, but according to Scott, they are two young people, one 17 years old and the other 19.

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From afar, the kilometer-long line winding around the National Mall lawn looks like a rally for the 2024 campaign. Red hats of Make America Great Again" among American flags. Many of the styles recall the existence of rural America in the capital of ties and polished shoes. The only nuance is the name screen-printed on most t-shirts: references to Trump have today been supplanted by "Jesus." An evangelist pastor walks up and down the line shouting "Hallelujah!" at the top of his lungs for those who are still a little sleepy. People like Kelly, who has come from Richmond (Virginia), got up at four in the morning to be able to participate in the macro-prayer called by the White House this Sunday.

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