—❗️🇮🇷/🇮🇱/🇱🇧 NEW: Iran has warned the U.S. that any Israeli attack on Beirut would have serious consequences and could ‘derail the diplomatic track completely’ – Al Jazeera

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—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: Two IRGC Navy speedboats were targeted by American fighter jets in the Persian Gulf, and four sailors were killed

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—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 What has happened so far, confirmed events:

– Three explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas from the East, the direction of the airport.

– Small columns of smoke were seen rising in Bandar Abbas.

– Air defenses, at the same time, were also activated.

– News surfaced that two IRGC Navy speedboats were targeted by the U.S. likely in the last few hours.

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— 🇺🇸/🇮🇷 President Trump on Truth Social:

‘The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

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— 🇺🇸/🇮🇷 NEW: SNN clarifies the event of destroying two IRGC-N speedboats took place on Monday (today), a few hours ago, which has led to the currently ongoing ‘clashes’

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📝 🇺🇸 🇵🇭 The U.S. tried to re-colonize part of the Philippines. | Arnaud Bertrand

They did so under the so-called "Pax Silica" initiative, the brainchild of - surprise, surprise - an ex-Palantir guy named Jacob Helberg who now runs U.S. economic "diplomacy" from the State Department.

It's causing a big outcry in the Philippines, which is quite a feat given this is by far the most US-friendly country in Southeast Asia.

If you're the US and you're getting the Marcos administration - of all governments - to push back on sovereignty, you've really overplayed your hand.

What is the "Pax Silica" initiative? In a nutshell it's about the US getting other countries to commit to restructuring their AI tech infrastructure around a US-led stack. It's basically vendor lock-in: you hand over your critical minerals, align your export controls with Washington's, regulate AI the way America wants, and in return you get to be a US "trusted partner," whatever that means these days.

In essence, let's not kid ourselves, it's all about China: this is the US's initiative to "win the AI race" by getting other countries to contractually commit to keeping China out of their tech supply chains. When you can't preserve your lead through innovation, you seek to lock countries in contractually.

For instance as a country, this would mean telling Huawei they can't sell you AI chips, and telling Chinese firms they can't invest in your data centers - even if they're better and cheaper. It's not about choosing the best technology, it's about choosing the right flag.

But in this instance, the US went much further still: they literally tried to carve out 4,000 acres of Philippine territory (in New Clark City, 60 miles north of Manila) to be governed under US common law with diplomatic immunity - the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the modern world.

This is according to the WSJ who ran the story last month as if it was a done deal (it wasn't).

Heard about the "French concession" or "British concession" in China during the century of humiliation? Same thing: the US basically asked for an "American concession" in the Philippines.

Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of backlash in the country with for instance the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) calling it a “massive sellout” of the country’s land, minerals, and sovereignty

So much so that the Philippines' government - namely Joshua Bingcang, president and chief executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) - issued a statement saying that the Philippines had rejected US proposals that would place the project beyond local jurisdiction

Note, by the way, this delicious irony: the BCDA is the government agency that was created in 1992 specifically to convert former US military bases at Clark and Subic Bay after the Philippines spent decades negotiating their closure. New Clark City - where the Pax Silica's hub would go - is built on the old Clark Air Base.

So the agency whose entire reason for existing is to turn former American colonial territory (i.e. US military bases) into sovereign Philippine land is the one now being asked to hand part of that very same land back under US jurisdiction (and, apparently, declined).

Of course though, blocking this specific jurisdiction grab doesn't change the bigger picture. The Philippines is still a Pax Silica signatory, and Pax Silica itself is structurally neocolonial: you supply the cheap labor and raw materials, align your export controls and regulations with Washington's, cut yourself off from the world's rising technological powerhouse - and in exchange you get assembly jobs and the privilege of getting a pat on the head and being called a "trusted partner."

They dropped the most cartoonishly colonial demand - governing Philippine soil under US law - but the underlying architecture is the same: you serve America's supply chain, on America's terms, and you relinquish your sovereign right to trade with whoever offers the best deal.

📎 Arnaud Bertrand

🇺🇸 - Six years ago today, George Perry Floyd Jr. died, the resulting riots caused an estimated $1–2 billion in insured property losses, making it the costliest civil unrest event in U.S. history.

🇺🇸 Passage Publishing on X:

American Scapegoat: How a Corrupt Justice System Sacrificed Derek Chauvin to the Mob by former federal prosecutor T.J. Harker.

Six years ago today, George Floyd died while in custody of Minneapolis beat cop Derek Chauvin, sparking the most destructive riots in our nation's history and becoming the pretext for an era of mass political hysteria that threatened to rip apart the very fabric of American life. Cities burned. Floyd's body was paraded around in a gold casket. Every institution was made to bend the knee to BLM. Ordinary white Americans, represented by the person of Derek Chauvin, were called to account for three centuries of racial grievance.

All most Americans saw of that day was the grainy cellphone footage of Officer Chauvin's knee restraining the back of George Floyd's neck. Few bothered to learn any other details about the case, and by the time the trial rolled around, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. An innocent black man had been killed by a racist white cop, they were told. And for America to atone for its original sins, that racist white cop had to pay the price.

What they didn't know was that Chauvin's knee did not prevent Floyd from breathing. They didn't know Chauvin was following procedure by the book. They didn't know Floyd had taken lethal amounts of fentanyl minutes before being restrained. They didn't know Floyd had a pre-existing heart condition. They didn't know the autopsy report had been revised under threat of professional harm. They didn't know the original prosecutor removed herself from the case after seeing all of the evidence. They didn't know the subsequent prosecutors had to abandon their theory of the case just days into the trial. They didn't know the prosecution never established a cause of death, let alone that Derek Chauvin was responsible.

In American Scapegoat, author T.J. Harker breaks down what happened on that fateful day six years ago, analyzes the thousands of court documents manipulated and recontextualized to achieve the trial result Minnesota politicians demanded, and relives the trial itself in thorough, painstaking detail to definitively show that Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd.

Never in modern American history has our justice system been so corrupted by public mass hysteria than in the case of Derek Chauvin. This is the story of that trial. This is the story of how a man was sacrificed to the mob.

American Scapegoat is available for pre-order now. Coming Fall '26.

📎 Passage Publishing

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- “U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.” - CENTCOM spokesperson to Fox News.

— 🇴🇲/🇮🇷 NEW: The Sultan of Oman, His Highness Haytham bin Tariq, has signed an executive decree ordering Oman to increase its volume of trade and economic relations with Iran

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— 🇮🇷 NEW: For the first time after 88 days of 0%, internet connectivity in Iran has reached 34%

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