CMR is the leading provider
of funding and management
support for small to
medium-sized businesses and
entrepreneurs
Established 1984 C MR
is the leading venture
capital, management
support and business
services provider for
small to medium-sized
businesses - linking
excellent management
skills with the
substantial financial
resources of a global bank
of private investors.
CMR has over 450 senior
executives, operating
in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia,
Australasia and
globally,
providing both funding and
specialist help for
entrepreneurial
businesses .
For Businesses
CMR provides excellent
resources:
CMR FundEX Business Exchange - gives all companies & entrepreneurs direct access to CMR's global investor base.
CMR Catalyst Group
Programme -
transform
profitability through
merging.
CMR Company Sales Division helps owners to exit
at the best price.
CMR Corporate Recovery
Division -
experts in rescue and
turnaround.
CMR Technology Licensing
Division -
commercialising
innovation.
CMR Executive
Professionals - management support
and consultancy.
CMR Executives-on-Demandâ„¢ Fully experienced
senior executives
available quickly and
cost effectively.
We always welcome
contact with new
business clients- please get in touch
- we will do our
best to match
your needs and exceed
your expectations.
For Investors
Preferential access to new opportunities for investment and/or acquisition
P re-vets
propositions and
provides a
personalised service
to our investors
Syndication service
enabling investors to
link together as desired
Executive and
management support for
investments as needed
CMR's services to
our investors are not
only fast & efficient
but also free
W e
always appreciate new
members- you are welcome
to join as an investor
or as a CMR Executive.
When you
join us as a Senior
Executive:
CMR's strength is in the
skills and experience of
our executive members -
all senior, director level
people with years of
successfully running and
managing companies.
Because the demand for
CMR's support and services
is ever-increasing,
especially as we enter
recessionary times, we
have a growing need for
more high calibre
executives to join us from
every industry and
discipline.
You will be using your
considerable experience to
help smaller businesses
and entrepreneurs to grow
profitably.
We offer full training
and mentoring support to
help maximise potential.
We are
always keen to find more
high calibre senior
executives in all areas-
skills and location.
Make contact with us today
and maximise your
opportunities.
HEAD
OFFICE
124 City Road
London EC1 2NX
Tel: +44 (0)207-636-1744
Fax:+44 (0)207-636-5639
Email: cmr@cmruk.com
Registered Office:
124 City Road ,
London EC1 2NX
Also Glasgow,
Dublin, Switzerland, Europe, USA/Canada
Privacy Statement: CMR only
retains personal details
supplied directly by executives
joining CMR themselves either as
Full Executive Members or
Interim Management Members or
Investors. Those details are
only used within CMR and not
disclosed to any third parties
without that person’s
agreement. We will keep that
data until requested by the
person to be removed – at that
point it will be deleted.
Personal data is never sold or
used for purposes outside of
CMR’s normal operations. Any
correspondence should be
directed to the Managing
Director, CMR,
Kemp House,
152-160 City Road, London EC1V
2N
Senior Executives
CMR is a worldwide network of senior executives. Join us to expand your career and business horizons.
Business Entrepreneurs
CMR has a complete range of resources & services provided by experts to help all businesses to grow and prosper.
Investors & Venturers
CMR has a continuous stream of business and funding propositions, which are matched to investor preferences. Join us - it's FREE!
FundEX
FundEX is CMR's worldwide stock market for small to medium sized companies and entrepreneurs to raise new capital.
Interim & Permanent Management
Many of CMR's executives can be recruited on an interim, permanent or NED basis.
Login
Main CMR Intranet members only
Regional Intranets
Sat, 02 May 2026 20:20:00 +0000 Judge Blocks Enforcement Of Colorado's New DEI-Driven AI Law
Judge Blocks Enforcement Of Colorado's New DEI-Driven AI Law
Judge Blocks Enforcement Of Colorado's New DEI-Driven AI Law
Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times,
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the State of Colorado from enforcing a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence law.
Colorado is prohibited from taking enforcement actions on alleged violations of the law occurring up to 14 days after the court issues a ruling on the company xAI’s motion for a preliminary injunction, judge Cyrus Y. Chung ruled on April 27.
The Department of Justice had said the state law, which was set to go into effect on June 30, would have required AI developers and deployers to “discriminate based on race, sex, & religion—all in the name of DEI.”
DEI is an acronym for “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Brett Shumate, an assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Division, called the suspension a “huge win for the American people.”
“Colorado immediately caved and agreed not to enforce the law against ANY AI company,” Shumate wrote in a X post on May 1.
Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) signed into law the Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence in May 2024 and issued a statement sharing his reservations about how it could impact Colorado.
In the statement, he urged the General Assembly to revise and delay implementing it until January 2027.
“I am concerned about the impact this law may have on an industry that is fueling critical technological advancements across our state for consumers and enterprises alike,” Polis wrote.
However, the legislation was not revised; instead, it was delayed until June 30, 2026, which prompted tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company xAI, which created Grok, to sue the state on April 9.
The unedited legislation was months away from going into effect when xAI asked the court to block the law from being enforced.
The Justice Department added its name as a plaintiff alongside xAI on April 24, marking the first time the DOJ had stepped into a case that challenged AI on a state level.
Both alleged that Colorado’s law would have caused unconstitutional “algorithmic discrimination” and asked a court to block it from being enforced.
“Laws that require AI companies to infect their products with woke DEI ideology are illegal,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who works under the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“The Justice Department will not stand on the sidelines while states such as Colorado coerce our nation’s technological innovators into producing harmful products that advance a radical, far-left worldview at odds with the Constitution.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Polis and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser for comment.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 16:20 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 19:45:00 +0000 Trump Hits Cuba With New Sanctions; Rubio Warns Of Havana's Foreign Influence Ops
Trump Hits Cuba With New Sanctions; Rubio Warns Of Havana's Foreign Influence Ops
The Trump administration's Cuba pressure campaign accelerated this past week, with Trump signing an executive order Friday that broadens U.S. sanction
Read more.....
Trump Hits Cuba With New Sanctions; Rubio Warns Of Havana's Foreign Influence Ops
The Trump administration's Cuba pressure campaign accelerated this past week, with Trump signing an executive order Friday that broadens U.S. sanctions against Havana and opens the door to severe penalties on foreign firms operating key nodes in the Cuban economy. On top of this, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a very interesting comment, as if he or his staffers had read our late-2025 note titled "Is There A 'Cuba Connection' Behind The Radicalization Of America's Nonprofit Left?"
Let's begin with the next round of U.S. sanctions that target the communist regime, more specifically, individuals, entities, affiliates, officials, and supporters linked to Cuba's security apparatus, corruption, or serious human rights abuses. It also authorizes secondary sanctions against parties that conduct or facilitate transactions with sanctioned targets, as this can only be viewed as maximum pressure against the Havana communists ramping up.
Reuters quoted Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator at the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, who said the next round of sanctions was the most significant on non-U.S. companies since the U.S. embargo against Cuba began decades ago.
"Oil and gas, mining companies, and ?banks that have carefully segregated their Cuba operations from the United States are no longer protected," said Paner, who now works for law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.
Reuters also quoted that Trump's order contained an implicit warning to Cuba, accusing the Cuban communists of being in cahoots with Iran and militant groups like Hezbollah.
"Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland," one official said.
Also, this week, Rubio told Fox News that Cuban communists are a national security threat because they had "rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries" of the US.
"We are not going to have a foreign military or intelligence or security apparatus operating with impunity 90 miles off the shores of the United States," Rubio said. "That's not going to happen under President Trump."
Rubio's warning about foreign influence operations emanating from the communist island has been on our radar for months, particularly given the long-running pattern of U.S.-based left-wing NGOs and Democratic Party figures praising, visiting, or engaging with Havana-linked communist networks.
That is why, in late December, we asked a very simple question: Is There A "Cuba Connection" Behind The Radicalization Of America's Nonprofit Left?
In that note, we documented the weird obsession among certain U.S.-based left-wing NGOs and Democratic-aligned politicians with traveling to Cuba for revolutionary workshops. The big question was whether this represents more than activist tourism, and whether foreign ideological grooming has helped shape the current messaging from the Democratic Party today that embraces anti-American rhetoric, rejects capitalism, and openly calls for socialist revolution.
Miami Herald reported...
Democratic Socialists of America openly touting their visit...
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ...
Neville Roy Singham (China-based) linked CodePink ...
The list goes on and on...
And again.
Elizabeth Warren embracing SLC head ...
ICAP (the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples) sits at the center, functioning as a coordinating hub. Orbiting it is the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a deliberately loose coalition that links 77 organizations, including activists, nonprofits, and campaigns, while minimizing legal exposure and avoiding clear command structures. The National Lawyers Guild serves as the lawfare and agitation arm, training protesters, facilitating delegations, and litigating against U.S. institutions under the guise of civil rights.
Funding and infrastructure come from the Neville Roy Singham Network, a web of organizations linked to Chinese Communist Party-aligned capital that provides money, logistics, and professionalized organizing capacity. Public narratives are amplified by legacy anti-war organizations like CODEPINK and the ANSWER Coalition, which are also now under the Singham umbrella. They frame U.S. foreign policy as illegitimate while defending authoritarian adversaries. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) functions as the political activation channel, translating activist energy into electoral and legislative influence on behalf of the Cuban regime.
The chart that likely got the attention of Rubio:
As per The Washington Times , "Cuba's intelligence apparatus is training foreign nationals to wage war against the West."
What war looks like in the information domain:
Comments from Rubio this week suggest that Cuba is no longer just about sanctions, crude oil flows, or a decaying communist regime 90 miles from Florida. The Trump team appears to understand that the Havana communists have an active hostile influence node, one allegedly tied to foreign influence operations reaching deep into America's left-wing NGO world and deep within the Democratic Party.
Remember when Democrats screamed "Russia, Russia, Russia" over a fake dossier ? Well, the tables are about to turn, and now it's going to be about radicalization in the Democratic Party and clear links to communists and also chaos …
Unhinged left-wing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for "maximum warfare" last week, but his party is about to see it.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 15:45 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 19:10:00 +0000 The Cheap Foreign Labor Regime Blocking Agricultural Intelligence
The Cheap Foreign Labor Regime Blocking Agricultural Intelligence
The Cheap Foreign Labor Regime Blocking Agricultural Intelligence
Authored by RJ Hauman via American Intelligence ,
I grew up in Camarillo, California: fertile soil, Mediterranean climate, strawberries, avocados, lemons, citrus, and family farms passed down through generations . The kind of place that sells itself, and does.
Read the city’s own description of its agricultural economy and you will find every word you would expect: rich agricultural legacy, farming passed down, agricultural education, sustainability, drip irrigation, precision sensors, AI-driven robotics, research partnerships, and a North American AgTech market projected to reach $16 billion by 2027.
Read it again and notice what is missing.
The workforce.
Not wages. Not labor. Not who picks the strawberries, cuts the lemons, or brings in the harvest. The fields produce. The technology advances. The legacy continues. The workers disappear.
Every agricultural economy has a legacy. The question is which part is being preserved. The fertile soil is a legacy. The family farms are a legacy. The harvest is a legacy. So is the labor model that brings it in. And across American agriculture, that model has for forty years depended heavily on foreign labor, illegal hiring, and a political class determined not to disturb either.
When a city brochure pairs “legacy” with AI robotics in the same breath, it is not just describing the future. It is making a quiet promise: the technology will advance, but the labor model will not.
America is preparing for the AI age everywhere except the place that feeds the country.
In Washington, the debate tends to revolve around foundation models, export controls, chips, data centers, defense contracts, and the ideological capture of Silicon Valley. Those fights matter. But the next frontier of artificial intelligence will not stay confined to server farms or federal procurement offices. It will also play out in fields, dairies, orchards, irrigation networks, greenhouses, and the rural labor markets that underpin America’s food supply.
That frontier is no longer theoretical. Autonomous tractors already plant, till, and spray without a driver. Computer-vision systems can scout crops plant by plant. Machine-learning models can optimize water, fertilizer, pest control, and yield down to the meter. Robotic harvesters can pick faster, cleaner, and longer than hand crews. Precision irrigation can be guided by satellite analytics. AI-assisted breeding can compress decades of plant selection into months.
The question is no longer whether American agriculture can automate. It is whether Washington will stop subsidizing the cheap labor model that makes automation a losing bet.
America should be leading this revolution. It builds the software, funds the research, trains the engineers, and talks constantly about technological dominance. Yet federal policy still props up an agricultural labor model built on cheap imported labor, illegal hiring, and guestworker expansion. That bargain has kept human labor cheaper than machines, delayed mechanization, and now risks leaving the United States on the sidelines of a revolution it should own.
This is not a speculative warning. It is already underway. Syngenta’s Cropwise platform now spans more than 70 million hectares across 30 countries. The World Economic Forum projects that AI-amplified digital agriculture could increase agricultural GDP in developing economies by more than $450 billion annually . The Netherlands, Israel, and Australia are moving quickly to capture that ground.
American firms built much of the underlying technology. American universities produced the foundational research. American workers could be trained to operate it.
But the United States will not lead unless it dismantles the cheap labor regime that has allowed agriculture to skip the last revolution while pretending it is ready for the next.
You cannot leapfrog to autonomous agriculture over an industry that has barely mechanized. Software runs on hardware. AI runs on physical capital. The autonomous tractor still requires the tractor. The computer-vision yield system still needs the machine it is guiding. The machine-learning dairy platform still depends on the milking robot it is reading from. Farms that have not mechanized cannot become intelligent by press release.
The capital does not move. The infrastructure does not get built. The workforce does not get trained. The frontier goes to whoever did the prior work first.
Why has American agriculture failed to do that work?
Not because of technology. The tools have been available for decades.
The answer is policy. Washington has spent forty years making cheap foreign labor cheaper than the machine.
The Twin Pillars of the Cheap Labor Regime
American agriculture runs on a labor system Washington built, tolerated, subsidized, and now refuses to dismantle. It rests on two pillars.
The first is illegal hiring. Federal surveys show that roughly 40 to 45 percent of crop farmworkers lack legal work authorization. In California, the share is closer to 60 percent. Another large portion are foreign nationals who entered illegally or came on a temporary basis. The U.S.-born legal workforce in the fields is the minority.
This is not a system failure. It is the system. And it has been propped up by both parties.
The second pillar is H-2A, the federal guestworker program designed in 1986 as a narrow tool for seasonal shortages. It has since grown into one of the largest labor pipelines in the immigration system.
The Department of Labor certified roughly 385,000 H-2A jobs in FY 2024, nearly an eightfold increase since 2005. The program remains uncapped by statute. Recent rulemaking is projected to transfer tens of billions in wage value over the next decade, in some cases lowering effective labor costs by several dollars per hour.
Washington is making imported labor cheaper at the exact moment it should be forcing capital toward machines.
These pillars are not separate problems. They are the same subsidy delivered through different channels, defended by the same interests, and sustaining the same method.
When enforcement targets illegal hiring, employers demand H-2A expansion. When H-2A reform is proposed, they revive amnesty proposals like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would grant Certified Agricultural Worker status and eventual green cards to up to 2.1 million illegal alien farmworkers while simultaneously opening H-2A to year-round industries.
The lobby’s actual position is not legal labor or illegal labor. It is permanent access to cheap foreign labor by whatever channel Washington will tolerate.
Illegal hiring supplies the shadow workforce. H-2A provides the legal release valve. Amnesty converts one into the other while preserving the pipeline behind it.
This is not stagnation by accident. It is by design.
The result is a labor-intensive production model with little incentive to mechanize, little reason to invest in agricultural intelligence, and no pressure to train American workers to operate either.
That helps explain why the United States lags Northern Europe in robotic milking , Israel in precision irrigation , and Australia in autonomous platforms.
Those countries did not discover secret technologies unavailable to American farmers. They built the workforce and mechanized base the United States has chosen to avoid.
We chose decades of cheap, and often illegal, foreign labor instead.
The Myth of the Impossible Crop
Big Agriculture’s most persistent claim is that American farming cannot be mechanized. The crops are too delicate. The terrain too uneven. The seasons too unpredictable. The farms are too diverse. The margins are too thin. The labor is supposedly too specialized.
Some of these objections contain fragments of truth. None justify a permanent federal subsidy for cheap foreign labor.
The “impossible crop” argument collapses the moment policy forces capital to solve the problem.
Commercial cabbage harvesters have existed for decades. Autonomous systems are now being developed for uneven terrain. Apple harvesting robots can pick roughly 10,000 apples an hour, about 30 to 50 times human speed, with less bruising than human crews.
Harvest CROO’s strawberry robots replaced crews of 30 migrant pickers with a small team of engineers and technicians and reached commercial viability in 2025. Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder uses AI-guided precision lasers to eliminate up to 5,000 weeds a minute, replacing the work of a hand crew of 75 people. Monarch Tractor’s MK-V is a fully electric, driver-optional tractor now operating on hundreds of farms. Bear Flag Robotics, now a John Deere subsidiary, retrofits existing tractors for autonomous tillage at scale.
Even crops long considered unmechanizable are starting to be mechanized.
The constraint is not engineering. It is incentive. And when the incentive shifts, capital tends to follow.
Dale Hemminger, an upstate New York dairy farmer, installed his first milking robots in 2007 after immigration authorities arrested one of his workers. Before mechanization, his farm produced about 800,000 pounds of milk per worker per year. Today it produces 2.5 million. About a dozen workers manage a herd of more than 2,000 cows. They earn more than typical farmworkers and work shorter hours.
That is what one enforcement event did on one farm.
Now imagine that incentive applied across the entire sector.
Bracero Proved the Point
America has already run this experiment.
From 1942 to 1964, the Bracero program admitted more than 4.6 million Mexican guestworkers. At its peak, it brought in more workers annually than today’s entire H-2A system.
The same arguments were made then: crops would rot, Americans would not work, mechanization was not ready.
Congress and President Lyndon Johnson ended the Bracero program in 1964.
The result was not collapse. It was modernization.
Tomato harvesters, developed at the University of California with public funds, were commercially deployed within five years. California processing tomato yields rose 300 percent while labor requirements fell by more than 80 percent. Real wages for remaining domestic farmworkers rose substantially. Crop losses were short-lived and concentrated in the first two seasons. Total production soon exceeded pre-termination levels.
The lesson is straightforward.
The technology was already there. Modernization was obstructed by outdated policy.
That lesson applies directly today.
End the federal guarantee of imported labor. Mandate E-Verify. Phase down H-2A on a real timeline. Reject amnesty that converts the existing illegal workforce into a permanent labor base while expanding future inflows.
No carve-outs. No indefinite delays.
Transition should be statutory, not chaotic. Enforcement must be paired with date-certain phase-downs, mechanization credit, and accelerated expensing. The point is not to create a harvest shock. It is to deny agribusiness the one thing that has defeated every reform for forty years: indefinite delay. Put serious public investment behind mechanization and agricultural intelligence in tandem, on the model of the semiconductor and energy industrial policies of the past five years. Pair the phase-down with targeted USDA credit for mechanization, accelerated expensing for qualifying capital investments, shared-ownership equipment consortia that put commercial-grade robotics within reach of smaller farms, and scale-tiered timelines that give family operations more runway than consolidated agribusiness.
Capital should move toward modernization, not toward Capitol Hill.
The Constituency This Is For
The Right often talks about building a worker-centered coalition. Agriculture is where that idea could actually take shape.
It is composed of the small dairy operator competing against a contractor-driven megafarm that lobbies for both illegal labor and H-2A expansion. It harbors the rural mechanic who could be trained as a robotics technician on a precision orchard. It uplifts the recent graduate of a community college agronomy program who could work in autonomous-equipment maintenance, computer-vision crop scouting, or precision-irrigation management. It represents the American worker who lost the field job a generation ago and never got the engineering job that should have replaced it, because the engineering job was never built.
Cheap, and oftentimes illegal, foreign labor does not just displace today’s American worker. It prevents tomorrow’s worker from emerging.
It blocks the investment that would create better jobs. It keeps rural America trapped in a low-wage equilibrium, and then frames that outcome as a necessary tradeoff.
It is not.
The Sovereignty of Food
The global agricultural intelligence revolution will not wait for American policy to catch up. It is happening now, on Dutch dairies, Israeli irrigation networks, Australian autonomous platforms, and in the orchards and greenhouses of countries that did the prior work, built the prior infrastructure, and trained the prior workforce.
But it does not have to be this way. American startups are building the machines. The United States can deploy them at scale, or watch other countries integrate the technology American firms invented.
The AI age is not just about who builds the model. It is about who controls the systems the model governs.
A country that imports foreign labor to prop up its food system, neglects the machines that should replace it, and fails to train its own workforce is not leading. It is stepping aside.
If “America First” means anything in the AI age, it means that the commanding systems of national life are built, operated, and controlled by Americans. Food is one of those systems.
The United States has the advantages: land, capital, universities, manufacturers, and workers.
What it lacks is the political will to end the old bargain.
For forty years, Washington has kept imported labor cheaper than machines. That decision has lowered wages, slowed mechanization, weakened the rural workforce, and delayed the productivity gains other countries have already captured.
Now the next revolution is here.
The choice is straightforward: a preindustrial labor system sustained by outdated and poor policy, or an industrial strategy worthy of a sovereign nation.
We should end the cheap foreign labor regime. Mandate E-Verify. Phase out H-2A. Restore wage discipline. Invest in mechanization and agricultural intelligence at scale.
America cannot shape the future of food while importing a labor model of the past.
There is no third option.
Coming soon from NICE: Phasing Out H-2A: How to Force American Agriculture into the 21st Century. A national mechanization and agricultural intelligence initiative built for American workers and American farms. The full case for ending Big Agriculture’s cheap labor racket and forcing the modernization that should have come a generation ago.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 15:10 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 18:00:00 +0000 Exiled MAGA Dissidents Consult With Ron Paul On Iran War
Exiled MAGA Dissidents Consult With Ron Paul On Iran War
Exiled MAGA Dissidents Consult With Ron Paul On Iran War
Authored by former Congressman Ron Paul
Last weekend my Institute for Peace and Prosperity hosted another conference here on the Texas Gulf Coast. Not only did we have a full house attending the conference – which is in a way the most important thing – but in this era of profound disappointment and disillusionment, we struck a note of optimism thankfully due to our wonderful line-up of speakers.
The main topic of the conference, titled "War is Back on the Menu," was of course the disastrous decision by the Trump Administration to launch an unprovoked war against Iran – both last June and again on February 28th.
Trump's former director of Counterterrorism at the Office of National Intelligence, Joe Kent, listens intently as Ron Paul offers thoughts on the Iran War & current crisis facing America in his home south of Houston, TX.
Professor Robert Pape from the University of Chicago offered a compelling blueprint to break free of some of the neocon chains that bind us to the Middle East to our own detriment. Let the states in the region manage their own security, he argued. It is not our job to be their policemen .
Very importantly, we were fortunate to have had as speakers two individuals who stood up for their principles when putting them aside for expediency – and personal gain – would have been so much easier.
Former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was, in her own words, “a General in the MAGA Army.” She dedicated her life and plenty of her own money to the cause of electing Donald Trump because she believed he would put America first, as he had promised. She watched that cause betrayed, first with the President’s support for tyrannical central bank digital currency and then with his refusal to release the Epstein files.
Finally, she explained, after he had dubbed her a “traitor” for disagreeing with him on these issues, constant death threats forced her to resign her seat in the House .
Source: MTG on X
She could have gone along to get along – as most do in Congress. Instead, she stood up for what was right.
Likewise Joe Kent, who was serving as director of Counterterrorism at the Office of National Intelligence, could have kept quiet as he watched another war being launched on a mountain of lies pushed by special interests. He was a highly decorated US combat veteran who held a Senate-confirmed position in the Administration.
That would have been a golden ticket to any number of future profitable opportunities if he “played his cards right.” Instead, he did what was right . He resigned, writing in a statement that the war was not justified and that it was being fought for Israeli rather than American interests .
As could be predicted, Joe suffered the same demonization that Marjorie suffered for standing up for his values and principles. Their courage in making this sacrifice for truth should inspire all of us. It should give us hope.
My words of encouragement were simple: we don’t need a majority to change things. A purposeful minority dedicated to the principles of peace and liberty can move mountains .
We must stay strong and, importantly, stick together and work together across all party and ideological lines. We must be the big coalition that refuses to sacrifice our principles just as Joe and Marjorie refused to sacrifice theirs.
We will be in Dulles, VA, on Labor Day weekend for our tenth annual DC conference. Mark your calendars and be a part of our movement!
* * *
Kent, who is a decorated Special Forces and CIA Ground Branch veteran, has responded to the media smear campaign that was triggered at the moment of his public resignation in protest of Trump launching another war of choice in the Middle East...
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 14:00 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 17:25:00 +0000 Unexploded Ordinance Accident Kills 14 IRGC Members: State Media
Unexploded Ordinance Accident Kills 14 IRGC Members: State Media
Trump's operation Epic Fury saw a combined number of US-Israeli strikes in the many thousands unleashed on Iran. The common high estimates suggest over 13,000 strikes
Read more.....
Unexploded Ordinance Accident Kills 14 IRGC Members: State Media
Trump's operation Epic Fury saw a combined number of US-Israeli strikes in the many thousands unleashed on Iran. The common high estimates suggest over 13,000 strikes by the American side, and possibly 10,000 by the Israelis - which are staggering figures.
While the severe damage to Iranian cities, bases, missile sites, and infrastructure has been abundantly clear - the hidden reality is the apparently persistent danger of unexploded ordinance still littering the country . On Friday state media reported a mass casualty event involving Iranian military members due to unexploded bombs.
"An explosion of leftover bombs from strikes during the war against Iran killed 14 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , Iranian media reports," AFP reports based on state media.
Example of large unexploded bomb in Gaza, Getty Images
"A report by the Nour news website, believed to be close to Iran’s security, says the explosion happened near the northern city of Zanjan, which is northwest of Tehran," AFP continues.
And notably, "It is the largest number of IRGC members reported to be killed since the ceasefire began on April 7," it continues, describing that cluster bombs and 'air mines' which had been dropped during prior US and Israeli aids caused the deadly blasts.
The major blast could have been the result of an IRGC operation to recover the bombs, given that the last week has seen reports that the IRGC had recovered a fully intact GBU-57 Bunker Buster bomb .
While unconfirmed, one defense source said as follows :
The reported recovery by Iran of more than 15 unexploded American precision-guided munitions , including at least one fully intact GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, may prove to be one of the most strategically consequential intelligence gains in Tehran’s military history.
If confirmed, the transfer of these weapons to Iranian “technical and research units” for reverse engineering would transform a failed deep-strike campaign against hardened nuclear facilities into a long-term technology compromise for both Washington and Tel Aviv.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through statements linked to the Imam Sajjad Corps in Hormozgan province and state-linked outlets including Press TV, IRNA, and Tasnim News, framed the recovered ordnance not as battlefield debris but as a strategic opportunity capable of accelerating deterrence , bunker survivability, and indigenous precision-strike development.
As for this new mass casualty event, another source adds the following further details : "The IRGC's Ansar al-Mahdi unit in Zanjan said demolition teams had entered a contaminated area to identify and neutralize unexploded munitions left from recent airstrikes when the deadly explosion happened on Friday."
Illustrative via Popular Mechanics
The Friday incident strongly suggests there are other extreme danger zones, and given that thousands of bombs rained down all over Iran during the height of US-Israeli war, there could be more such deadly accidents to come.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 13:25 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 16:50:00 +0000 Trump Says Medicare Will Soon Cover Weight-Loss Drugs
Trump Says Medicare Will Soon Cover Weight-Loss Drugs
Trump Says Medicare Will Soon Cover Weight-Loss Drugs
Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,
President Donald Trump announced on May 1 that Medicare patients will soon be able to obtain coverage for weight-loss drugs for $50 per month.
Speaking at an event in Florida, Trump said the coverage for the weight-loss and diabetes medications will begin in July, referencing drugs that contain semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist.
“Today, I’m thrilled to announce that starting on July 1, we will also provide Medicare patients with the coverage for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Zepbound, Wegovy. Will be available for $50 a month,” he said.
In December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a voluntary model known as Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive Health to expand access to GLP-1 medications for weight management and metabolic health, allowing Medicare Part D plans and state Medicaid agencies to cover the drugs while negotiating lower prices.
The model features CMS negotiating directly with manufacturers for reduced net prices, out-of-pocket caps, standardized coverage criteria, and lifestyle support programs.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 12:50 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 15:40:00 +0000 US Coast Guard Offloads More Than $72 Million Worth Of Cocaine
US Coast Guard Offloads More Than $72 Million Worth Of Cocaine
US Coast Guard Offloads More Than $72 Million Worth Of Cocaine
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
More than $72 million worth of cocaine was offloaded by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) after it was seized in multiple operations.
A crew member aboard USCGC Escanaba carries a bale of cocaine during a drug offload at Port Everglades, Fla., on April 27, 2026. U.S. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Rodriguez
On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba’s crew offloaded roughly 7,050 pounds of cocaine valued at over $53 million at Port Everglades, Florida, according to an April 27 statement. The seizures were made following interdictions in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. In addition to Escanaba, other USCG assets and the Joint Interagency Task Force South were involved in the operations.
“The crew’s achievements on this patrol reflect the very best of our service—courage, vigilance, and an unshakeable commitment to protecting the American people ,” Escanaba Commander Nicholas Seniuk said.
“Every pound of narcotics kept off our streets represents lives changed, violence prevented, and communities made safer. We couldn’t be prouder of their extraordinary work.”
In an April 23 statement, USCG announced that its Cutter Resolute crew offloaded roughly 2,570 pounds of cocaine valued at more than $19.3 million at Base Miami Beach, Florida, and also transferred six individuals suspected of drug smuggling to authorities.
The seizures were the result of three interdictions in the Caribbean by the crews of USS Billings and Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, together with other partners.
Combined, the two offloading events involved the seizure of 9,620 pounds of cocaine worth more than $72.3 million.
According to the USCG, more than 511,000 pounds of cocaine were seized last year, which is more than three times the service’s annual average. The agency has also sped up its counter-drug operations in the Eastern Pacific region through Operation Pacific Viper.
“Since launching this operation in early August, the Coast Guard has seized over 215,000 pounds of cocaine and apprehended 160 suspected narco-traffickers. The Coast Guard’s persistent operations and rapid response have denied criminal organizations billions in illicit revenue and prevented the flow of dangerous drugs into American communities,” USCG said.
“Eighty percent of interdictions of U.S.-bound drugs occur at sea. This underscores the importance of maritime interdiction in combatting the flow of illegal narcotics and protecting American communities from this deadly threat.”
Cocaine use is a major issue in the United States. According to an August 2025 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cocaine overdose death rates jumped from 4.5 individuals per 100,000 people in 2018 to 8.6 in 2023. Between 2011 and 2023, the number of overdose deaths involving cocaine rose from 4,681 to 29,449 individuals.
Around 2.8 million adults used cocaine in 2021, out of which almost half had a cocaine use disorder, according to a January 22 study published at the National Library of Medicine. Cocaine use has been linked to cardiovascular risk factors.
Military Strikes
The United States has also conducted numerous recent strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels.
In an April 26 post on X, the U.S. Southern Command said the military conducted a kinetic strike against a boat in the Eastern Pacific, which it said was ferrying drugs. The strike ended up killing three male narco-terrorists.
Earlier, the Southern Command announced a strike on a drug trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific on April 24, which resulted in the deaths of two individuals.
Such military strikes have come under criticism. On March 13, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) testified against these strikes at a hearing held by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
At the hearing, Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU Human Rights Program, said that the United States had launched 45 armed attacks as part of the strikes in international waters as of March 12, killing an estimated 157 individuals.
“The United States has not conducted these strikes pursuant to any congressional authorization, as required under domestic law. Instead, the government has acted unilaterally and in violation of international law on the use of force,” Dakwar said.
In a March 13 statement, Thomas Pigott, a spokesperson for the Department of State, criticized the hearing, saying the IACHR “strayed far outside its mandate and acted beyond its competence” in holding the event.
The United States called on the IACHR to focus on its statutes and rules of procedure rather than inserting itself in matters that fall “outside the human rights sphere.”
“The IACHR allowed the ACLU to exploit the hearing to try to force the United States to prematurely disclose arguments and evidence in two cases pending before U.S. federal courts,” Pigott said.
In December, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters that the strikes have been thoroughly vetted by the proper authorities.
Each strike against a drug vessel operated by designated terror organizations is taken to protect the United States and to defend vital American interests , Wilson said.
“Our operations in the Southcom region are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict. These actions have also been approved by the best military and civilian lawyers up and down the chain of command,” the press secretary said.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 11:40 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 15:05:00 +0000 ZeroHedge Fertilizer Debate: Hormuz Closure Could Usher In New Arab Spring
ZeroHedge Fertilizer Debate: Hormuz Closure Could Usher In New Arab Spring
On Friday, ZeroHedge, in partnership with the Macro Dirt Podcast, hosted a debate focused on the implications for agriculture, inflation, and global
Read more.....
ZeroHedge Fertilizer Debate: Hormuz Closure Could Usher In New Arab Spring
On Friday, ZeroHedge, in partnership with the Macro Dirt Podcast, hosted a debate focused on the implications for agriculture, inflation, and global supply chains given the current situation in Iran . The discussion was illuminating and worth a rewatch if you missed it.
The discussion featured former Bridgewater head of commodities Alex Campbell , Brent Johnson of Santiago Capital, and was hosted by Tony Greer and Jared Dillian .
The Damage Has Been Done
Even in a best case scenario where shipping lanes reopen immediately, Santiago Capital’s Brent Johnson says the damage is already embedded in the system.
“If everything opens tomorrow in the strait and goes back 100% to normal, there’s a five to six week open spot where ships are not arriving where they typically arrived.”
The warning came during last night’s ZH deep dive into a potential fertilizer and farming crisis, with possible Arab Spring-level disruptions in the Third World, but as Johnson said “the U.S. is not immune” .
Johnson joined Tony Greer and Jared Dillian of the Macro Dirt Podcast and former Bridgewater head of commodities Alex Campbell who now writes at campbellramble.ai . Here were the key moments for those short on time:
“Perfect Storm”
The five to six week wartime-gap (assuming that’s all) is colliding directly with the agricultural calendar.
Johnson: “The planting season is largely already over. And the fertilizers that would have normally been available were not. And those that were available were higher priced… You look at the number of bankruptcies that are being filed by farmers in the United States and it’s spiked.”
At the same time, weather risk is rising. “This is an El Niño year… and that throws all kinds of havoc with weather patterns.” The combination, he says, raises the probability of a delayed but meaningful shock.
“You could have a perfect storm six to nine months from now.”
Johnson points to prior episodes where similar conditions led to sharp price moves. “In 2007 and 2008, there was a food crisis… there was a supply disruption, a bad harvest, and policy decisions that diverted supply.” The result was significant inflation in staple commodities: “In 2007 and ‘08, rice spiked almost 200%. In 2010 and 11, wheat price went up 130%.”
“In all of these cases, you started to have social unrest” a la Arab Spring.
“When people are full and warm, they don’t typically protest. But when they’re cold and hungry, that’s when they start taking to the streets.”
Arab Spring 2.0
“When I was looking at prior food crisis… 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011… they were bad, but one of the reasons I think they could be worse now… at the time, those emerging markets and those developing countries were a lot more agrarian-based because that’s what they could afford.”
According to Johnson, over the past two decades, that standard of living… and importantly the expectation of a standard of living. “As they have moved into the middle class in places like China and India… they’ve gotten accustomed to having meat once in a while.”
Meat = more resource intensive. “People don’t really consume corn, but it’s a big part of the food stock that goes into poultry or beef… to grow the animal protein that people have gotten accustomed to eating.”
In developing countries, this could mean a reversion to poverty they’d expected was over:
“Now, if I have to suddenly start going back to just eating rice and I’m no longer having meat… I’m going to be pissed off.”
To listen the full discussion where Brent, Tony, Jared, and Alex go deep into the weeds for how investors can hedge against this scenario, watch the full debate below or listen on Spotify .
VIDEO
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 11:05 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 14:44:00 +0000 Trump Issues Letter Rejecting Congressional Oversight For War, Citing Ceasefire Has 'Terminated' Hostilities
Trump Issues Letter Rejecting Congressional Oversight For War, Citing Ceasefire Has 'Terminated' Hostilities
Trump Issues Letter Rejecting Congressional Oversight For War, Citing Ceasefire Has 'Terminated' Hostilities
Summary
Trump submits letter to Congress at 60-day mark : ceasefire 'terminated' hostilities & so doesn't need authorization, he argues.
US Treasury goes after Hormuz payment fees , sanctioning three Iranian foreign currency exchange houses. Bessent issues pressure points against Iranian 'rats' .
Trump on Friday rejects Iran's latest revised proposal to Pakistan mediators . Nuclear issue not included: a non-starter , and focus is on ending the war. Israeli officials balk .
Iran economically squeezed, signs of divided response among leadership, but surviving: "Weeks of conflict have aggravated Iran's dire economic problems, risking calamity after the war, but the Islamic Republic looks able to survive a standoff in the Gulf for now ." (Rtrs)
Alternative routes emerge : "Iran cannot be besieged; We have different ways to export and import," Iranian official says.
US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 30, 2026?
Yes 37% · No 64%View full market & trade on Polymarket * * *
Trump Letter: Doesn't Need Congressional Approval As Ceasefire Has 'Terminated' Conflict
In an acknowledgement that his anti-Iran Operation Epic Fury has indeed hit 60 days, President Trump has issued a formal letter to Congress which argues he does not need their authorization for war. He is arguing the current ceasefire has in effect 'terminated' the conflict . Below are his main points via NBC [emphasis by ZH]:
"On April 7, 2026, I ordered a two-week ceasefire. The ceasefire has since been extended. There has been no exchange of fire between the United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026 . The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated ," Trump wrote in the letters, one of which went to the House and one of which went to the Senate.
"Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant," the president added in the letter, promising to keep congressional leaders updated on further developments in Iran.
"I have and will continue to direct United States Armed Forces consistent with my responsibilities and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive," the president wrote in his letter.
Trump Rejects Latest Iran Proposal
In fresh Friday words to reporters, President Trump says he is not satisfied with the latest proposal from Iran. He further stated that these negotiations "are not getting there right now ." His main points via Newsquawk :
Iran wants a deal, but i am not satisfied.
Iran has no military left.
Talks with Iran are by phone.
Made strides in talks with Iran.
Not sure we are going to get to a deal.
Not happy with Italy or Spain on Iran.
Iran leaders do not get along with each other.
Bessent Lists 5 Pressures Iranian 'Rats' Facing
US Treasury Secretary Bessent takes to X on Friday to again call Iranian leaders "rats" - which won't bode well for restarting stalled negotiations. He's busy boasting on the economic damage unleashed by the ongoing US naval blockade, writing: "It is very difficult for rats in a sewer pipe to know what's going on in the outside world. Some color for the Iranian Leadership as they literally sit in the dark." He then lists out the following:
1. The United States has complete control of the Strait of Hormuz.
2. There is a hard currency, i.e. U.S. dollar, shortage.
3. Food and gasoline rationing are in place.
4. The entire international community has turned against you.
5. The BLOCKADE will continue, until there is pre-February 27 Freedom of Navigation.
He also shared a WSJ article proclaiming that the Iranians have 'failed' to roll back the US military blockade, and that supposedly the clock is ticking on the government's ability to rule...
Israel To Renew Bombing if Nuclear Issue Not Dealt With
The Netanyahu government is signaling that it will restart the bombing campaign if the nuclear issue is not resolved . It should also not be forgotten that 'denuclearizing' Iran by force has been a multi-decade priority of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the hardliners of Israel. These are the latest warnings out of the Israeli military establishment on Friday :
An Israeli military official says that if Iran's stockpile of more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% is not removed from the Islamic Republic, the entire latest war will be considered “one big failure.”
Israeli officials have said that this stockpile is sufficient for 11 nuclear bombs .
And the Times of Israel underscores further, "The senior officer says that if, as part of negotiations between the United States and Iran, no agreement is reached to remove the uranium stockpile and halt enrichment in the country, the achievements in the 40 days of fighting will have been for nothing ." So this means that "If the nuclear objective is not achieved, then everything we did in Iran will be one big failure. The evil Iranian regime can pounce on the nuclear program," the official emphasized. And then the threat ...
The officer adds that "if the uranium is removed from Iran through diplomatic means, we have done our part." However, if that does not happen, Israel would need to launch another operation in Iran to achieve the objective , they say.
Already Israel has demonstrated its immense influence over the decision to go to war in the first place.
US Treasury Hits Back Against Hormuz Tolls
The OFAC notice on Hormuz payment sanctions: Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating three Iranian foreign currency exchange houses and their associated front companies as part of Economic Fury and Treasury’s ongoing efforts to disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial lifelines that sustain its war effort. Collectively, Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year. Because Iran primarily settles its oil sales in Chinese yuan, these exchange houses play a critical role in converting oil revenues into currencies that are more readily useable by the Iranian military and its partners and proxies.
"Iran is the head of the snake for global terrorism, and under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is moving aggressively, through Economic Fury, to sever the Iranian military’s financial lifelines," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "We will relentlessly target the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds, and pursue anyone enabling Tehran’s attempts to evade sanctions."
War Powers: 60 Days
There's common agreement that today: Friday, May 1st, constitutes the 60-day mark on Operation Epic Fury. But President Trump and his administration are trying to sidestep the 1973 law which requires a president to withdraw troops within 60 days of notifying Congress of their deployment unless lawmakers formally authorize the military action as a declaration of war . Of course, thus far there's been no Congressional authorization, amid some six failed attempts to push through War Powers resolutions.
The administration is now arguing that the extended ceasefire itself, reached three weeks ago and then recently unilaterally extended by Trump, buys more time and allows the White House to avoid Congressional approval. Admin officials argue the absence in exchanges of fire between Iranian and US forces means the 60-day timeline doesn't apply.
"For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February ?28, have terminated," a Trump official has been cited broadly in US media as saying . The same perspective had first been put forward by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth during his hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday :
Answering questions from senators on Thursday, Hegseth said: "We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire."
The questioner, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, responded: "I do not believe the statute would support that. I think the 60 days runs maybe tomorrow, and it's going to pose a really important legal question for the administration there."
The debate over mainstream airwaves is also about to grow fiercer as the war slides with no clear articulated grand US strategy...
Talks Back at Square One
Iran has reportedly submitted its latest revised proposal to Pakistan mediators as of Thursday night. It is a response to the latest US amendments to end the war, per Axios. So the conflict is two-months deep, talks are completely stalled, global energy transit through the Hormuz Strait is at a bare trickle to non-existent as the US naval blockade is enforced and while international vessels are still under looming threat of attack by Iran, and there's still no sign of an offramp coming anytime soon.
To review, and as we wrote previously, next fall's midterms staring Congressional Republicans in the face, there this increasingly uncomfortable trend : "The average price of one gallon (3.8 litres) of gasoline in the United States has reached $4.30 , according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), up from less than $3 before the February 28 start of the US-Israel war on Iran." President Trump's response to this in fielding questions in the Oval Office on Thursday was to tell reporters that ?gas ?prices would "drop like ?a rock" ?as soon ?as the Iran war ended . He said: "The [price of] gasoline and the oil will go down rapidly once the war’s over," and at one point emphasized prices would go down "like a rock."
Important development via Al Jazeera confirming that nuclear issue is a non-starter for Iran:
Proposals resurface: Tehran presented a new proposal to the Pakistani mediator yesterday, a diplomatic source told me. He added that nuclear negotiations will not succeed under these circumstances and that the focus will likely shift to ending the war .
Fresh activity on X:
Iran Squeezed But Surviving
We've been reporting on the collapsing Iranian rial and US officials' hopes that the engineered crisis and economic warfare would force Iranians into the streets to overthrow their own government - which is a plan that already failed to produce enough momentum previously, and even under heavy US-Israeli bombs.
Reuters on Friday describes, "Weeks of conflict have aggravated Iran's dire economic problems, risking calamity after the war, but the Islamic Republic looks able to survive a standoff in the Gulf for now , despite a U.S. blockade that has cut off energy exports." It's an enduring stalemate, with the Iran war and Hormuz closure now being a game of geopolitical chicken, where each side believes it can inflict more pain on the other while being the one to outlast.
There's been talk of Pakistan having opened up its border, as well as increased use of Caspian trade routes - especially for vital goods like food, medicines, and factory or other parts. But WSJ freshly explains that "Alternative trade routes won’t be sufficient. Iran has been working to send some of its oil by rail to China and to import foodstuff by road from the Caucasus and Pakistan. Only 40% of Iran’s trade can be redirected away from blockaded ports, the Iranian Shipping Association said Thursday via the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s security services."
The report then speculates on what's going on internally in Iran's government and leadership, and calculations on how much economic pain Iranian society can take as renewed fighting looms, also as Israel is said to be preparing for more rounds of attack :
The risk of a spiraling crisis has split Iran’s political system between moderates such as President Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liners including Saeed Jalili , a former presidential candidate who leads Iran’s most conservative faction.
The moderates believe in holding fire and negotiating a favorable deal with President Trump, whom they view as eager to get out of the messy war as soon as possible. They worry Iranians are growing tired of the conflict after an initial nationalist uptick.
“The regime has to do something to break this deadlock,” Saeid Golkar, who studies Iran at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “Moderates want a deal because they think more destruction is political suicide,” he said.
While some Iranian officials have touted the country has more of its air force left than what the Pentagon asserts, it remains that Tehran doesn't appear capable of inflicting serious damage on the significant US naval blockade, other than through asymmetric or drone warfare.
Caspian Sea alternative ...
More Latest Developments
via Newsquawk
US President Trump is expected to make a decision on the path forward [on Iran] in the coming days, NBC reported citing a US official.
US President Trump said would not have approved enriched Uranium for Iran; needs guarantees Iran will not have a nuclear weapon ever. Hormuz blockade is 100% effective.
A senior Trump administration official said that for War Power Resolution purposes, hostilities that began on February 28th have been terminated.
Iranian Judiciary head said Iran does not accept negotiation based on imposition; adds Iran has never left the negotiating table, Iranian press reported.
Iranian National Security Commission member Rezei said "we are currently in the second phase of the war with the enemy..the naval blockade is a continuation of the war.. we are not in a ceasefire situation now", Mehr reported.
Full post: "Iran cannot be besieged; We have different ways to export and import. In a conversation with Mehr, Ebrahim Rezaei said: "The enemy has turned to our naval blockade after failing in the military war and direct confrontation, and we are currently in the second phase of the war with the enemy." In other words, the naval blockade is a continuation of the war that the Americans have started against us. So, we are not in a ceasefire situation now. A member of the National Security Commission of the Majlis, stating that the Americans do not have the operational capacity to blockade Iran by sea, said: "Our only access route for transit is not through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.".
US CENTCOM Commander Cooper briefed President Trump for 45 minutes on new operational plans for potential strikes against Iran, Axios' Ravid reported citing sources.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said that it is not responsible to expect a quick conclusion of the negotiations and that the other party has not used the opportunity provided by Iran's proposal, must be ready for any eventuality. The US and Israeli regime are famous for breaking their promises and the biggest guarantee for not repeating the war is the power of Iran.
Drone attack hits Iranian Kurdish opposition camp east of Iraq's Erbil, according to Reuters, citing security sources. via vv.
The defense sound heard over Tehran is related to countering micro-birds and reconnaissance drones, via Tasnim.
Air defence sounds are being heard in some areas of Tehran but reasons are unclear, Mehr News reported.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 10:44 Close
Sat, 02 May 2026 14:30:00 +0000 Dem Rep Suggests Hegseth Could Be Executed For War Crimes Like Nazi Sub-Captains
Dem Rep Suggests Hegseth Could Be Executed For War Crimes Like Nazi Sub-Captains
Dem Rep Suggests Hegseth Could Be Executed For War Crimes Like Nazi Sub-Captains
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
In a stunning escalation of partisan rhetoric, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) declared on national television that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is “guilty” of war crimes — and compared U.S. military operations against drug-smuggling boats to the actions of Nazi submarine captains executed after World War II.
The remarks, delivered Wednesday on CNN’s OutFront , come as the Trump administration presses aggressive action to dismantle narco-terrorist networks flooding America with deadly fentanyl and other poisons.
Instead of backing efforts to secure the homeland, Moulton opted to invoke the language of international tribunals.
Host Erin Burnett asked Moulton directly: “Do you believe that the Secretary of Defense is guilty of war crimes?”
Moulton answered without hesitation: “Absolutely. I mean, he’s clearly behind the operation to shoot all these boats in the Caribbean when it’s very unclear that we actually have any confirmation that these so-called narco terrorists, a term the administration invented to justify this action, are even on the boats.”
He continued, “I mean, in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that these are just fishermen, you know, getting jobs, piloting these boats, trying to feed their families. There’s been press reporting on some of these individuals who have been killed, who are clearly not war criminals.”
He added, “And on top of that, we then have the strike where they came back in and hit it again, a double tap, just purely to kill these survivors who were clinging to wreckage. You know, it’s interesting, Erin, another historical analogy back in World War II, the Allies tried Nazi submarine captains for doing this exact same thing. And guess what the conclusion was? They got executed. Listen to THAT, Mr. Secretary!”
The X post capturing the moment quickly went viral, with users reacting in disbelief at a sitting congressman invoking execution rhetoric against a Trump cabinet official.
This isn’t isolated grandstanding. It fits a clear pattern: Democrats framing routine counter-narcotics operations — strikes on vessels tied to designated terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua operating on known smuggling routes — as criminal acts worthy of prosecution.
Hegseth’s Pentagon has been blunt about the mission: these are lethal, kinetic strikes against narco-terrorists poisoning American communities. Intelligence confirms the targets’ affiliations and routes. Yet Moulton and his allies prefer to romanticize the boat crews as innocent fishermen and demand accountability for those actually fighting the scourge.
The timing is no coincidence. Less than a week after another high-profile political violence incident, Moulton’s Nazi comparison and talk of executions pour gasoline on an already volatile climate. Democrats have repeatedly shown they view Trump administration officials not as legitimate leaders chosen by voters, but as targets for lawfare, congressional harassment, and public demonization.
This rhetoric reveals the left’s playbook in the post-2024 era. Unable to win at the ballot box on issues like border security and drug interdiction, they reach for the DOJ, the media, and inflammatory accusations to delegitimize and destroy political opponents.
Moulton, a veteran himself, should know better than to equate U.S. forces defending against narco-terrorism with Nazi war criminals. Instead, his comments signal that for some Democrats, no Trump policy — not even one stopping drugs from killing thousands of Americans — escapes the smear of criminality.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch . Follow us on X @ModernityNews .
Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/02/2026 - 10:30 Close