cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9010502

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/63872

Some critics of the Trump administration are reacting with horror to revelations that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as the de facto ruler of Venezuela.

According to a Saturday report in The New York Times, Rubio for the last several months has been acting informally as the "viceroy" of Venezuela ever since its recognized president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted by the American military in January and brought to the US to face charges related to "narco-terrorism."

The Times' sources revealed that Rubio "effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources, and its government" and "is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations," while maintaining regular contact with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez.

Under current arrangements, the US Treasury Department takes in revenue from Venezuela's exports, including its petroleum, and then disperses the money back to the country through its private banks with strict conditions set by Rubio over what it can be spent on.

In explaining the system, the Times likened it to "parents handing out allowances to children," adding that it gives Rubio "immense leverage over... Rodríguez, who depends on the money to pay workers and prop up the national currency."

Elizabeth Saunders, professor of political science at Columbia University, described Rubio's power over Venezuela as "insane," as well as "derelict, unconscionable, and impeachable."

"The secretary of state's time is scarce, valuable, and not outsourcable," Saunders emphasized.

Orlando J. Pérez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said the Times report made a mockery of Rubio's professed claims to want to bring democracy back to Venezuela.

"It appears Rubio has transformed from democracy promotion warrior," Pérez commented, "to transactional realpolitik operative!"

Kenneth Roth, former executive director at Human Rights Watch, wrote that US control over Venezuela appeared similar to the kind of imperial power wielded by European nations in the 19th Century.

"Trump has turned Venezuela into an effective US colony," said Roth, "with Marco Rubio as the viceroy and Washington controlling the country’s oil revenue and dictating major foreign and domestic policies. Democracy has been relegated to the distant future."

Bradley Simpson, historian at the University of Connecticut, also saw the current US arrangement with Venezuela as a return to overt imperialism.

"We are literally back in the Dollar Diplomacy days of the 1910s," Simpson wrote, "when the United States invaded countries and took over their financial systems and ran them as effective colonies. Flagrantly illegal, enormously corrupt. Where is the organization of American states or UN in denouncing this?"

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

The journalists were near the village of Sinjil north of Ramallah to cover the one-year anniversary of the killing of Saif Musallet, a Palestinian-American who was beaten to death by Jewish settlers, last July.

Within minutes of arriving at the location where Musallet was killed, Israeli settlers descended on the area. As the CNN team and other journalists tried to leave, a group of four settlers blocked the road with their car and tried to keep the vehicles from moving forward.

The four settlers were wielding wooden and metal rods and stones. One settler brandished a knife and tried to puncture the tires of CNN’s vehicle.

The settlers then began to jump on the vehicle behind CNN’s — carrying another group of journalists — and smashed the windshield of that vehicle. Another group of settlers tried to block a separate exit route before chasing the journalists towards the town of Sinjil.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49960188

July 12, 2026

For 14 years, Patnala Suresh served in the merchant navy. Most recently, he was working as chief engineer aboard the commercial oil tanker MT Settebello. To his sons, he was a man who braved storms and rough seas to keep global trade moving.

Suresh was among three Indian crew members killed when the US military struck the MT Settebello in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz on 10 June. American authorities later said the tanker had failed to comply with repeated instructions issued by US forces.

Bhargavi rejects that justification.

"My husband was not a soldier," she tells MEE. "They could have stopped or detained the ship if they wanted to. Why fire a missile at a vessel carrying civilians?"

Calling the strike unjustified, she said the United States should be held accountable for what she described as a violation of international law.

Non-paywalled: https://archive.is/jVHBm

Economists are warning that a “super” El Niño weather cycle this year could cause a severe shock to global food prices lasting into 2028.

As the Iran war pushes up world food prices to the highest level in three years, economists said supply chains faced “two shocks at once” stoked by extreme weather linked to global heating.

Scientists have said the 2026-27 El Niño – which forms when changes in wind patterns allow warmer water to spread across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific – has a historically unprecedented chance of developing into a “very strong” event fuelling heatwaves, flooding and stormier weather.

The United States launched a third round of strikes on Iran early Sunday, saying it had hit a total of 149 military targets across the country.

Iran responded by claiming attacks on US military infrastructure across several Gulf states. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also declared the Strait of Hormuz closed "until further notice" and warned that Tehran would not tolerate foreign interference in the strategic waterway.

Here are the latest developments:

• An IRGC missile strike on a Cyprus-flagged container ship off the coast of Oman triggered the latest round of US strikes. The Guard later claimed it had stopped a second vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

• Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the "era of one-sided deals is over" and urged the US to "keep your word or pay the price".

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49960188

July 12, 2026

[2026-07-12] Mehr News Agency

The Israeli military carried out a large explosion in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit on Sunday, Lebanese media reported.

Local sources told al-Mayadeen that the explosion was conducted by the Israeli military in the town.

No further information was provided on the target, the extent of damage, or whether there were any injuries.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese authorities or the Israeli military on the incident. The blast comes amid repeated Israeli ceasefire breaches in southern Lebanon. 

[2026-07-12] Al-Thawra

Israeli forces set up a temporary military checkpoint in Kodna village in central Quneitra countryside using six military vehicles, the Syrian “Sijel” Center reported on Saturday.

The move follows the establishment of another checkpoint in Eastern Samadaniyah village, amid rising Israeli violations in border areas of Quneitra and ongoing tensions near the separation line.

[2026-07-12] PressTV via TASS

Iran has started its attacks against US targets in the Middle East, the Press TV channel reported.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed earlier in the day that the US military had started another wave of strikes against targets in Iran after the Islamic Republic’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), fired shots at a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier reports said blasts were heard in the Iranian port cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik on the country’s southern coast, as well as in Chabahar in the southeast. Also, explosions were reported on the Qeshm island, in the city of Asaluyeh and in several districts of the Bushehr province.