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‘Diplomacy, Not Catastrophe’ Needed as Israel Appears Poised for US-Enabled War on Iran

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

An Israel Defense Forces F-15 fighter takes off in this photo posted on the IDF’s website on May 19, 2025. (Photo: Israel Defense Forces)

“It would be a catastrophic mistake to be led into a war by the same neocons that claimed the Iraq war would be a cakewalk,” warned one group.

Israel is likely preparing to bomb Iran even as the Trump administration works toward a nuclear deal with Tehran, stoking fears of Iranian retaliation against U.S. military bases and other American or allied sites in an already inflamed region, and prompting calls for urgent diplomacy to avoid war.

U.S. and European officials told Western media Thursday that Israel is preparing to unilaterally attack Iran as negotiations between Washington and Tehran draw closer to a preliminary framework for an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear development. The government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes any such deal.

“If this escalates, innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire in Iran and across the region.”

American intelligence agencies have periodically concluded over the past two decades that Iran—which has not started a war since the 19th century but supports proxy attacks on Israel—is not developing nuclear weapons.

While President Donald Trump—who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if a nuclear deal is not reached—has publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran, numerous observers are warning that Tehran and its proxies would very likely view the U.S. as complicit in any such action.

“If Israel does strike Iran in the next days or hours, and even if they do so in defiance of Trump’s warnings, the likelihood that the Iranians will perceive it as an independent act by Israel in defiance of Trump is essentially zero,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Wednesday on social media. “There is no plausible deniability.”

Vahid Razavi, an Iranian American advocate for human rights and ethics in technology and founder of ParentsPlea.com, told Common Dreams Thursday that “Israel will only attack Iran with the support and blessing of the United States.”

“The ‘good cop/bad cop’ game that Trump and Israel are playing in the region is a distraction,” Razavi added. “There is no substantial difference in U.S. and Israeli policy toward Iran.”

Iran has threatened an “unprecedented response” if Israel attacks.

“In case of any conflict, the U.S. must leave the region because all its bases are within our range, and we will target all of them in the host countries regardless,” Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said Thursday during a televised address.

Nasirzadeh’s remarks followed a Wednesday threat by an official from Ansar Allah that the Yemeni rebel group also known as the Houthis is “at the highest level of preparedness for any possible American escalation against us.”

“Any escalation against the Islamic Republic of Iran is also dangerous and will drag the entire region into the abyss of war,” the unnamed official toldNewsweek.

The Trump administration stands accused of war crimes in Yemen amid an escalation of the decadeslong U.S. bombing of the country as part of the so-called War on Terror. Successive U.S. administrations also backed a Saudi-led war on Yemen that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, while Israeli and British forces have bombed the country since 2024 in retaliation for Houthi missile attacks on Red Sea shipping and Israel.

Last October, Iran launched a limited missile strike on Israel in response to the assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Lebanon-based resistance group Hezbollah, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. This prompted retaliatory Israeli attacks on targets in and around Tehran, including the headquarters of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The prospect of another Israeli attack on Iran prompted the U.S. on Wednesday to order the evacuation of some diplomats from Iraq and call for the voluntary departure of American military families from the region.

Meanwhile, numerous observers stressed the need for a diplomatic resolution to avoid a wider war in the Middle East—and possibly beyond.

“We must face the reality: if this escalates, innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire in Iran and across the region, and at home there may be new, dire threats to the civil liberties of our community,” the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said in a statement Thursday.

“We are working to ensure our leaders hear us loud and clear: We need diplomacy, not catastrophe,” NIAC added. “We are organizing multiple actions in the coming days against a potential war and in support of peace and ask for your support to fuel this vital effort.”Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner succinctly said Wednesday: “No war with Iran. No war, period.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Thousands Across US Send Message to Trump: ‘No Threats, No Bombs, No War With Iran’

Continue Reading‘Diplomacy, Not Catastrophe’ Needed as Israel Appears Poised for US-Enabled War on Iran

Amnesty Condemns Trump Threat of ‘Very Heavy Force’ Against Military Parade Protesters

Original article by Jon Queally republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Protesters continue to march and chant in an approximately one-square mile area of downtown Los Angeles in response to a series of immigration raids, on June 11, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

The far-right Republican president, warned the human rights group, “is continuing to send a clear and chilling message: dissent will be punished.”

The human rights advocacy group Amnesty International USA has issued a strong rebuke and warning in response to President Donald Trump’s public threat to aim “very heavy force” at law-abiding protesters voicing their constitutionally-protected free speech during organized ‘No Kings’ protests scheduled for Saturday nationwide.

In Tuesday remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he didn’t know of any planned protests timed to coincide with his $134-million parade, taking place on his birthday, but said if there are, “these are people that hate our country.”

“For those people who want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Trump said, making no distinction between peaceful demonstrators and those who might be more confrontational or even violent.

“Now is a good moment to remind President Trump that protesting is a human right and that his administration is obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly–not suppress them,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, in a statement on Wednesday.

Trump’s threat arrived after he overrode California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call up 4,000 National Guard troops in that state last weekend—and subsequently U.S. Marine forces—to confront large protests in Los Angeles that erupted in response to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the violent arrest of union leader David Huerta, president of SEIU California.

“The militarized response to protests, including the deployment of the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles, further escalates tensions and is a chilling preview of even more human rights violations that could be coming,” warned O’Brien. “The U.S. military is not trained or equipped to police civilians. It increases the risk of excessive force, arbitrary arrests, and other violations of free expression and peaceful assembly. The Trump administration has already shown us that it will use any tool of the state, including ICE, police, and military forces to target immigrants, asylum seekers, protesters, and anyone who dares to defend their rights.”

Over 1,800 coordinated ‘No Kings’ protests are being organized for July 14 to counter Trump’s growing authoritarianism and to coincide with the military parade Trump is throwing for himself in Washington, D.C., at an estimated cost of $134 million.

A new poll released Thursday shows a majority of Americans believe the parade is a waste of taxpayer money.

Approximately 6 in 10 Americans also say Trump’s parade is “not a good use” of taxpayer funds, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That number of disapproving voters includes a number of people surveyed who have no particular criticism of the parade itself.

Poll results approving of military parade.

Beyond the wasted cost, critics of the president warn that the more dangerous aspect of the parade is how the spectacle dovetails with Trump’s broader authoritarianism, including his militarized response to dissent and weaponizing state power against his perceived political enemies.

“Make no mistake,” said Amnesty’s O’Brien. “President Trump’s response to protests has nothing to do with public safety. This is his administration’s way of stoking fear and suppressing opposition. By sending police, ICE, or the military into neighborhoods to silence voices calling for justice and human rights, President Trump is continuing to send a clear and chilling message: dissent will be punished.”

Amnesty called for an immediate halt to Trump’s “militarized response” to public protest.

“The task of any law enforcement is to facilitate—not to restrict—a peaceful public assembly,” said O’Brien. “This must be clearly understood by all law enforcement officials taking part in the management of the assembly. Law enforcement must also not use violent acts of a few as a pretext to restrict or impede the human rights of others to peacefully protest.”

Original article by Jon Queally republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingAmnesty Condemns Trump Threat of ‘Very Heavy Force’ Against Military Parade Protesters

Tories Ditched Net Zero Commitment While Receiving £250,000 from Oil Investors and Climate Deniers

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

The Conservatives received a hefty sum from oil and gas investors and those with roles at anti-climate campaign groups during the period when the party rolled back a key climate commitment.

New records released today reveal that Kemi Badenoch’s party accepted £50,000 in January from Neil Record, the chair of Net Zero Watch, the campaign arm of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) – the UK’s foremost climate science denial group.

In March, Badenoch announced that the Conservatives would no longer be advocating for the UK to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 – the goal currently pursued by the government. In a speech hosted by an advertising group that works for the oil giant Shell, Badenoch suggested that we are “bankrupting ourselves” in the pursuit of the 2050 target.

While the UK’s oil and gas reserves are dwindling, the country’s green economy grew by 10 percent in 2024.

Badenoch said that the country should still seek to reduce its climate impact, but shouldn’t set a date for achieving net zero.

Record – who is also lifetime president of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a pressure group that received funding from BP every year from 1967 to at least 2018 – has claimed that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 “will restrict our freedom, and is likely to be eye-wateringly expensive”. Record has donated to both the IEA and GWPF.

The GWPF regularly contradicts basic climate science, suggesting that CO2 emissions are “not pollution”.

A month before her net zero announcement, Record paid for Badenoch, her family, and members of her shadow cabinet to have a week-long retreat in Gloucestershire. The Net Zero Watch chair is close to the Tory leader, having provided funding and office space to her 2024 leadership campaign.

Over the past two decades, the Conservative Party has accepted £7.2 million from senior figures at the GWPF, while Badenoch’s campaign also received funding from a director at the fossil fuel major Chevron.

The party accepted a further £117,600 in the first quarter of this year from Alasdair Locke, a longstanding Tory donor who made his fortune in the oil industry. Locke is currently the chair of the UK’s largest independent petrol station operator Motor Fuel Group, and the non-executive chair of Well-Safe solutions, a firm that decommissions oil and gas wells. He is the founder of Abbot Group, a major oil and gas services company in the North Sea.

Badenoch’s party also received £75,000 in March from IPGL, a family investment firm belonging to Tory peer Lord Michael Spencer. A billionaire financier and former Tory treasurer, Spencer has investments worth at least £100,000 in each of the oil and gas companies Deltic Energy and Pantheon Resources.

“Is it any wonder that Kemi Badenoch’s Tories are so vehemently against net zero? No sooner do they get a quarter of a million from fossil fuel companies, do they decide to ditch the net zero commitments that they were so evangelical about just a few years ago,” said Harmit Kambo, campaigns manager at Good Law Project. “Given the existential climate threats we face, the Tories’ capitulation to climate change deniers perhaps sets a new low for their policy-making integrity.”

The Conservatives, Neil Record, Alasdair Locke, and Michael Spencer were approached for comment.

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

Continue ReadingTories Ditched Net Zero Commitment While Receiving £250,000 from Oil Investors and Climate Deniers

Water firms panicking over disposal of millions of tonnes of contaminated sewage sludge

Water companies are panicking they will be left unable to dispose of millions of tonnes of sewage sludge due to tougher pollution rules, and rising concern over the contaminants sludge contains.

Read the full investigation with supporting documents from Unearthed, here.

Sewage sludge is the human faeces and other solids left behind when wastewater is cleaned. Around 90% of the UK’s sludge is treated and spread on farmland as a source of nutrients to fertilise crops. However, concern is rising in the UK that this could be introducing damaging levels of contamination to agricultural land.

An analysis for trade association Water UK last year found that in a “worst-case” scenario the industry could be left with “3.4 million wet tonnes” of sludge with nowhere to go, documents obtained by Unearthed under freedom of information laws show. 

The key documents not already in the public domain (available via the Unearthed website) include:

  • National Plan B: water industry analysis of sludge disposal crisis
  • The National Landbank Assessment Report 2024: water industry capacity modelling
  • EA CEO internal briefing: prepared by the Environment Agency 

Earlier this year, environmental regulators in the United States warned that toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in sewage sludge spread on American pastures were posing a cancer risk to people who regularly ate meat or dairy from those farms. This came after investigations by Unearthed and others found that sludge destined for British farmland also contained a range of harmful contaminants, including microplastics and forever chemicals.

The water companies fear increased scrutiny of sludge-spreading in the UK could trigger a ‘backlash’ akin to the public outrage they have faced over sewage released into rivers and seas, Unearthed has learned. 

Reshima Sharma, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:

“This investigation is yet more proof that we can’t trust the privatised water companies to deal with waste responsibly. So long as they can get away with it, they will just pass any problems on to our countryside and pocket the money they should be investing in solutions.

“In addition to the national scandal of river pollution, their negligence has led to a cocktail of toxic contaminants being spread on the soil that grows our food. The government must stop toxic sludge from being spread on farmland immediately and water companies must be made to pay for disposing of it safely, without passing the buck to bill payers.”

Continue ReadingWater firms panicking over disposal of millions of tonnes of contaminated sewage sludge

Chancellor “knows know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” say Greens in response to Spending Review

Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to the Spending Review, Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay MP, said,

“Today’s Spending Review shows we have a chancellor who seems to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. While today Reeves may have balanced her spreadsheet, it is done on the backs of some of the worst off in our society. The proof is in how many will still be feeling worse off as the cost-of-living crisis bites hard.

People want to feel pride in Britain again, and for this, they need real hope. Hope only comes from seeing how things will improve through real investment in the everyday services we all rely on.

Despite the rhetoric in the chamber, it is clear that this Spending Review represents a squeeze in many frontline budgets. With education, for example, where many schools are already being forced to make difficult budget cuts, core school budgets are set to rise by just 0.6%. It is hard to see this money ever reaching our teachers and children in the classroom. Equally, I am horrified to see real-term cuts to Defra funding, just as the impact of climate change is starting to affect our communities. Now is the time to invest in climate resilience and preparedness.”

He continued, “These ‘tough decisions’ are actually ‘Labour’s political choices’. They are choosing to leave the economy tilted towards those with considerable wealth. Our front-line services continue to deteriorate through a political choice of decline by design. By introducing a wealth tax on the super-rich, we could instead properly invest in our children’s future. We could give them the education they deserve and start now to invest in the climate resilience and preparedness they will need throughout their lives as the climate crisis unfolds.”

Continue ReadingChancellor “knows know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” say Greens in response to Spending Review