In Iran, the U.S. and Israel are employing tactics used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the “War on Terror” and Trump’s recent attacks on alleged drug boats in the Carribean.

You watch these bespectacled pundits and pampered politicians babbling about war the way they’d talk about their plans to remodel their kitchen or take a trip to Paris, and you just know if actual war ever showed up on their doorstep they’d literally soil themselves.

now everything makes sense!

It was a joke. I assure you: I read.

Books are good.

Political parties, rather than local governments, administer primary elections in Texas. In the past, Democrats and Republicans have overseen them jointly.

The rules in effect Tuesday are part of local GOP leaders’ decision to hold a separate primary from Democrats this year in Dallas and Williamson counties, leading to precinct-based voting. In previous elections, individuals could cast ballots at any vote center, regardless of their address, under a countywide voting system.

According to the dpa news agency, Trump took up the vast majority of the time, speaking for at least 30 minutes and often repeating himself.

Merz spoke for just three minutes, even when some of the questions from the press were directed at him.

Ars Technica, the Condé Nast-owned technology outlet, fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards after it retracted one of his stories over the use of AI-fabricated quotes.

The Socialist prime minister has slammed the conflict as unjustified and illegal, and now his criticism has sparked the threat of a trade war from the U.S. president.

Only one EU leader has dared to directly challenge U.S. President Donald Trump over the war against Iran, calling it unjustified, dangerous and illegal: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

And Trump has certainly noticed his outspoken critic in Madrid. On Tuesday, he slammed the Spanish government as “terrible” and “unfriendly” over its decision to bar U.S. military planes from using Spanish air bases to attack Iran, before threatening to cut all trade with the EU’s fourth-biggest economy.

Sánchez’s showdown with Trump puts the Spanish Socialist in a similar position to former French President Jacques Chirac, who famously emerged as the most defiant European leader in 2003, appealing to international law and multilateralism in an attempt to corral opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

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“We’ll see what happens with the people,” President Trump said as he appeared to be distancing himself from the longer-term consequences of the war in Iran.

American leaders say they are “punishing” Iran, “annihilating” its navy and meting out “retribution” against its rulers.

What comes after all that destruction, they increasingly insist, is not the United States’ problem.

“We’ll see what happens with the people,” President Trump said on Tuesday as he hosted Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, referring to the possibility of a popular uprising in Iran in the wake of the war. “You know, they have their chance.”

It was the latest instance of Mr. Trump and his top officials taking pains to paint Iran’s political future as being outside the scope of American responsibility.

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Facing a real chance of defeat in the April parliamentary elections, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban can’t stop talking about President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine.

Just in the past few weeks, the Hungarian strongman called the war-torn country an "enemy" and accused its leadership of blackmail, deception, and election interference. Orban even deployed troops to defend Hungary's energy infrastructure against a claimed Ukrainian threat.

Hungary's leader is "desperately losing" his pre-election fight, Pavel Havlicek, a research fellow at the Association for International Affairs in Prague, told the Kyiv Independent.

To avert defeat, he is "picking external fights," seeking to mobilize Hungarian voters against Ukraine while also pointing the finger at the domestic political opposition, the expert says.

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US president claims ‘they want to talk. I said: Too Late!’, while Rubio threatens the ‘hardest hits are yet to come’

Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites as Donald Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations.

Iran retaliated with hundreds of missile and drone attacks against Israel and across the Gulf region, targeting US military bases, embassies and civilian infrastructure.

Despite acute international fears, there appeared little chance of any de-escalation of the conflict as violence and chaos continued across a fast-widening swathe of the Middle East for a fourth day.

Hundreds of people have been killed, mainly in Iran where the Red Crescent said 787 were dead and thousands injured. Billions of dollars of damage has been inflicted on oil refineries, tankers, airports, luxury hotels and much else, with the world economy threatened with a severe crisis as energy prices soar.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43998351

from +972’s Sunday Recap +972Magazine [published in Israel] March 1, 2026

Months after proclaiming a ‘historic victory,’ Israel launched another offensive against Iran — followed by the familiar, dispiriting spectacle of Jewish opposition leaders closing ranks behind Benjamin Netanyahu. In celebrating the war, Local Call editor Orly Noy argued, Jewish Israeli society once again shows itself to be one that seems able to feel its own pulse only through war and destruction (originally published on Local Call).

Also:

• In Gaza, we’re still breaking our fast under the buzzing of drones
• Israel warns of a Ramadan escalation — while doing everything to provoke one
• Israel’s arms sales are surging. So why are its weapons expos smaller than ever?
• Israel’s lonely push for war with Iran
• Why divorce rates are soaring in the West Bank
• PODCAST: Where is the PA as Israel annexes the West Bank?

and that's more or less why the US will lose a war of attrition.