Fatemeh Sadat Omrani
WANA

When Donald Trump, in response to a journalist’s question about the targeting of Iran’s power plants and whether such an act would constitute a war crime, refers to a nation as “animals,” this should not be understood merely as an expression of personal hostility or a careless choice of words.

Rather, it reflects one of the oldest and most fundamental mechanisms of domination: dehumanization and othering — processes that have historically been used by colonial and hegemonic systems to provide moral justification for violence and atrocities.

In his work “The West and the Rest,” Stuart Hall explains how the West, as a structure of power, has historically constructed itself as the “center” — the embodiment of reason, modernity, and progress — while defining the “others” (including Eastern peoples, Black communities, Muslims, and other groups) as objects, instruments, or societies portrayed as backward, irrational, and primitive. Within this framework, these communities are depicted as having failed to complete the process of becoming “civilized” and therefore as requiring control, guidance, or intervention; otherwise, they are portrayed as a potential threat to humanity.

The roots of this worldview can be traced back to the ideas of Aristotle, who argued that those outside the Greek world were fundamentally different from Greeks and possessed characteristics similar to slaves, and therefore should remain under the guidance of Greek civilization. Elements of this hierarchical perception of humanity have continued to influence later systems of thought.

Chay Bowes & Gerry Nolan
Islander Reports (Substack)

Kiev just begged the empty suit that is the West to force Russia into reopening a sea corridor to Odessa. But the Black Sea runs on power not bad PR stunts.

After Zelensky’s self declared 40 day “influence operation” of terror drones slamming Russian civilian targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister Andrii Sybiha is now crying to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland that Moscow must be pressured into restoring Odessa’s maritime exports. How rich. Over 30 million tons of product risk being stranded, alternative land routes can handle maybe half the volume, and every idle day at Greater Odessa ports is costing Kiev roughly $70 million while the same ports have long doubled as logistics nodes for Western military supplies.

This is not a humanitarian plea. This is a regime that spent weeks trying to set Russia’s energy system on fire and commiting acts of terrorism against Russian civilians, then acts shocked when the Black Sea stops being a free delivery lane for its own exports and dual-use cargo. Sybiha rejects any “retaliation” framing and calls Russian strikes ironically “systematic terror” going back to 2022. Reality is simpler: you launch a public 40 day campaign of long-range drone strikes designed to create domestic pressure inside Russia, you hit energy infrastructure that keeps the Russian economy and war machine running, and you expect the other side to keep your ports and shipping lanes open out of goodwill.

What exactly are the empty suits in Brussels, Paris and Berlin supposed to do now? Hit Russia with an EU working group and letter of condemnation? Threaten more sanctions that Russia has already adapted to? Send more non-existent ATACMS and Storm Shadows so Kiev can keep escalating while Europe’s own industrial base continues to deindustrialize under the cost of this forever war? The “allies” Sybiha is appealing to cannot even guarantee their own energy security without Russian hydrocarbons or LNG from across the ocean at inflated prices. They certainly cannot open a sea corridor that Russia has decided is no longer available on the old terms.

Elena Panina
Елена Панина (Telegram)

An amateurish reshuffle in the German government has turned into a disaster for Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Given that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is likely to win the regional elections, the end of his chancellorship could come even sooner than expected, according to Henning Hoff of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP, undesirable in Russia).

❖ This refers to a recent amusing incident. After the forced resignation of CDU parliamentary leader Jens Spahn, Merz, for some reason, decided to fire Transport Minister Patrick Schnyder. He found his replacement by calling vacationing MP Fritz Günzler. Günzler initially agreed, but after assessing the situation with a fresh mind, he backed out a few hours later. However, word of Schnyder's dismissal had already leaked, and the search for a new minister had to take several days. The CDU perceived this not so much as a personnel error as evidence that Merz is a poor leader.

A telling moment: Merz was reminded that he leads "a party, not a company." And this is no coincidence: every failure of his deteriorates the coalition's and his own party's ratings. The CDU/CSU's rating fell to 21%, while the AfD rose to 28%. This will have an impact in the elections in just a month. Saxony-Anhalt is particularly dangerous: there, the AfD could take 41% to the CDU's 24%. This means the question is no longer just whether the AfD will win first place, but whether it will come close to an absolute majority and form a single-party regional government.

Kenny Carmody
@KennyCarmody, Substack

Every obedience experiment in history had the same overlooked finding. Not everyone complied.

We spent decades studying the ones who obeyed. We barely asked what made the others different. That question matters more now than it ever has.

The resisters in the COVID era were not difficult to find:

Physicians who filed exemptions and lost their licenses. Nurses who walked away from careers rather than mandate patients into decisions they hadn’t genuinely chosen. Scientists who published contrary data knowing what it would cost them. Parents who stood alone at school board meetings. Ordinary people who simply said, quietly, without drama: no.

What made them different? Research consistently identifies a cluster of factors. Not personality traits you either have or don’t. Situational and cognitive patterns that can be cultivated.

Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter
[Posted on Apr 09, 2026]

Israel is already aggressively sabotaging the Trump administration’s two-week ceasefire with Iran by slaughtering huge numbers of civilians in Lebanon, a nation which is explicitly off-limits for any attack under the ceasefire conditions agreed to by Tehran.

The US and Israel are trying to claim that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement, but Pakistan, whom the US appointed to mediate the agreement, says this is false. The New York Times reports that the White House took part in Pakistan’s public messaging which explicitly included Lebanon in the ceasefire conditions, before changing its tune after Israel attacked.

Iran has reportedly responded to these violations by again halting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

This serves as yet another reminder that the world can have peace or it can have Israel — but it cannot have both. Israel is a genocidal apartheid state whose entire existence is premised upon a strategy of unceasing violence and abuse in the middle east. As long as that state continues to exist in its present iteration, peace will never be attainable.

                                                          ❖

If your job hired a guy who kept getting into fights with your coworkers and saying it’s because they are racist against him, for a week you might believe him. After a month, you’d have doubts. After two months, you’d realize he’s probably just an asshole. Israel has been doing this for eighty years.