| May 28nd, 2026 | Weekly Issue |
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| US Launches Another Round of Airstrikes
Against Iran |
| A US official told Reuters on Wednesday that the US military launched another round of airstrikes in Iran, an attack that risks plunging the region back into full-scale war.
Details of the attack are minimal, but an Iranian military source told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that the IRGC navy fired on a US tanker that “tried to pass through the Strait of Hormuz by turning off its radar system.” It said that the US then bombed an area around Bandar Abbas, an Iranian port city on the Strait of Hormuz that the US targeted with strikes on Monday.
A US official speaking to Axios reporter Barak Ravid said that the US shot down four drones that targeted a US commercial ship, then bombed a drone launch site on the ground. The Tasnim report said the US strike on Bandar Abbas “did not cause any casualties or property damage.”
A US official speaking to CBS News framed the latest US attack as “defensive” as the US is attempting to obscure the fact that all of its hostilities against Iran, which include enforcing a blockade on its ports, are part of the same war the US and Israel launched against Iran on February 28. |
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| Trump Threatens To ‘Blow Up’ Oman If the Country Doesn’t ‘Behave’ |
| The president made the threat when asked about the potential of Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Hormuz Strait |
| President Trump on Wednesday said the US would “blow up” the country of Oman if it doesn’t “behave,” a threat made when asked if he would accept a short-term deal that involved Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Strait of Hormuz.
“No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation,” Trump told reporters while hosting a cabinet meeting at the White House.
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that they’ll be fine,” the president added.
Iranian media reported last month that Iran’s initial proposal to end the war with the US involved charging a fee for ships transiting the strait, with the revenue split between Iran and Oman, which both have coasts along the waterway, and Iranian officials have held talks with their Omani counterparts on the issue. |
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| Pentagon Has Forces in Place To Launch an Attack on Cuba |
| According to POLITICO, the Pentagon is ready to go if Trump gives the order |
| The Pentagon has spent months positioning warships and weapons in place for an attack on Cuba and is ready to go if President Trump gives the order, POLITICO reported on Wednesday.
The report noted that the US doesn’t have quite the number of warships it had deployed in the Caribbean before the attack on Venezuela, but the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group just recently arrived in the region, and the US can also make use of fighter jets and other weapons based in Florida for a war with Cuba.
The US has also ramped up military surveillance flights around Cuba, something it did in the months leading up to the attack on Venezuela. The Trump administration has indicted Raul Castro, the 94-year-old former president, giving it a potential pretext for an attack, though US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made clear the administration wants to topple the entire Cuban government.
“Cuba’s in a lot of trouble, because, unfortunately for them, it’s run by a bunch of incompetent communists,” Rubio said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, adding that having a “failed state 90 miles from our shores is a threat to the national security of the United States.” |
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| Suspected US or UAE Airstrike Kills Pregnant Woman and Three Children in Northeast Somalia |
| Somalia media is reporting that an airstrike launched by an “international partner” in Somalia’s Bari region in the northeastern state of Puntland on May 21 killed four civilians, including three children and a pregnant woman, following a pattern of rising civilian casualties in the US-backed wars against ISIS and al-Shabaab in the country.
At this point, it’s unclear who was responsible for the strike, but the US is suspected since it has dramatically escalated its air campaign in Somalia, including airstrikes against the ISIS affiliate based in the mountains of Puntland. The UAE is also known to launch airstrikes in the area, and, according to Hiraan Online, locals in Puntland attributed airstrikes that killed civilians last year to Abu Dhabi.
Turkey also launches airstrikes in Somalia, but it’s unclear if it’s been involved in the bombing campaign in Puntland, as reporting indicates its strikes have only targeted al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
Antiwar.com has asked US Africa Command whether its forces launched an airstrike in the area on May 21 and hasn’t received a reply at the time of publication. |
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| Israeli Defense Minister: Plan To Remove Palestinians From Gaza Will Be Implemented
�At the Right Time� |
| Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population, which he frames as “voluntary emigration,” will be implemented at the “right time.”
Katz made the comments in a statement on the Israeli killing of Mohammed Odeh, who was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Tuesday night as the IDF continues daily attacks in the Strip in violation of the US-backed October 2025 ceasefire deal.
“We committed to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre, and so it shall be: they are all sentenced to death, wherever they may be,” Katz wrote on X.
“We committed that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily, and so it shall be, and also the voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will be implemented–everything at the right timing and in the right manner,” he added.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, it’s been clear that the Israeli government’s desired goal was the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory, though it’s been unable to achieve it, as Israeli officials haven’t found a country willing to absorb the population of Gaza. |
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| Report: Israel Pressing the US To Assassinate Iran�s Lead Negotiator |
| Israel is pressing the US to restart heavy airstrikes on Iran that would involve the targeted killing of Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Tehran�s lead negotiators, and attacks on the country�s oil infrastructure, Capital & Empire reported on Thursday.
The report, which cited US sources familiar with a classified report circulating within the US intelligence community, said Israel is aggressively pushing for the US to abandon talks with Iran and insisting that destroying oil infrastructure in the country could bring about regime change while also downplaying the impact the renewed full-scale war will have on the global economy.
The New York Times previously reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pitched President Trump on launching the war back in early February by making a series of predictions that proved to be wrong, including the idea that Iran was ripe for regime change, that its ballistic missile program could be destroyed within weeks, and that it would be too weak to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli officials have been clear that they want to restart the US-Israeli bombing campaign and have threatened to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his father, Ali Khamenei, after he was killed by an Israeli strike on February 28, the first day of the war. |
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