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On Witless Great Vengeance and Furious Anger
Seeking to rally the troops for his unholy war, Christian nationalist, TV-carnie and war fanboy Pete Kegseth just passed off some vengeful Gospel According to Tarantino as scripture at his (unconstitutional) Pentagon prayer service, and yes we have them now. Added to the "shameless blasphemy" of quoting - without credit - Samuel Jackson's homicidal hitman Jules as "prayer," Pete moronically misses the redemptive point: As he cites the "tyranny of evil men," he, unlike Jules, doesn't friggin' get that he is one.
With their calamitous illegal war continuing to spiral out of control, flailing regime officials are striking out in ever more erratic ways. Nursing his deranged feud with Pope Leo XIV, a vindictive Private Bonespurs - Suffer the little children to own the Pope - abruptly cancelled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities in Miami to fund a vital, decades-long foster program for migrant children, aka small deadly illegals, who enter the U.S. alone. The result of "an incredibly psychologically harmful" move for already vulnerable kids: "They don't know who or where they are from day to day." Meanwhile, slimy, Bible-and-chest thumping braggadocio Pete is working hard to inflict his own fire-and-brimstone carnage.
Blithely pressing on with a serial slaughter based on evidently "entirely make-believe" grounds, Hegseth killed three more "narco-terrorists," likely fishermen, in the Eastern Pacific last week. It was the third boat bombing in three days - complete with giddy video - in the name of a "narco-trafficking" criminal conspiracy of which, experts say, there is "zero evidence"; they also say the murders have "no impact at all" on America's drug problems. Despite bogus legal theories scrounged up by the regime in an attempt to justify the deaths of at least 177 mostly innocent people, rights advocates note, “'Murder' is the general term for premeditated killings outside of armed conflict."
In the wake of those transgressions and many more, Democrats just filed six articles of impeachment against Hegseth; their lead sponsor, Iranian-American Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, cited "high crimes and misdemeanors,” including war crimes, abuse of power, and other charges. The bill didn't mention Hegseth's clearly unconstitutional worship services (what separation of church and state?), part of a brazen Christian crusade that faces a lawsuit arguing, "The federal government’s role is to serve the public, not proselytize." Nor does it flag his bloody, unseemly prayers for U.S. troops to inflict “overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy."
The impeachment effort also fails to target the movie plagiarism and general dumbfuckery committed by cosplay Hegseth, one of a host of inept imposters in this awful Oceans 11 re-make, in his latest, lamest piece of performance art: Asking Pentagon officials and their families at last week's "Christian" service to bow their heads in prayer for a godless war as he recited scripture from the Book of Ezekiel, or maybe "Caesar" or Samuel or Snakes On A Plane, a prayer he claimed was delivered by the lead planner of the “Combat Search And Rescue” mission that earlier this month rescued two pilots downed in Iran."They call it 'CSAR 25:17,' which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17," he blustered of "the Lord’s word about who we are and how we conduct ourselves...Pray with me please."
With his greasy smirk, he then launched into an almost word-for-word rip-off of the iconic speech by blood-stained hitman and aspiring philosopher Jules Winnfield, played indelibly by Samuel Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 black comic morality tale Pulp Fiction. Moments later, Jules point-blank executes hapless young Brett, not because he posed any threat or was allegedly developing nuclear weapons, but because Jules is just following orders. Because that's his job. Because each time he kills a stranger in cold blood, he likes to first recite that "prayer," which propitiously helps make him feel powerful, morally upright, cleansed of whatever guilt or grief or questions that might otherwise trouble his sleep.
"The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men," Pete declaimed. "Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother. And you will know my call sign is Sandy One when I lay my vengeance upon thee, and Amen." Some in the audience, presumably moviegoers, chuckled at the source; others looked dutifully, cluelessly solemn as their kids squirmed in boredom. Blessed be the hitmen. Let us prey, indeed.
In reality, of the three passages in Ezekiel 25:17, only the shortest comes close to Pete's/Jules' harangue: "I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes, and they shall know that I am the LORD when I lay My vengeance upon them." Tarantino, a fan of Kung Fu flicks, lifted his own fake version from a 1973 Japanese martial arts film, Karate Kiba, about a Kung Fu vigilante who vows to eliminate the crime-infested drug business in Japan. Hegseth, the guy with Nazi tattoos who lectures people about "Christian values," didn't mention or credit Tarantino, a theft and sacrilege first caught by Baptist minister Brian Kaylor. But no harm no foul: In today's idiocracy, notes Mary Trump, "Who among us has not mistaken the holy words of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction for Biblical scriptures?"
Online, Pentagon shill Sean Parnell acknowledged the prayer was "obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction"; of Pete's failure to note that, he argued, "Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality." The next day, at a briefing on the war, the thin-skinned Hegseth again went off and Biblical on the press, calling their accurate reports on an unpopular war "unpatriotic" and likening the media to the Pharisees: "They were there to witness (but) their hearts were hardened (in) pursuit of their agenda." The whining didn't go over well; America really seems to hate Pete. "The gospel according to St. Jack Daniels. What a dick," they griped, and, "Talibangicals' perverted take on Christianity - Hegseth is literally an anti-Christ. And a rapist."
Mostly, people were pissed at his ignorant appropriation of the much-loved Pulp Fiction for his own base and bloody purposes, declaring, "And you call yourself a white Christian nationalist?" and, "I'd take Samuel Jackson's character over Pete's any day." They wondered if, next time, Pete would add the famed Biblical parable, "You know what they call a quarter-pounder with cheese in Paris?” (Royale.) They argued Pete's "scriptures" should include more "Motherfucker"'s, they offered hilarious video of Jules meeting up with another quivering Brett, they marveled at the idiocy of Hegseth, a bellicose grandstander who didn't understand that, in Jules' bonkers, vengeful "prayer," the speaker is actually the bad guy.
In one of Pulp Fiction's two final scenes, in the diner where the film begins, Jules comes to a belated moral reckoning with himself. He has long justified his bloody past by telling himself (like Pete) he's taking righteous vengeance on the "bad." But earlier that day, after killing Brett, he's "miraculously" untouched by a barrage of gunshots - a survival he attributes to "divine intervention, a sign to re-evaluate his life. Of his ritual recitation, he tells the young thief, “I never gave much thought to what it meant...It was just some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass...The truth is, you’re the weak, and I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo, I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd." Drunken, unctuous, preening Pete, who keeps missing the point, should too.
"Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth - Pope Leo X1V
Apr 19, 2026
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'Foreign Billionaires First, America Last': Critics Slam GOP Over Mining Approval Near Minnesota Boundary Waters
Democratic lawmakers and environmental protection groups condemned Senate Republicans on Thursday for their "heartbreaking" passage of a House resolution to overturn a 20-year moratorium on mining in the watershed of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the nation's most visited wilderness area—a vote that critics said was the result of years of lobbying by a foreign-owned mining firm.
House Joint Resolution 140 now heads to President Donald Trump's desk, nearly a decade after Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta, the owner of Twin Metals Minnesota, began discussing with Trump's first administration its desire to build a copper mine over the pristine area.
"Because of this extremely short-sighted vote, our nation’s most-visited wilderness area faces the threat of permanent toxic pollution," said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.). "Why? So Antofagasta, a Chilean corporation that owns Twin Metals, can mine American copper and ship it to China to be smelted and sold on the global market. Twin Metals has been lobbying President Trump and Republicans in Congress for over ten years to remove the protections from this watershed and renew their mine plans to extract American minerals at the expense of freshwater for future generations."
The 50-49 vote in the Senate, said Environment America, puts the 1.1 million-acre wilderness area for heavy metals leaching into the soil and water through acid mine drainage.
Toxic runoff from copper mining, said the group, "ultimately poisons the land and water surrounding a mine, making the ecosystem unlivable for wildlife."
Leda Huta, vice president of government relations for American Rivers, called the vote "a betrayal of the public trust."
“We share in the deep disappointment of millions of Americans who expect our elected leaders to protect our clean water, our abundant wildlife, and access for all to unmatched outdoor recreation spaces," said Huta. "This is a heartbreaking moment.”
Amanda Hefner, manager of Save the Boundary Waters Action Fund, wrote in a column in Minnesota Reformer last October that "in a water-rich environment like the Boundary Waters, with its low buffering capacity, pollution would spread quickly through interconnected lakes and streams." She also wrote that it was "reckless" to risk the preserve's 17,000 jobs and over $1 billion in annual revenue "for a foreign-owned mine that would pollute and leave toxic waste for generations."
According to Jacobin, Antofagasta spent $200,000 on lobbying in the final quarter of 2024 and $230,000 in the first quarter of 2025 "on issues including federal leases for Twin Metals." The Chilean company is owned by billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who rented out his $5.5 million mansion in Washington, DC to Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, then-White House adviser Jared Kushner, from 2017-21.
The Sierra Club noted that to pass the mining ban reversal, Senate Republicans "utilized a baseless interpretation of the Congressional Review Act (CRA)."
"The CRA only allows Congress to disapprove of administrative rules," said the group. "No previous administration has considered mineral withdrawals to be 'rules' that are subject to the CRA."
Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, said that "allowing a foreign company to open a toxic mine on its doorstep puts a fragile ecosystem at risk and shows the Trump Administration will always act to benefit corporations over the American people.”
“The Boundary Waters is one of the country’s most iconic wilderness areas, visited by thousands every year. It should be a place for recreation and conservation, not for pollution and exploitation," said Manuel.
Despite Trump's refrain, "America First," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said the vote made clear that "for the GOP, it’s foreign billionaires first, America last."
McCollum warned that the mining moratorium was "the only way to protect this wilderness, which is home to some of the cleanest water in the entire world.
"We don’t allow mining in Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Acadia, Glacier, or any of our nation’s revered national parks—and we shouldn’t allow it in the watershed of the Boundary Waters, either," said the congresswoman. "One hundred percent of copper mines have failed, leading to polluted waters. This case will be no different."
Apr 16, 2026
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'Taxing Billionaires Is Not Radical': Mamdani Joins Top Economists to Denounce 'Rigged' US Tax System
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is using Tax Day to remind Americans that the nation's tax code is "rigged" to protect the superrich while making the case for a more equitable system.
In a Guardian op-ed co-written with Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Paris School of Economics professor Gabriel Zucman, New York's democratic socialist mayor lamented that the world is living with greater wealth inequality than ever before, with just 0.0001% of the global population holding the equivalent of 16% of global wealth—more than the bottom half of humanity.
Mamdani and the economists attributed the global surge in inequality in large part to America's "regressive" tax system, which has grown dramatically more favorable to the wealthy over the past half-century.
As wealth concentrates, so does power — the power to influence elections, shape policy, tilt markets and define the terms of public debate.Taxing billionaires is not radical.What is radical is allowing a system where extreme wealth exists alongside widespread hardship.
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— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) April 15, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Compared to 1960, when the 400 richest Americans paid roughly half their incomes in taxes, they now pay about 24%—helped by a combination of lower marginal tax rates and loopholes that allow billionaires and corporations to shield their wealth and effectively pay a smaller share of their incomes than everyone else.
This inequality was further exacerbated by the massive GOP tax law signed by President Donald Trump last year, which a report by Americans for Tax Fairness found gave the wealthiest 1% of households an average tax break of $9,000.
While the Trump administration promised earlier this year that the average American family would receive a $1,000 tax refund from the legislation, Corey Husak, director of tax policy at the Center for American Progress, found that the average refund was just $346 higher than the previous year—and that even that figure was heavily inflated by the benefits accrued by the richest earners.
Meanwhile, those gains were more than wiped out by the added cost of Trump's tariffs and the dramatic cuts to the social safety net passed by Republicans, which have led to spiking health insurance costs and thrown millions off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
"We can disagree about how progressive tax systems should be—the extent to which the rich should pay more tax, relative to their income, than the rest of us," Mamdani, Stiglitz, and Zucman wrote. "But there is no justification for a regressive system in which the superrich contribute less than the rest of us. This is how inequality is deepened and sustained."
The authors praised efforts in other countries to combat rising inequality. One initiative they highlighted was a 2% tax on the wealth of those with more than €100 million ($117 million), a proposal championed by Zucman. A version of the measure was passed last year by France's National Assembly but stalled in the Senate after being blocked by centrist and right-wing parties.
But the initiative still has momentum around the world. This weekend, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will meet with the leaders of several other nations, including Mexico, Colombia, and South Africa, to discuss adopting similar taxes.
Meanwhile, in the US, a proposed ballot initiative for a one-time 5% billionaire tax in California—aimed at recouping losses from Trump's Medicaid cuts—appears overwhelmingly popular, with around two-thirds support according to a poll last month, despite aggressive lobbying by billionaires to stop the measure.
Mamdani has pushed for a similar measure in New York City to help balance the city budget and fund universal childcare and affordable housing.
On Wednesday, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she was backing a so-called "pied-à-terre tax," which applies a surcharge to anyone with a second home valued over $5 million in New York City. Mamdani's office has estimated that it will raise $500 million annually.
In early 2026, consumer prices and housing costs have soared far faster than wages can match. A January poll from KFF found that 82% of adults said their overall cost of living had increased over the past year, with around two-thirds saying they worried about affording healthcare for themselves and their families, and nearly a quarter saying they were worried about affording food and rent.
In response to this economic precarity, more than 62% of Americans said in a January YouGov survey that they felt billionaires are taxed too little, and more than half said that wealth inequality is a problem.
"The idea that billionaires should pay higher tax rates than working people is not radical," the authors of the Guardian op-ed said. "What is radical is allowing a system where extreme wealth exists alongside widespread hardship—and where those billionaires can in effect opt out of contributing to the society that made their success possible."
Apr 15, 2026
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Citing Scripture, Hegseth Compares Trump to Jesus and Journalists Covering Unpopular Iran War to the Pharisees
Days after President Donald Trump elicited backlash with an artificially generated image likening himself to Jesus Christ, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on the comparison, invoking scripture during a Pentagon press briefing.
Hegseth, an avowed Christian nationalist who has portrayed the war against Iran as part of a “crusade” against the Muslim world, has turned the Pentagon into a forum for proselytizing, with monthly prayer meetings featuring fundamentalist pastors.
And that posture has seeped into his regular briefings about the war, as it did on Thursday, when he likened reporters covering the war negatively to the “Pharisees,” who dismissed Jesus as a false prophet in the Bible.
“This past Sunday, I was sitting in church with my family, and our minister preached from the Book of Mark, the third chapter. And in the passage, Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand," Hegseth said.
“The Pharisees came to watch, and as the scripture reads, they came to see whether He, Jesus, would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. You see, the Pharisees, the so-called elites of their time, were there to witness, to write everything down, to report. But their hearts were hardened,” he continued.
“Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” Hegseth continued. “I sat there in church, and I thought, ‘These press are just like these Pharisees.’ Not all of you, but the legacy, Trump-hating press.”
Trump's portrayal of himself as a messiah over the weekend was met with so much outrage, including from many of his Christian supporters, that it is one of the few posts he has deleted from social media.
Other reporting from Axios on Thursday revealed that the controversial image was perhaps more deliberate than previously thought, having been discussed with one of his closest advisers, housing finance chief Bill Pulte, shortly before it was posted.
And Trump has since posted another image of himself being embraced by Jesus, accompanied by a caption stating that "God might be playing his Trump card."
As for Hegseth's comments on Thursday, there was little ambiguity in his description of Trump as a Christlike figure.
The defense secretary begged the press to "open their eyes" to the "historic goodness" of the war effort and referred to the operations by the US military to rescue downed bomber pilots in Iran as a "miracle."
Hegseth has often used scripture to sanctify "overwhelming violence" against enemies he deems "ungodly." During a Christian service at the Pentagon late last month, he said a prayer for the US military to deliver violence upon those "who deserve no mercy."
“Behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous. Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans, and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish,” Hegseth said. "Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield, protect the innocent and blameless in their midst, make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty-handed. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation."
Whatever overtures have been made toward protecting "the innocent," Hegseth's holy war has resulted in more than 1,700 dead civilians in Iran, including more than 250 children, according to the most recent casualty report from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). More than 3 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The war that Hegseth suggested the press should be covering positively has been broadly unpopular from the beginning, with 56% of respondents to a Marist poll in early March disapproving of military action.
Just 24% of Americans said in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week that the war has been worth the costs and benefits, with a divide even among Trump's core supporters. Twenty percent of Republicans said the war has not been worth it, and 24% were unsure.
Apr 16, 2026
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Report on State of US Libraries Exposes Trump Attacks and Record-Breaking Book Ban Efforts
"The State of America's Libraries" report "is in a very real way a report on the state of our nation," American Library Association executive director Dan Montgomery wrote in the introduction of the annual publication, released Monday.
"Unsurprisingly, then, there is much to be deeply concerned about in these pages, and much to bring hope," the ALA leader acknowledged. "Ultimately, this report can serve as a clarion call to those who love libraries and our republic."
Published at the beginning of National Library Week, the report explores a range of topics, including threats to intellectual freedom. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) found that last year at least 4,235 unique titles were challenged—the association's term for an attempt to have a resource removed or restricted—the second-highest ever documented, just short of 2023's record.
OIF also found that at least 5,668 books were banned from libraries—66% of those challenged—and 920 books faced restrictions such as relocation or a parental permission requirement. The ALA noted that "this is both the highest number of titles censored in one year and the highest rate of challenges resulting in censorship" dating back to 1990.
"In 2025, book bans were not sparked by concerned parents, and they were not the result of local grassroots efforts," explained Sarah Lamdan, executive director of the OIF, in a statement. "They were part of a well-funded, politically driven campaign to suppress the stories and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals and communities."
Specifically, OIF found that 92% of all book censorship efforts were initiated by "pressure groups, government officials, and decision-makers," and fewer than 3% came from individual parents. Additionally, 40% of the unique titles challenged last year—1,671 works—were about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.
"Libraries exist to make space for every story and every lived experience," stressed ALA president Sam Helmick. "As we celebrate National Library Week, we reaffirm that libraries are places for knowledge, for access, and for all."
The most-targeted titles in 2025 were:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The ALA publication also features sections on library services for people who are incarcerated or in reentry, how libraries can "approach literacy in a community-driven, responsive way to meet today's rapidly evolving and growing literacy needs," and "intensified debates over access to information and shifting fiscal priorities."
The report highlights ALA's Show Up For Our Libraries campaign, launched in the face of attacks from Republican President Donald Trump—who has issued executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to effectively dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He also fired the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, and the register of copyrights, Shira Perlmutter.
From threats to (and victories for) intellectual freedom, to increasing services for incarcerated people, to a whirlwind of legislative and legal battles, 2025 proved pivotal for our nation's libraries.Read more in our State of America's Libraries Report: A Snapshot of 2025: https://bit.ly/3ORpvpE
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— American Library Association (@amlibraryassoc.bsky.social) April 20, 2026 at 9:00 AM
While the report sounds the alarm on the state of US libraries—and the nation more broadly—it also emphasizes, as Lamdan wrote in one section, that "the story of library censorship in 2025 is... not only about the challenges libraries faced, but also about the resilience of the people who stood up for them."
"Legal victories and new state-level protections emerged in several regions, reinforcing longstanding principles of intellectual freedom and reaffirming libraries' role as institutions that serve all members of their communities," she noted. "Coalitions of library workers, authors, educators, and community members successfully advocated for right to read laws in Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island that protect intellectual freedom, libraries, and library workers."
"Courts across the nation held that censorship legislation was unconstitutional," Lamdan continued. "Judges declared that laws including Florida's HB 1069 and Iowa's SF 496, which provide for the removal of books containing certain viewpoints, were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. Courts also affirmed the First Amendment right to read in libraries. Voters in states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas rejected censorship-focused school and library board candidates, electing board members who promised to protect people’s right to read and learn."
She added that "2025 was also a year of coalition-building. Grassroots activists, advocacy organizations, writers, authors, publishers, teachers, parents, and library workers came together to celebrate libraries and the joy of reading."
The report was released less than three months ahead of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.
"As we look toward the next 250 years, the choice is ours," said Helmick. "We can let our libraries fade, viewed as charming relics of a bygone era. Or, we can choose to invest in them as a bedrock of our future. Let us decide, right now, that they are not optional. They are the very breath of a free society, and they are worth fighting for."
Apr 20, 2026
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'Iranians Do Not Submit to Force,' Says Iran's President as Trump Lobs More Threats
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday criticized what he called "unconstructive and contradictory signals" by US officials as the two sides weighed another round of peace talks in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, where an earlier summit failed to produce a deal to end the conflict that the Trump administration and its Israeli counterparts launched in late February.
"Honoring commitments is the basis of meaningful dialogue," Pezeshkian wrote in a social media post, adding that Iranians harbor "deep historical mistrust" toward the US government given its record of aggression against the Middle Eastern country.
"They seek Iran's surrender," Pezeshkian wrote of Trump administration officials. "Iranians do not submit to force."
The Iranian president's comments came as his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, threatened to continue the bombing campaign that has so far killed more than 3,300 Iranians—and displaced millions—if the current two-week ceasefire expires Wednesday evening without an agreement to end the war.
"Lots of bombs start going off," Trump told PBS News when asked what happens if the ceasefire lapses without a deal.
Trump's remarks came after he warned that if Iranian leaders don't accept his administration's terms for an end to the war, "the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran." Experts have said Trump's threats are themselves war crimes even if he doesn't follow through with the attacks on civilian infrastructure, which is protected under international law.
Iran is considering attending another round of peace talks with the Trump administration in Islamabad this week, even after Iran's top diplomat accused the US delegation of sabotaging the previous round with maximalist demands and "shifting goal posts."
The spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a press briefing on Monday that "no decision has been made" regarding Iranian attendance at another round of talks.
"While claiming diplomacy and readiness for negotiations, the US is carrying out behaviors that do not in any way indicate seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process," Baghaei told reporters, pointing to the US military's attack on and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman over the weekend.
Apr 20, 2026
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Amnesty Calls for Resistance to 'Predatory World Order' Pushed by Trump, Netanyahu in Annual Rights Report
"We must imagine a transformed and transformative human rights vision for the world that we are becoming, not merely defend human rights in terms of the world we once were."
Apr 21, 2026
Opening Amnesty International's annual report on human rights around the globe on Tuesday, the group's secretary general named the leaders of two powerful countries as being at the forefront of a push for a "predatory alternative world order."
While the US and Israel are viewed as two of the world's leading democracies, said longtime human rights advocate Agnes Callamard, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spent the past year promoting "a global environment where primitive ferocity" is flourishing.
"Throughout 2025, voracious predators stalked through our global commons, hulking hunters plundering unjust trophies," wrote Callamard in the preface to the report, "The State of World's Human Rights."
"Political leaders like Trump, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and Netanyahu, among many others, carried out their conquests for economic and political domination through destruction, suppression, and violence on a massive scale," she added.
The report was published nearly two months after the US and Israel began attacking Iran in an unprovoked war—violating international law, including the United Nations Charter, according to legal experts. A temporary ceasefire deal was struck nearly two weeks ago, and Trump said Tuesday that he is unwilling to extend the truce and expects "to be bombing" Iran again soon if a permanent deal isn't reached.
More than 3,300 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel began the war, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also killed at least 2,294 people in Lebanon as it wages what it says are attacks on the Iran-aligned group Hezbollah—an assault that has displaced about 1.2 million people, representing more than 20% of Lebanon's population, and included attacks on schools, healthcare facilities, and journalists.
Israeli officials have said they are using Gaza as a "model" for the IDF's assault on Lebanon. Israel's US-backed war on Gaza began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, and has killed more that 72,000 Palestinians, including at least 777 people since a ceasefire was agreed to in October 2025. Leading human rights groups including Amnesty as well as Holocaust scholars have said the war on Gaza is a genocide, and South Africa has filed a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In addition to waging war on Iran, in the past year the Trump administration has invaded Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, accusing them of drug trafficking; bombed more than 50 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 180 people in an operation officials have also claimed is aimed at stopping the drug trade; and imposed an oil blockade on Cuba while threatening military intervention there.
Meanwhile, the White House has slashed foreign aid spending, threatening millions of lives worldwide, as well as investments in domestic social programs, as it's pushed to further increase the United States' astronomical military budget.
"The predatory world order discards racial and gender justice, mocks women’s rights, declares civil society a common enemy, and rejects international solidarity," wrote Callamard. "It directs an unprecedented hike in military investments, enables unlawful arms transfers, and imposes sweeping cuts to international aid budget, risking millions of avoidable death and decimating thousands of organizations working for human rights, sexual and reproductive rights, or press freedom."
Callamard warned that far too many world leaders—confronted with superpowers that "recklessly poured" accelerants over "dry kindling" and took "sharp U-turns... away from the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars"—either appeased Trump and Netanyahu over the past year, attempted to imitate their authoritarian tendencies, or "ducked for cover under their shadow."
She noted that a "handful chose to stand up to them," such as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who refused to allow the US to use its airspace and military bases for the Iran war, and countries that joined South Africa's genocide case at the ICJ.
But overall, Callamard wrote, "one firebreak after another was breached: through complicity in, or silence about, the commissions of genocide and crimes against humanity; and through imposition of crippling sanctions against those working to deliver justice. That’s how 2025 will be remembered: for its bullies and predators; for the pouring of the politics of appeasement onto burning betrayals of international obligations; for self-defeatism; for states playing with a fire that threatens now to burn us all and scorch the future too, for generations to come."
Callamard emphasized that around the world in 2025, countries showed that "predatory" leaders can still be held accountable and that "reports of the death of the international rule-based order are greatly exaggerated":
Rodrigo Duterte, former president of the Philippines, was handed over to the ICC under a warrant for the crime against humanity of murder. In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, 156 states voted for negotiations on an international instrument on autonomous weapons systems. In July, the EU extended the scope of goods covered by its pioneering Anti-Torture Regulation. Significant progress was made in 2025 towards a binding UN tax convention. At COP30, civil society and trade union pressure helped adoption of a Just Transition Mechanism for the protection of workers and communities as countries shift to clean energy and a climate-resilient future. The International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued advisory opinions affirming state human rights obligations to respond to climate damage. Colombia and the Netherlands agreed to co-host the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in April 2026. Countrywide strikes and actions by dockworkers mounted in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Sweden disrupted arms shipment routes to Israel. The governments of Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Slovenia, South Africa, and Spain committed in 2025 to modify or halt arms trade with Israel. Women gained expanded abortion rights in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Luxembourg, and Malawi. In Nepal, a youth-led uprising against corruption toppled the government.
Those victories, suggested Callamard, don't change the fact that the world is now facing a "challenging moment, threatening to destroy all that was built up over the last 80 years."
"Today 'still we rise' means focusing on what must be defended as a matter of priority and at all costs, not only for the sake of our human rights but those of future generations too," said Callamard. "In our resistance, we must also clearly identify what must be disrupted as a matter of absolute priority, among the tsunami of laws, policies, and practices unleashed by predatory state and nonstate actors."
"We must imagine a transformed and transformative human rights vision for the world that we are becoming, not merely defend human rights in terms of the world we once were," she wrote. "Together, we must then lead that transformation into existence, with all our creativity, determination, and resilience."
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Journalists Urged to Condemn Trump-Carr Attack on Free Press at White House Correspondents Dinner
"When you invite fascists to dinner, they devour you," said one critic of the event.
Apr 21, 2026
The White House Correspondents' Association is facing pressure to stand up to President Donald Trump over his administration's relentless assault on the free press.
A letter sent to the WHCA on Monday and signed by prestigious US journalists—including Ann Curry, Bill Press, Sam Donaldson, and Dan Rather—urges the association to use its upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner to "forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump's efforts to trample freedom of the press."
The letter outlines several Trump administration actions that it says have undermined the First Amendment of the US Constitution, including "retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations, frivolous lawsuits against the press, defunding of public broadcasting, dismantling of international broadcasting, physical restrictions on journalists... the arrest of journalists, and the pardoning of those who committed violence against the press."
The letter says that making a strong statement of resistance to Trump will be particularly important because the president is expected to attend and speak at this year's dinner.
"These are not normal times," the letter states, "and this cannot be business as usual with the press standing up to applaud the man who attacks them on a daily basis."
The letter recommends journalists attending the dinner "speak forcefully, in front of the man who seeks to undermine our country's long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press."
On Monday night, Status News reported that Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, who has threatened to revoke broadcasters' licenses unless they give the Trump administration more favorable news coverage.
Mark Jacob, former metro editor at The Chicago Tribune and Sunday editor at The Chicago Sun-Times who last week called for the dinner to be canceled, wrote in a Tuesday social media post that Carr's presence at the dinner seemed like a deliberate insult to the journalists attending.
"The suck-up media will never learn," Jacob commented. "When you invite fascists to dinner, they devour you."
In a piece published by the Washington Monthly on Tuesday, journalist Bill Scher said that Trump's presence at the WHCA dinner was a betrayal of the organization's stated mission to celebrate and defend freedom of the press, and Scher also recommended canceling the event.
"A fundraising event to support 'programs to educate the public and the value of the First Amendment and a free press,'" Scher wrote, "should not have a featured speaker who is the biggest peacetime threat to the First Amendment and a free press in American history."
Scher went on to slam the "naive" rationales offered by WHCA members in showcasing Trump at the event.
"There is nothing to be gained by 'showing the president and other politicos the importance of a free press' when the president is exerting state control over the press," Scher contended. "He has employed litigation and threats from the FCC chair to selectively apply the equal time rule and revoke broadcast licenses over their war coverage, and threats from himself to imprison war correspondents."
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Senators Launch Probe Into Hegseth's Gutting of Programs to Mitigate US Killing of Civilians
"The high human toll of this war reflects the administration’s broader disregard for the strategic, legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm."
Apr 21, 2026
A group of Democratic senators has opened an investigation into Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's assault on federal programs and personnel tasked with mitigating civilian harm in US wars, cuts that helped pave the way for atrocities the American military has committed in Iran over the past seven weeks.
In a Monday letter led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the Democratic lawmakers cite the US missile strike on an elementary school in southern Iran—which killed more than 100 children on the first day of the war—as evidence of the Trump administration's "broader disregard for the strategic, legal, and moral imperative to minimize civilian harm."
Prior to the start of the Iran war, the Democrats note in their letter, Hegseth "reportedly overruled top military leaders and made deep cuts to [the Department of Defense's] mitigation and response (CHMR) programs, fired personnel at DoD’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CPCoE) and slashed CHMR staff at the US combatant commands 'by more than 90%.'"
"This included eliminating the entire civilian harm office at Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), removing civilian harm specialists from target development strike teams, and reducing the team of 10 at US Central Command (CENTCOM) to only one full time staff," the letter reads. "Your attempts to gut DoD’s civilian harm institutions contradicts more than a decade of bipartisan consensus and DoD-led reforms, initiated during the first Trump administration, to systematically prevent, and address civilian harm in DoD operations."
The lawmakers also point to Hegseth's public expressions of contempt for "stupid rules of engagement" and "tepid legality," both of which the Pentagon has said get in the way of "maximum lethality." Hegseth also said roughly two weeks into the Iran war that "no quarter" would be given to "our enemies" in Iran—a statement that experts said was a clear violation of international law and a war crime.
"These statements not only harm civilians and undermine established standards, but also endanger US servicemembers with greater risk of reciprocation and erode good order and discipline," the senators write.
Hegseth, the Trump administration's top cheerleader for the war of choice in Iran, is currently facing five articles of impeachment in the US House of Representatives, including one stating that the Pentagon chief has "authorized, condoned, or failed to prevent the use of military force in a manner inconsistent with the law of armed conflict, such as operations resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Iran, including a girls’ school in Minab."
Separately, the Pentagon leader is also facing scrutiny over a recent report alleging that his investment broker tried to purchase millions of dollars worth of defense industry stocks weeks before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran.
Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, formally asked the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to "investigate any attempt by Secretary Hegseth or any other individual to trade on the basis of misappropriated insider information."
"If accurate, the recent public reporting suggests that, prior to launching a military conflict that he was instrumental in planning, the secretary of defense may have misappropriated top secret military information for personal financial gain," Warren wrote. "The SEC must do its part to stem corrupt actions that threaten market integrity and national security."
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