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Young patriot helps keep wildfire smoke away from pristine U.S.
Further

And Brush Therein: The Losingest Loser At Work or Play

In "almost Shakespearean grotesquery," our cringe Buffoon-In-Chief thrust himself into the World Cup final only to be unceremoniously booed, snubbed and cropped out of team photos. Then he again assailed Canada for smoke from their wildfires, though ours are much worse and they've often helped us with them. Still, our ever-gracious northern neighbor launched a new initiative to dutifully sweep the Rockies, vacuum the forests, hand-rake pine needles. Its acronym: F.U.C.K.O.F.F.

The headlines for Trump's Sunday gatecrash of another major sports event that really, really didn't want him there tells the vainglorious, mortifying tale: "Most Universally Hated President In History Mercilessly Booed," "Crowd Boos, Player Snub and Failed Photobomb: Trump's Big World Cup Day Out," and "Confused Old Fuckwit Imagines He's Won the World Cup." The Guardian also wins a Snark of the Year Award for the caption to its photo of FIFA's Infantino deep in conversation with a clueless Trump, both men standing under a blizzard of confetti, after he literally had to drag him off-stage: "Gianni Infantino carefully explains to Donald Trump he is not part of the Spanish team."

Some of the over 82,000 fans at New Jersey's Met-Life Stadium, where Spain trounced a listless, chaotic, often-thuggish Argentina 1-0, had earlier made their feelings clear when video briefly showed Trump ensconced in his glass-encased VIP digs and scattered boos rang out. By the time he finally lumbered stoop-shouldered onto the field at the end, it sounded like all 82,000-plus had reconsidered before joining in to jeer. Trailing behind him, looking like hostages trying to keep a safe distance to not catch any cooties, were Mexico's and Canada's leaders, the tournament's alleged, far-less-despised hosts. Illogically, thanks to Infantino's long, gross obsequiousness, Trump got to hand out awards.

And he did, though not without drama: Several players hesitated, recoiled or refused to shake his hand. Then it was time to hand out the (seductively gold) World Cup. Little needy Donnie, a malignant narcissistic lump who just can't help himself, swooped in to awkwardly "help" Infantino carry it like a five-year-old hungry for the ice-cream cone his dad is holding, "a lonely, grasping figure refusing to release a trophy he didn’t win." Once it was presented to Spain's captain Rodri, Trump, "malice wrapped in vanity," painfully lingered there in the limelight as Infantino struggled to yank him to the side for the iconic hoist photo. In the end, a patient Rodri gently nudged him out of the shot, but cringingly not off the stage.

Steve Schmidt noted the clumsy resulting image's era-defining power, its display of the "breathtaking psychological fragility" of a "President Norma Desmond...incapable of understanding that the greatest office in the world confers responsibility, not ownership." "The character has been devoured by the caricature," he wrote of "self-parody made flesh," the small man so consumed by the need for adulation that, "Every trophy is his trophy. Every triumph is his triumph. Every stage is his stage." Later, in photos released both by FIFA and the Spanish team, Trump had mercifully, miraculously disappeared from both shots, because this is why God and Al Gore invented photoshop.

The awkward bit of theater with Spain came, lest we forget, in the wake of Trump's weeks of vilifying the nation and their prime minister Pedro Sánchez - first, for their refusal to allow the U.S. military to use Spanish bases to help illegally bomb Iran, then for the alleged failure of "bad" and "hopeless" Spanish people to pay enough for NATO defense spending. Despite Trump's ugly threats to "cut off all trade" with a longtime ally unforgivably following the law, it all suddenly vanished before the cameras, where Trump congratulated "a great team," even though they speak Spanish, and claimed there was "no tension" with the country’s leadership. Actually, he smirked, "I have no tension with anybody."

Tell it to Canada, which Trump has been moronically berating for "Willful Negligence," aka inexplicably allowing smoke from over 800 wildfires raging across some of Canada's 347 million acres to drift over our pristine shores. A few days earlier, joined by equally stupid MAGA lackeys, he raged the U.S. "is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air" at an "incalculable" (a big word he probs didn't write) cost, and "maybe they should pay us some damages" or billions more in tariffs, and he'd call Carney "to find out what they are going to do about it." "We are holding Canada responsible," he thundered, "for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein."

Like his long-ago claim during California wildfires that Finland's president told him they rake their forests and have no such problems - Finland when asked: "WTF" - this is an idiot's fever dream. Facts owe: This year, America has seen over 40,000 fires burn roughly 3.9 million acres, 157% its ten-year average. There are now over 70 uncontained U.S. fires being fought by nearly 18,000 people, with much of the Northwest - Colorado, Oregon, Washington - at National Preparedness Level 5, the highest, and up to 58 new fires a day. Air quality alerts affecting a million Americans are due to those fires, to blazes across 70,000-plus acres in Minnesota, and to 3,600 fires across 1.8 million acres, below the five-year average, in Canada.

In the face of unnamed U.S. pols mindlessly "chirping away," notes Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he has already asked for firefighters or "anything they can send" to help fight nearly 200 fires, some of which have crossed into Canada from Minnesota, that have forced entire First Nations to evacuate and many residents to sleep in their cars. Rather than complain maybe send help, he adds, "because we have done the same thing for our American friends," again and again. Even as Canadian officials issue air quality warnings from U.S. fires drifting north, a 56-year-old Canadian helicopter pilot from B.C. just died in a crash battling a fire in Colorado, the fourth firefighter death there this summer.

Meanwhile, a science-denying MAGA has ended support for dozens of climate initiatives, dismantled our largest climate research center and pushed for more fossil fuel carnage. On Sunday, with much of his country on fire, Trump attacked the National Academy of Sciences - chartered by Abe Lincoln mid-Civil War "because even a nation shooting at itself understood it needed scientists" - because it's "run by Radical Left Dumocrats” who published costly, "fraudulent," “totally discredited” climate change manuals, which he ordered "Suspension and Debarment" officials to review. Also - cue dumbest timeline ever - Repubs jumped in to decry DEI-loving advocates who (gasp) may have tried to stop blessed oil and gas projects.

Still, Canada is a tolerant, peace-loving nation that tries to accommodate all comers, even a nitwit who's never gotten any closer to a "forest" than Central Park. It also values its natural resources, including a 270-million-acre boreal forest, much of it roadless, whose vast ecosystem serves as a global carbon sink to purify air and water, regulate climate and offer breeding ground to billions of birds. And if a nitwit neighbor to the north chides its inadequate forest management, Canada seeks to rise to the occasion - to, as it were, Be Better. Thus was born a bold new initiative from the Department of Forest Tidiness, which is now "pleased to confirm the message has been received loud and clear."

Canada's Forest Undergrowth Clearing & Kindling Operation for Foreign Friends, aka F.U.C.K.O.F.F., renders every able-bodied person ages 16 to 65 responsible for removing leaves, twigs, moss, bark, branches, pine needles, deadfall and shrubs deemed "insufficiently tidy by Congressional observers." After receiving government-issued rakes, gloves and safety vests, they must arrange all debris "into neat bilingual piles," to be inspected by forestry officials. Further actions may include sweeping the Rocky Mountains, power-washing the Canadian Shield, vacuuming deserts, raking California, installing smoke-detectors across the Yukon and mandating all fires contain and respect clearly marked provincial borders.

In Ontario, workers will be assigned 6.7 acres (40 NHL hockey rinks) of dense untracked country and a 26-hour work week; elsewhere, shifts surge to 18.3 acres (110 rinks) and 70 hours a week. Morning commutes start with a three-day canoe trip and 15-km hike through swamp; on-site, workers will hand-groom 300 billion trees, hand-rake infinite pine needles, make local beavers submit environmental impact reports and dodge grizzlies as needed. Finally, it notes, "Canada thanks Congress for sharing their extensive knowledge of forestry, wildfire behavior, climate science, geography and upkeep of a country containing 9% of the world's forests, and looks forward to receiving further practical advice from Washington."

Online, many Americans, after snorting coffee through their noses, thanked Canada "for being great neighbors and allies," and apologized profusely for - hands held hopelessly wide - "all this." "We are so, so sorry," said one. Another: "We're so incredibly sorry." Canadians joined in: "I'm in Alberta - I'll send water," "In B.C., have to get my mountaineering gear first. Sorry. eh?" and an offer to add a new organization, Canadian Undergrowth, Nature, and Tree Services: "I believe that with your cooperation, F.U.C.K.O.F.F plus C.U.N.T.S could really show Americans we take their health and well-being seriously." Organizers estimate their work will be completed "somewhere between Thursday afternoon and the collapse of human civilization."

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In 'Death Knell for America's Wildlife,' Trump Admin Guts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species
News

In 'Death Knell for America's Wildlife,' Trump Admin Guts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species

President Donald Trump's administration on Friday paved the way for letting US corporations destroy the habitats of endangered species by rescinding a longtime interpretation of the Endangered Species Act.

As reported by The New York Times, the Interior Department and the Commerce Department announced that they were narrowing the law's definition of what constitutes harming endangered species.

Whereas the law has for decades been interpreted as protecting endangered animals' habitats from significant "modification or degradation," the administration said that offenders would have to directly injure or kill an endangered animal to be considered in violation of the law.

"The change could open the door for fossil fuel companies, agricultural interests, land developers, and others," wrote the Times, "to disturb or even destroy the habitats of vulnerable species."

The Endangered Species Act has been interpreted as protecting animals' habitats for decades, and that interpretation upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1995.

Environmental advocates expressed horror in response to the rule change, which they said would put endangered species at unprecedented risk.

Kristen Boyles, attorney for Earthjustice, vowed that the administration would face legal challenges for its rule change, which she said would jeopardize endangered animals' ability to "raise their young, or search for food."

"Let’s be clear: There is no support for the Trump Administration’s rule—no scientific support, no legal support, no public support," Boyles said. "We will see the Trump Administration in court."

Ben Greuel, wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club, called the rule changed "a direct attack on the foundation of the Endangered Species Act" that, if kept in place, would put species "on a path to extinction."

"This rule ignores that reality in an unlawful attempt to open the door for corporate polluters to degrade vitally important habitats, wildlife be damned," Greuel emphasized. "The Endangered Species Act is a bedrock law that must be followed."

Tara Zuardo, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, pointed out that "habitat destruction is the number one threat to endangered species," while calling the Trump administration's new policy "a death knell for America’s wildlife."

"If animals don’t have a place to live, they can’t live," Zuardo said. "Spotted owls, Atlantic salmon, Florida panthers, and thousands of other species need protections for the wild places where they make their homes."

Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, accused the Trump administration of embracing an "erroneous and nonsensical interpretation" of the Endangered Species Act that he vowed to challenge in court.

"We intend to fight back with the full force of the law," said Bowman, "to defeat this attack and innumerable others by the administration on the statutes and regulations that protect America’s cherished wildlife."

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Voters Go To The Polls In Missouri Primary Election
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Analysis Warns 'The Wealthiest' Will Benefit If Missouri Passes Dark Money-Backed Amendment 5

Tax policy experts warned Tuesday that passing Amendment 5 in Missouri next month could lead to middle-income residents paying hundreds of dollars more each year as wealthy households enjoy a tax cut worth tens of thousands.

If approved by voters on August 4, the legislatively referred constitutional amendment would: reduce Missouri's individual income tax, based on revenue growth, until it is eliminated; prohibit future state individual income taxes; decrease personal property and other local taxes when local revenues increase, but bar funding cuts to public schools; and limit expansions of sales and use taxes, unless they are used to lower income tax.

As The Kansas City Star detailed last week, Amendment 5 is a "top priority for Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe," and Missouri Promise PAC, the main campaign supporting it, received "$9.6 million from six organizations or groups that do not have to disclose their donors," also known as dark money.

While some of the campaign backers remain unknown to voters, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) in Washington, DC aimed to shed light on the specifics of the amendment's anticipated impact with its new policy brief.

"Amendment 5 asks Missouri voters to approve a tax shift without telling them which purchases will be taxed or how high sales taxes will rise," said ITEP analyst and brief author Eli Byerly-Duke. "What is clear is who would benefit: the wealthiest Missourians. Working families and seniors would be asked to make up the difference."

Missouri's individual income tax "makes up about 64% of the state's general fund and is the major funding source for state investments in infrastructure, schools, healthcare, public safety, and other services," the brief explains. "Low- and middle-income Missourians already pay a disproportionate share of the taxes to fund public services," and swapping income taxes for higher sales taxes "would shift even more of this responsibility from the state's highest-income individuals to teachers, farmers, truck drivers, and other middle-income Missourians."

Specifically, Byerly-Duke found that "middle-class Missourians with incomes of about $50,000 to $80,000 will pay $535 more in taxes if the personal income tax is eliminated and the sales tax expanded," all while Missouri's top 1%—or those with incomes of $689,300 and above—see an average tax break of $39,978.

The brief also highlights that "neither the Missouri Legislature nor governor has explained exactly how they will expand sales taxes if it passes. They might increase the sales tax rate, or they might expand the sales tax to include purchases of services that are not currently taxed, such as home repair and insurance, car repair and financing, personal care services such as hair or nail care, or medical services. Taxing these items will cost middle-income households a larger share of their incomes than higher-income households, but middle-income families will not get a commensurate benefit from the income tax elimination."

"For senior citizens, active-duty military families, and military retirees, the impact would be even worse," the report continues. "That's because Social Security benefits, active-duty military pay, and military pensions are already exempt from Missouri income tax, so households for whom those are the sole source of income would get no benefit from Amendment 5. For a middle-class Missourian earning between $49,100 and $79,700, this would mean an increase of $1,600 in taxes every year. Overall, seniors alone would see a net tax increase of about $335 million and each pay $365 more, on average, each year."

The brief bolsters the case for voters to say "No on 5," as Protect MO Taxpayers encourages. The "no" campaign's website warns that the amendment "hits seniors, retirees, veterans, and disabled persons hardest. Those on tight fixed incomes may not pay income tax on their limited income, but they will certainly be hurt by higher sales taxes on goods they buy every day, such as groceries, medicine, and gas, and services they use every day, from haircuts to car repairs to healthcare and housing."

"Amendment 5 hits working families hardest of all, with higher sales and use taxes estimated by the nonpartisan Missouri Budget Project to cost the average Missouri family about $500 more in taxes per year overall," Protect MO Taxpayers' site says, also pointing to concerns that it will "increase the tough economic times in rural Missouri" and "make the economic struggle even harder for small businesses."

The proposal "is a severe hit for renters who are already struggling to make ends meet," and "crushes the dreams of Missourians who want to buy or sell a home," the site adds. "Amendment 5 hits active-duty military, who do not pay state income tax but will face higher prices off the base with sales taxes that could roughly triple. This will mean less retail business and economic harm in our neighboring military host communities."

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Michigan Senate Candidate Haley Stevens Tours Webasto Plymouth Plant
News

'We Don’t Need to Be Unkind to Be Honest': El-Sayed Asks Supporters to Criticize Haley Stevens on 'the Issues'

Rep. Haley Stevens has become the subject of mockery in recent days after a viral clip showed her on the campaign trail for Michigan's Democratic US Senate primary attempting to rev up supporters with an almost comically Midwestern drawl.

“I am gonna be workin’ on our behalf, I am gonna be tellin’ the stories on our behalf,” Stevens said in the 19-second clip, which was posted over the weekend by the social media arm of the Republican National Committee. “And you better believe I’m gonna be doin’ it with a little bit of joy, a little bit of enthusiasm, a little bit of energy, and a little bit of ‘stick it to ’em!’ Because that’s the Michigan way!”

While Stevens may have been attempting to portray an authentic working-class affect, it came off as anything but to the denizens of X, the everything app.

Rather than a salt-of-the-earth Michigander, users said she sounded more like one of Chris Farley's characters on Saturday Night Live, Millhouse from The Simpsons "trying to give a class presentation," or a "baseball coach from the Great Depression."

But one person has refrained from joining the pile-on: Her Democratic primary opponent, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

In a post to social media on Friday, he discouraged his supporters online from ridiculing Stevens "for things that have nothing to do with her policies or politics," which he said was "unkind and unhelpful."

El-Sayed, the former director of public health for Detroit, who has championed a progressive agenda including Medicare For All, increased taxes on the wealthy, and an end to military aid to Israel, instead urged his backers to "focus on the issues" in the last weeks before the primary that will be held on August 4.

Since state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-8) dropped out of the race earlier this month, out-of-state donors have revved up their pro-Stevens spending in what Punchbowl News reporter Ally Munick described as a "full court press to stop" El-Sayed.

As Common Dreams reported on Thursday:

Outside spending for Stevens from what the Detroit Free Press described as “murky” groups has dwarfed the amount spent for El-Sayed. The political advertisement tracker AdImpact said that of the $46 million spent or reserved by the two campaigns for television ads, nearly three-quarters has been spent on behalf of Stevens or against El-Sayed...

Additional outside spending in support of Stevens is estimated to have soared to roughly $50 million, according to an analysis by [Mutnick].

Last Friday, United Democracy Project (UDP), which is affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), disclosed that it has spent nearly $15 million on the Michigan US Senate race so far, including $9.3 million in support of Stevens and $5.7 million against El-Sayed.

El-Sayed has faced some criticism for how he's spoken about his opponent—he recently said: "Haley Stevens is a suit with a large AIPAC bank account, that’s it. I hope maybe they find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences."

However, he stressed Friday that this tidal wave of big money is what his followers should truly find worthy of scorn.

"Congresswoman Stevens has welcomed corporations and special interests to support her," he said. "She votes to send our money abroad while Michiganders struggle. She’s bought by DTE, Blue Cross, Big Tech, and Big Pharma who pick our pockets. AIPAC, Trump-aligned billionaires, and corporate PACs are spending $50,000,000+ to support her."

"THOSE are the issues," El-Sayed said. "We don’t need to be unkind to be honest."

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A man in Biddeford, Maine learned that Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was not the intended target of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation
News

Viral Video Shows Moment Man Goes From 'That's What Happens' to 'That's Fucking Sad' About ICE Killing

Two days after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, a local videographer was filming an interview with a neighbor about the latest shooting by the agency when another resident was heard off camera uttering a familiar refrain among those who support President Donald Trump's mass deportation policy.

"There's a right way to get in the country and a wrong way to get in the country," the man was heard saying as the interviewee, who had been calling for politicians to speak out about the killing, paused her comments and appeared to brace herself for an unpleasant confrontation.

The videographer, Kalle Bailey, pointed the camera at the passerby and asked if he wanted to make any comments on camera.

The man repeated his remark, adding, "Anyone that skips the line, it's just like if me and you were waiting in a steakhouse and some jerk just skipped the whole line and said, 'Screw you, screw you, screw you, and screw you.'"

"For the people that are doing it the wrong way, well, unfortunately, that's what happens," he said.

The man was speaking about the killing—the exact details of which are still murky—of 25-year-old Guerrero early Monday morning shortly after he left the house he shared with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter.

The videographer politely but firmly debunked the man's comments, asking him whether he knew that Guerrero, who had come to the US from Colombia, had a permit to work in the US oand had been issued a Social Security number by the Trump administration, according to a lawyer for Guerrero's family.

"He wasn't even the target of the investigation," added Bailey.

The man indicated that he had previously heard Guerrero was armed, which Bailey and his interviewee also let him know wasn't true.

"They shot him because they claimed they were trying to protect the public at large, not even an officer's safety," Bailey said. When the man responded that he "didn't know the whole scope" of the incident, Bailey noted that "a lot of people don't" and expressed appreciation that the man was open to hearing about the details that are known of Guerrero's killing.

"That's fucking sad, then," said the man. "So he did it the right way, and still, and still that's what happens."

Videos have emerged showing the moments following the shooting, but not when at least one officer fired their weapon five times, or the events leading up to the killing.

Bullet holes were seen in Guerrero's windshield, and in one surveillance video obtained by The New York Times, voices were heard saying, “Move it, let’s go,” and “Back, back" just before five shots rang out.

Guerrero's vehicle was also seen in surveillance footage taken from a nearby store, circling slowly in an intersection as officers surrounded the car.

The agents then opened the car door and pulled Guerrero out before he fell to the ground.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, has acknowledged that Guerrero was not the target of the surveillance they were conducting. The agency was investigating another resident for whom it reportedly had a deportation order.

ICE has also said Guerrero was fleeing the scene, and that an officer fired his weapon to protect public safety.

A person's attempt to flee a scene—regardless of their immigration status, how they entered the country, or whether ICE has a deportation order for them—is not sufficient grounds for law enforcement officers to use force under Department of Justice policy, and ICE officers are instructed not to shoot into a moving vehicle—though they have in a number of shootings in the past year.

Despite the fact that Guerrero was not even the target of ICE's operations Monday morning, the Trump administration has responded to widespread condemnation of the killing by calling the victim an “illegal alien" and saying the work authorization and Social Security number he had been issued did not mean he was authorized to be in the country.

As DHS continues to suggest Guerrero was a legitimate target of ICE's mass deportation operations, journalist Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs gave the man in the viral video credit for his openness to learning more about the man he had assumed was a criminal.

The video, said Robinson, "shows why it's important to not write people off. If you only watched the first 10 seconds you might conclude this guy was a MAGA thug who could not be persuaded of anything. But he listened and he thought and he went, 'Hmm, okay I'm not so sure anymore.'"

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​A water desalination plant near Jask, Iran was damaged in US attacks
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'War Crime': US Attack on Water Desalination Plant Cuts Off Supply for Thousands in Southern Iran

About 10,000 people in nearly two dozen villages in southern Iran were without drinking water while the region was under an excessive heat warning on Saturday, after the US struck a water desalination plant in the village of Bonji in one of its latest attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said the drinking water supply was expected to be restored within a week, and emergency supply operations had begun.

Drop Site News reported comments from the deputy governor for political and security affairs in Hormozgan province, who said several missiles had hit power infrastructure and water desalination plants in the region near the Strait of Hormuz, which President Donald Trump has demanded control over as he's ramped up attacks on Iran in recent days, despite a ceasefire and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end hostilities that was agreed to in June.

On Saturday, Iranian officials said the country was suspending its commitments to the MOU after the US violated the agreement repeatedly over the past week.

“The US has violated and suspended all its commitments within the framework of the Islamabad MOU," said Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi. “We also likewise have suspended all of our commitments as a result; we are no longer implementing those commitments."

He added that Tehran is now "busy defending the country."

A representative for Hormozgan province, Ahmad Moradi, told Iran's Tasnim news agency that over the past two nights, "about seven to eight people" have been killed in US attacks, all of whom were civilians. One attack targeted a bridge and hit two family cars. The neighborhood of Tappeh Allaho Akbar in Bandar Abbas was also hit, killing a woman and injuring a one-year-old, whose wounds required doctors to amputate.

At least 116 telecommunication towers were out of service in southern Iran Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

The Iranian Embassy in India posted a video of the destruction of a bridge and also condemned the US attack on a maritime surveillance tower at the Chabahar Port, which US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth boasted about on social media on Thursday.

"For a state that once cast itself as the global champion of order, liberalism, and the war on terrorism, proudly displaying images of destroyed bridges and civilian infrastructure has become its only remaining 'victory,'" said Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Saturday. "Yet with the collapse of every bridge, every tower, and every civilian facility, it is not merely steel and concrete that is being reduced to rubble. It is America’s moral standing—along with the entire architecture of international law and the civilizational claims of the West—that is crumbling before the world’s eyes."

According to Drop Site, US attacks have targeted nine bridges, two airports, a railroad junction, and a road tunnel since Wednesday. At least 41 Iranians have been killed and 408 have been wounded in US attacks so far this month, with Iranian authorities reporting that at least three women and one child are among those killed.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran's permanent UN representative, wrote on Saturday that US attacks had “targeted and caused extensive damage to ports, transportation networks, communications facilities, logistics hubs, radar installations, coastal defense systems and other infrastructure indispensable to the civilian population, and to the functioning of the national economy."

“The continued commission of these unlawful armed attacks poses a grave threat to international peace and security, freedom of navigation, regional stability, and the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” wrote Iravani.

Iran has retaliated against the US this week by striking American allies, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. Kuwait's government Saturday said a power plant and water treatment plant had been attacked for the second time in two days, as well as an oil facility.

Two US soldiers were killed and a third was missing after an Iranian attack on a US military base in Jordan—the first American service members to be killed from hostile fire since an initial ceasefire was brokered in April.

Roxane Farmanfarmian, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Cambridge, told Al Jazeera that Iranian forces are "using Kuwait, in particular, as an example of what they can do in retaliation."

“The US is clearly hitting the south in Iran and hitting airports, desalination plants, and bridges, and so the same kinds of things are being hit now in Kuwait to show what kind of effect Iran really can have on those countries that are hosting American bases," she said.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, echoed Iranian officials' condemnation of the US attack on the southern water desalination plant on Saturday, saying it was "not a legitimate military target."

"It is a war crime to target it," he said.

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