Yemeni army claims responsibility for strikes on sensitive sites in Saudi capital, Aramco facilities in Yanbu

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Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree delivers a televised statement from the capital, Sana’a, on September 19, 2026.

Press TV

19 Sept 2026

Yemeni armed forces have claimed responsibility for two separate missile and drone attacks on strategic installations deep inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for Riyadh’s smear campaign and ongoing acts of aggression against the Arab Peninsula nation.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for Yemen’s military, announced in a statement on Saturday that Yemeni army units had targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh, as well as Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Yanbu port city on the Red Sea coast.

He added that both operations, involving swarms of homegrown ballistic and cruise missiles as well as combat drones, were successful and caused massive blazes at the impact sites.

Saree noted that the attacks were in reprisal for Saudi Arabia’s unsubstantiated allegations of an attempted drone attack near the city of Mecca, and an unrelenting onslaught against the Yemeni nation.

The drone and missile operations were also in response to the Saudi enemy’s vile attempts to target the Yemeni capital Sana’a through tactics once employed by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group. The tactics included indiscriminate shootings and bombings targeting civilians, he added.

The spokesperson for the Yemeni armed forces added that F-15SA and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) have so far carried out 732 airstrikes across Yemen, inflicting heavy civilian casualties and destroying critical non-military infrastructure.s

Saree also vehemently denied Saudi officials’ claims that Yemeni armed forces are targeting residential neighborhoods, stressing that such baseless assertions come in light of the miserable failure of Saudi air defense systems to intercept Yemeni drones and missiles.

“Yemeni army units will uphold the siege-for-siege and escalation-for-escalation equation, and will target Saudi military buildups until the aggression ceases and the siege on our beloved country is completely lifted,” the Yemeni military spokesperson concluded.

The Sana’a administration declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20, in response to “an unfair and tyrannical siege” on Yemen lasting nearly 12 years.

The Yemeni military has announced a number of successful operations aimed at ships linked to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies imposed a blockade on Yemen and launched a sweeping military campaign, backed by military, political, and logistical support from the United States and several Western countries.

The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis. However, Saudi Arabia has failed to achieve its stated objective of reinstating a puppet regime that serves its interests.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/09/19/776626/Yemeni-army-claims-responsibility-for-strikes-on-sensitive-sites-in-Saudi-capital,-Aramco-facilities-in-Yanbu

Trump claims ‘permanent control’ over Greenland security in landmark deal with Denmark

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(Photo credit: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP photo)

The Cradle

SEP 19, 2026

Washington has sought to annex Greenland to control Arctic transit, secure access to critical rare-earth minerals, and counter the influence of Russia and China

US President Donald Trump on 18 September announced a deal with Denmark that will allegedly grant Washington “permanent” security control in Greenland and ensure Russia and China will not gain influence in the strategic Arctic territory.

“I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns,” Trump announced via social media.

After returning to office last year, Trump repeatedly threatened to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO member Denmark, saying he would either purchase it or seize it by force.

The text of the agreement has not been made public.

However, a State Department official told NBC News that the agreement will remain in effect “forever,” including if Greenland becomes independent from Denmark.

The US military has had a presence in Greenland since 1951, when missile early-warning systems were installed there as part of the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

However, the agreement will allow the Pentagon to drastically expand its footprint on the island.

Trump stated that the US will immediately begin developing a “large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many.”

“The agreement explicitly guarantees the United States the complete ability to do what it deems is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the American continent, including permanent access, basing, and overflight rights,” the State Department official said.

This agreement reportedly bans any non-NATO base or troop presence in the territory. It includes provisions blocking Russia, China, and other states from making investments in Greenland that could threaten US interests.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the agreement recognizes Danish “sovereignty and territorial integrity” as well as Greenlanders’ “right to self-determination.”

The agreement is expected to be signed by Denmark, Greenland and the US next week in connection with the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York City.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, chairman of the Greenland government, wrote in a statement that the deal is “to the benefit of us all.”

“It is gratifying that we are about to enter into an agreement that ensures and strengthens the security of Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the United States and the Western alliance. The agreement recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation,” Nielsen wrote.

Though Greenland encompasses a territory of over 2 million square kilometers, roughly the size of Saudi Arabia, it has only 56,000 inhabitants.

Greenland contains vast supplies of untapped rare earth mineral resources, which could be used for making batteries, electric vehicles, and other high-tech items, including for military use.

Controlling Greenland could therefore help the US break China’s dominance in the rare earth minerals market.

Most of Greenland is inside the Arctic Circle, where Russia, China, and the US are vying for military and commercial dominance.

“Controlling the island would give Washington an outpost in an important naval corridor connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic, where climate change is melting the ice and making once unnavigable territory a theater of competition,” the New York Times observed on Friday.

“If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland,” Trump stated in January.

Moscow and Beijing recently announced a service to ship commercial goods from China to Europe through the Arctic, cutting transit times by roughly 15 days compared to the route that passes south of Asia and through the Suez Canal.

The Russian and Chinese navies are also active in the Arctic, which is home to critical undersea internet cables.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/trump-claims-permanent-control-over-greenland-security-in-landmark-deal-with-denmark

Israeli army seals last road into West Bank village, trapping 47 Palestinian families

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(Photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu)

The Cradle

SEP 19, 2026

Residents say a trench dug across the final route into Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar seeks to forcibly displace the entire community

On 19 September, Israeli occupation forces trenched over the last remaining road into the Palestinian village of Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar, southeast of Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank, leaving 47 Palestinian families under total siege.

The trench cut off the last remaining route to the village, a single rough path only suitable for livestock and farm tractors, after the Israeli military had spent over two months blocking all other roads, according to resident Thaer Basharat.

Basharat said the stranglehold on the village has been tightening for roughly three years, and the latest closure has turned it into a “cage” hemmed in by trenches, walls, and military zones.

“The 47 families in the village rely on livestock farming and are now unable to bring in their basic necessities or sheep feed,” he said.

Basharat said roughly 90 percent of the approximately 360,000 dunams that once served as grazing land for the village’s herders have been seized or declared off-limits, leaving its farmers in dire straits.

“The Israeli pressure aims to forcibly displace the entire community from the village,” he said.

The village’s enclosure comes as Israel presses ahead with the “Crimson Thread,” a military barrier of patrol roads, trenches, and earth embankments that wall off the eastern flank of the occupied West Bank, as part of its broader campaign of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians.

In August, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces filled in three artesian wells in Ras al-Ahmar, wrecked about 300 meters of water pipeline, and demolished three livestock shelters, further strangling a community whose survival depends on water and grazing for its herds.

Israeli army and settler pogroms against Palestinians and their property have escalated across the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in October 2023.

Israeli War Minister Israel Katz has threatened to unleash an “all-out war” on the occupied West Bank, targeting not only resistance factions but also the Palestinian Authority (PA), its senior officials, and its affiliated bodies.

Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli military to prepare the campaign should PA security forces launch, or be about to launch, an attack similar to 7 October, vowing to “quickly bring about their complete defeat.”

Since the start of 2025, the Israeli army has forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from West Bank refugee camps and demolished hundreds of homes, while illegal settlements expanded rapidly under Israeli government legislation as part of Israel’s campaign of annexation of the occupied territory.

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-army-seals-last-road-into-west-bank-village-trapping-47-palestinian-families

Hidden Harms of Modern Lighting and Fight to Bring Back Incandescent Bulbs

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A Midwestern Doctor
Decades of forgotten research show natural light is an essential nutrient our bodies are being starved of

Story at a Glance:

•Sunlight is one of the most important things for our health (e.g., it halves our risk of dying or getting cancer), yet all we ever hear is how important it is to avoid it.

•While the importance of vitamin D is generally recognized, many of the other critical functions of light within plants, animals and human beings remain almost completely unknown, and hence are the focus of this article.

•One of the defining characteristics of modern life is continual exposure to unnatural light (particularly from energy efficient light bulbs)…decades of forgotten research (and a growing body of new research) show it is a root cause of a myriad of inexplicable physical and behavioral illnesses.

•Cells communicate with each other through faint emissions of ultraviolet light. This was once one of the most active fields in biology (yielding over 700 papers, 11 Nobel nominations, and a blood test which detected cancer with over 95% accuracy) before it was abandoned for political reasons and forgotten.

•The eyes and the blood conduct light throughout the body. When this process is disrupted (e.g., by glasses with lenses that filter out critical parts of the spectrum), a variety of significant illnesses can develop.

•In 2022, the federal government effectively banned the incandescent bulb because most of its output is “wasted” infrared rather than visible light, despite our bodies using that infrared for a myriad of essential processes. Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee introduced a bill to bring those bulbs back, which yesterday received its first hearing.

[…]

•As discussed in a previous article, dermatology was one of the least desirable professions in medicine. They then transformed themselves into one of the most sought after ones by rebranding themselves as cancer fighters and convincing everyone to get regular skin cancer exams where any potential cancer could be quickly removed, often for thousands of dollars apiece, quickly making dermatology into one of the highest paying specialties. A centerpiece of this rebranding was making benign cancers be labeled as deadly ones and claiming sunlight caused skin cancer (which while true, omitted to mention that that a lack of sunlight is what causes fatal skin cancers). Because of this, a lot of dermatology morphed into scaring people senseless about the sun, and despite billions being spent each year on skin cancer, the total death rate from skin cancer remains almost entirely unchanged (instead we simply diagnose and “treat” far more of it).

[…]

The Importance of Sunlight

Prior to dermatology’s disastrous war on the sun, the value of sunlight was widely recognized in medicine. For example, in the early 1900s, heliotherapy (sunbathing) was used with great success for treating many (otherwise incurable) conditions, such as the 1918 influenza, tuberculosis, and many other diseases.

[…]

•Many different studies have found sunlight exposure dramatically reduces one’s risk of cancer (e.g., this large study found high solar UVB exposure halved one’s risk of breast and prostate cancer).

Typically, sunlight’s benefits are thought to be due to producing vitamin D (a critical nutrient) within the body. However, I have long suspected that many of the benefits of vitamin D are not due to the vitamin itself but rather that its elevation serves as an indicator that the body is having regular sunlight exposure and hence is experiencing the myriad of benefits sunlight provides. For example, when 24 healthy volunteers were exposed to UVA (which does not produce vitamin D) at a dose equivalent to about 30 minutes of summer sun, their arteries dilated and their blood pressure dropped, as nitric oxide stored in the skin was released into the circulation.

[…]

Biophotons and Mitogenic Radiation

[…]

A fundamental principle within biophysics is that cells emit very faint photons (predominantly within the ultraviolet spectrum) they use to control growth and communicate with other cells and that when biophoton transmissions go awry, disease results (leading to abnormal photon emissions from tissue being seen in many disease states). For example, cancers have abnormal biophoton emissions, and (when studied) carcinogenic substances significantly disrupt the wavelength of these photons.

[…]

•Faster-growing cells tended to be mitogenic while slow-growing ones were not, with the primary exception being cancer cells.

•Certain parts of the body (brain tissue, the cornea of the eye, active muscles, and blood) had much greater emissions of MGR (and muscles from frogs freshly taken from the wild emitted far more than those from frogs kept for months in an aquarium1).

•A dissected optic nerve was found to radiate mitogenic radiation throughout the optic tract when the eye was exposed to unfiltered sunlight.
Note: recent research supports this. When freshly isolated rat eyes (and separately their lens, vitreous humor and retina) were exposed to visible light, each re-emitted photons afterwards,1 while when light of various colors was shone on one end of a rat spinal nerve root, photon activity significantly increased at the other end, something a nerve conduction blocker (procaine) or metabolic inhibitors prevented.1 Likewise, the Müller cells of the retina are already known to guide light, and physicists at the University of Calgary have shown that the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibers could allow them to function as optical waveguides.1

•Blood vessel walls were found to not block the transmission of mitogenic radiation, and within the blood vessel, MGR was best conducted when the vessel itself was energized, a quality likely imparted into the blood by the electrical charge of the heart.

•As tissue goes through different developmental stages its MGR changes (which suggests MGR helps guide growth and differentiation, something no biochemical mechanism has been able to explain). For example, as people age, their blood emits less and less MGR (and it temporarily declines after stress or exertion), and this may account for why their bodies have more difficulty healing from injuries.

[…]

Another Forgotten Side of Medicine

 

John Nash Ott

Note: most of this section is a summary of Ott’s book Health and Light.

As plants move quite slowly, it is typically not possible to see their movement (although exceptions do exist such as plants that reflexively contract like Venus fly traps or if one

•After a 12-hour continuous exposure to ordinary incandescent light each day for one week, an estimated 90% of the pigment granules became sluggish in their action and remained virtually motionless at one end of the cell until a bit of long UV was added (at which point the pigment granules would become active again and resume their normal movement within the cell).
Note: it’s not clear to me how Ott defined long UV, as he implied it was UV with a wavelength greater than 290nm (which is both UVA and most UVB) and that it was blacklight UV (which is near the visible boundary of UVA).

•When he studied chicken embryo heart cells, he consistently found that blue light (which is often present in laboratories) caused them to go through contortions, whereas, like the pigmented retinal cells, red light weakened their cell membranes and caused them to become more likely to burst.
Note: Ott then showed these changes to a few experts and reported: “Several well known virologists have commented that this reaction resembles cells being attacked by viruses.”

Additionally, Ott also cited the work of researchers working with slime molds who found that for them to sporulate, they had to be in a chamber for a few hours and exposed to cool light (e.g., yellow and green), whereas if they were exposed to warm light (e.g., orange pink), they did not grow.

In short, Ott found it remarkable that he could induce a greater change in cells (e.g., through increasing their metabolism or killing them) by varying what light the cells were exposed to than with the tranquilizer drugs he exposed the cells to.

[…]

The Incandescent Bulb Ban

For over a century, the light most Americans lived under at night came from a heated filament, which (like the sun or a fire) emits a smooth spectrum that is mostly infrared. In 2007, Congress passed a law which, if the Department of Energy did not finish its own lighting standards in time, required it to prohibit the sale of any general purpose bulb producing less than 45 lumens per watt. In 2022, the Biden administration put that prohibition into effect, and in 2024 finalized a second rule which raises the minimum to roughly 120 lumens per watt in 2028.1 As incandescent bulbs produce 10-18 lumens per watt,1 this was a ban, and the 2028 standard will eliminate almost everything besides LEDs.

[…]

In 2023, 248 scientists who had collectively published 2,697 papers on light and the circadian clock reached a consensus that the blue-enriched LEDs replacing our older bulbs disrupt circadian rhythms, that this disruption raises the risk of breast cancer, obesity, diabetes and sleep disorders, and that LED bulbs with a high blue content should carry a label warning they “may be harmful if used at night.”1 Similarly, when 52 household bulbs were recently measured, cool white LEDs and compact fluorescents were each estimated to suppress melatonin by about 12%, warm white LEDs by 3.6%, and incandescent bulbs by 1.5%,1 while a study of actual homes found those lit with energy efficient bulbs had nearly double the circadian-active light in the evening of those still using incandescents, and that nearly half of all homes were bright enough to suppress melatonin by 50%.1

The lost light is also highly consequential. Glen Jeffery’s team at University College London has spent years showing that deep red and infrared light (670-900nm) increases mitochondrial energy production, whereas the 420-450nm blue which dominates LEDs suppresses it. In 2024, they showed that shining 670nm red light on people’s backs for 15 minutes reduced the blood sugar spike from a glucose drink by around 27%.1

[…[

Last year, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the LIT Act (S. 1568) to undo this.1 It removes general purpose light bulbs from the Department of Energy’s efficiency program, cancels the 2022 and 2024 rules, and prevents the agency from writing new ones,1 while leaving LEDs on the shelf for anyone who wants them. Lee has made his case on the grounds of cost and consumer choice, and said of the rules that “these regulations have nothing to do with saving the planet — they’re about controlling people.”1 He has also introduced a broader bill to reform how the Department of Energy sets efficiency standards for the roughly 60 other products it regulates.1p

[…]

I hence believe it is pivotal we support Senator Lee’s efforts (as many within the Democrat party are committed to supporting these green energy saving measures as their health consequences are not taken into consideration). If this matters to you, the most useful thing you can do is use this directory to ask your Senators to support advancing and consider cosponsoring S. 1568 and to ask your Representative to likewise support advancing and consider cosponsoring H.R. 3341—particularly if your senator is one of the people on that Senate committee (Barrasso-WY, Cantwell-WA, Cassidy-LA, Cortez Masto-NV, Cotton-AR, Daines-MT, Gallego-AZ, Heinrich-NM, Hickenlooper-CO, Hirono-HI, Hoeven-ND, Hyde-Smith-MS, Justice-WV, King-ME, Lee-UT, McCormick-PA, Murkowski-AK, Padilla-CA, Risch-ID, Wyden-OR).

Natural light

•Induces the release of nitric oxide (which dilates blood vessels and is one of the most important factors for cardiovascular health and increasing circulatory flow).

•Catalyzes the synthesis of cholesterol sulfate, the primary substance the body uses to form the polar base liquid crystalline water is assembled from, which both makes spontaneous flow possible and protects blood vessels from the damage which would otherwise degrade their function …

•Poor zeta potential often significantly inhibits liquid crystalline water pumps from moving fluids. UV light (as shown by the video from the previous section), in turn improves zeta potential and to some degree addresses that issue.

•As Pollack’s book shows, sunlight provides the energy that drives the formation of liquid crystalline water, as many of the wavelengths of light which are the most effective at producing liquid crystalline water are also the types of light present within sunlight.

[…]

Via https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-hidden-harms-of-modern-lighting

Why Karl Rove Voting for Texas Democrat After Three Decades of GOP Loyalty

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September 18, 2026 By Egberto Willies

Summary

Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who helped build the modern Texas GOP, says he will vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal for the Texas Railroad Commission. It will be his first vote for a Democrat since 1994. Rove made the break after Republican nominee Bo French posted an image of nonwhite University of Texas students and portrayed their presence as a problem. Rove called French a bigot and later described the post as part of “a long and ugly pattern.”

  • Rove says he will support Rosenthal, a Democratic state representative and petroleum engineer, over French in the November Railroad Commission election.
  • The vote does not represent a general party switch. Rove presented it as a candidate-specific rejection of French and a call to remove people he believes are damaging the Republican Party.
  • French’s post used the appearance of South Asian and Latino students celebrating a University of Texas football victory to imply that foreigners had displaced Texans.
  • Reporting found that students pictured in the post were American citizens; UT also admits the overwhelming majority of its undergraduate class is from Texas high schools.
  • The controversy has shifted attention to an agency that regulates oil and gas—not railroads—and to the candidates’ qualifications, conduct, and approach to public oversight.

Rove’s decision matters because it comes from an architect of Republican power in Texas. It does not erase his role in building that power, but it documents a rare public limit: he says racial and nativist attacks should disqualify a Republican nominee from receiving his vote.

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Karl Rove’s Democratic Vote Exposes a Texas Republican Breaking Point

Karl Rove helped turn Texas into a Republican stronghold. That history gives unusual political weight to his announcement that he will vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal for the Texas Railroad Commission. Rove says it will be only the second Democratic vote of his life and his first since he supported Bob Bullock in 1994. The decision is narrow, explicit, and rooted in Republican nominee Bo French’s conduct.

French ignited the controversy after the University of Texas defeated Ohio State. He posted a photograph of jubilant Longhorn fans—many of them appearing to be South Asian or Latino—and suggested their presence reflected a worsening problem. He later framed the issue as foreigners displacing Americans and Texans at the university. Reporting subsequently identified students in the image as American citizens. The attack therefore rested on appearance: French treated brown skin as evidence that young people did not belong.

Rove rejected that message directly. At an Austin luncheon, he reportedly called French a “bigot.” In his subsequent column, he placed the episode within “a long and ugly pattern” and announced that he would support Rosenthal. Rove’s point was not that he had embraced the Democratic Party or abandoned conservative policy. He argued that figures like French were diminishing the Republican Party and that its “stables need a cleaning.” That distinction matters because accurate analysis should not inflate one protest vote into a full ideological conversion.

The break remains significant. Rove was central to George W. Bush’s rise and to the Republican consolidation of statewide power in Texas. When a strategist with that record refuses party loyalty in a statewide race, he highlights a boundary that many elected Republicans have struggled or declined to enforce. His decision also demonstrates that voters can judge a candidate’s conduct independently of the letter beside the candidate’s name.

The episode carries an additional irony. French used a photograph of students celebrating a Texas victory to question whether they belonged in Texas. Those students were participating in one of the state’s most recognizable communal rituals. Their clothes, cheers, and school allegiance displayed integration into university and state life. French converted that scene into a racial test and then used immigration rhetoric to defend the inference.

The office at stake also deserves attention. Despite its name, the Texas Railroad Commission regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, including drilling, pipeline safety, and the plugging of abandoned wells. Rosenthal is a state representative and a mechanical engineer who spent decades in the energy industry. The campaign should therefore examine regulatory competence, environmental stewardship, worker and community safety, grid-related infrastructure and whether the commission serves the public rather than merely the industry it oversees.

Rove’s intervention does not settle that policy debate, nor does his reputation make his judgment authoritative. It does, however, change the political context. A prominent Republican is telling habitual Republican voters that supporting a Democrat can be an appropriate response when their party nominates someone whose public message targets Texans based on perceived ethnicity.

The central lesson extends beyond one endorsement. Political parties shape incentives through what they reward, excuse, and condemn. If racialized attacks generate publicity, fundraising and institutional silence, candidates learn to repeat them. If voters cross party lines in response, those incentives can change. Rove’s vote represents one such response. The election will determine whether a broader group of Texans agrees.

[…]

Via https://egbertowillies.com/2026/09/18/why-karl-rove-is-voting-for-a-texas-democrat-after-three-decades-of-gop-loyalty/

US withdraws from UN Human Rights Council after UN mission cites possible war crimes in Iran

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This file photo shows UN Human Rights Council in session.

Press TV
18 September 2026

The United States has formally withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council, one day after a UN fact-finding mission said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe US forces committed war crimes in two strikes on civilian sites in Iran.

The US State Department announced that Washington has ended its membership and participation in the council, accusing the body of promoting what it called “anti-American rhetoric” and adopting an overly accommodating approach toward governments it accused of repressing their populations.

The decision came as the council is holding its 63rd regular session in Geneva, which began on September 7 and is scheduled to continue through October 7.

The withdrawal followed the publication of a report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, which examined US conduct during its terrorist war on the country that began on February 28, 2026.

The UN-backed investigators said they have “reasonable grounds” to believe US forces are responsible for two attacks in Iran that amounted to indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.

One of the incidents involved a Tomahawk missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern city of Minab.

The attack killed more than 160 people, including around 120 children.

The mission said the school was a clearly identifiable civilian facility and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes at the time of the attack.

The investigators said the school displayed clear features identifying it as an educational facility for children, including school signs, child-oriented murals and playground areas.

They concluded that the United States had failed to take all feasible measures to verify that the site was a military objective before striking it.

The second incident occurred in the southern city of Lamerd, in Fars province, where the UN mission examined a US strike on a sports complex and nearby residential area.

The precision strike missiles dispersed tungsten pellets across the area, killing 22 civilians and damaging residential buildings and a sports complex.

The investigators concluded that the attack was also indiscriminate and constituted a war crime.

The report said the circumstances indicated that Washington acted while aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object, describing the conduct as going beyond mere negligence.

The findings have unabashedly been rejected by Washington. The White House and State Department dismissed the UN Human Rights Council’s assessment and questioned the credibility of its findings.

US Central Command has separately denied that American forces conducted a strike in Lamerd on the date examined by the mission.

However, the characteristics of the missiles that tore into the southern Iranian city and the ground around Lamerd’s Shahid Naeimi Sports Complex still bear the marks of one of the clearest examples of America’s disregard for civilian life and the laws of war.

The weapon has been promoted by its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, as a long-range, highly precise system, while the US military announced that PrSMs had been used in Iran in what was described as a “historic first.”

Independent weapons experts have also linked the munition’s characteristics to the Lamerd strike.

A US official cited by The New York Times confirmed that the missile used in the attack was the PrSM and that the weapon was being tested in combat for the first time.

Airwars, weapons experts and journalists analyzing verified video and the pattern of destruction found characteristics consistent with the missile, including an airburst and the dispersal of large numbers of high-speed tungsten pellets.

The analysis found that civilians were killed as far as 50 meters from the points of detonation and that damage extended substantially farther.

Washington had already ordered its withdrawal from several UN bodies and said it would not seek membership on the Human Rights Council in the future.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/09/18/776519/US-leaves-UN-Human-Rights-Council-after-probe-finds-possible-war-crimes-in-Iran

Democratic Senators Seek Pentagon Accounting of Iran War Cost

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by Jason Ditz | September 17, 2026 a
Pentagon won’t say what war costs as they seek more money to pay for it

Senate Democrats have taken the unusual step of issuing a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, seeking a full accounting from him and the Pentagon for the bare minimum that the ongoing war in Iran is going to cost.

The letter (PDF) was spearheaded by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D – MI) and cites the $67 billion supplemental funding request made by the administration for war funding at the end of June. Every Democratic Party senator, with the exclusion only of Sen. John Fetterman (D – PA), signed onto the letter. Sen. Fetterman said he remains a supporter of anything that confronts “the Iranian regime and its proxies.”

The letter doesn’t express opposition to the war itself, but rather seeks to establish what it’s ultimately going to cost, noting that the Pentagon has been unusually opaque about what it’s spending and expects to spend going forward on the full conflict compared to how past conflicts have been handled.

The letter noted a recent Pentagon estimate of $42 billion, but also notes that things like the damage done to US facilities across the Middle East have explicitly been excluded from any official estimates so far. At the same time, the Pentagon is seeking more money to pay for the ongoing conflict, beyond the $1.5 trillion it’s requesting for the military budget for the next fiscal year.

The United States attacked Iran in late February, and while President Trump has declared victory countless times in the course of the months that have followed, the conflict shows no sign of ending. The House voted earlier this week to end the conflict, with members of Congress noting the lack of a concrete plan. The lack of a detailed accounting of what the war is costing is only another problem that is both highly consequential and about which relatively little is known.

In comparison, the US war in Iraq was an embarrassment of riches in paperwork sent to Congress, as the Bush Administration at the time engaged in a large number of briefings to Congress, enormously more briefings to the public, and supplement requests that were remarkably detailed and over 100 pages long.

To the extent this administration will even admit the war is ongoing in the first place, the policy seems to be to provide the Senate with the absolute bare minimum of details about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what they’re spending in the process. Not that the Senate isn’t still expected to foot the bill, but that they’d just as soon avoid providing specifics for the increasingly unpopular war.

[…]

Via https://news.antiwar.com/2026/09/17/democratic-senators-seek-pentagon-accounting-of-iran-war-cost/

China cuts US Treasury holdings to lowest level in 18 years

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(Photo credit: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Cradle

SEP 17, 2026

Beijing has begun investing its surplus foreign currency in gold, US agency securities, and stocks as US debt levels become unsustainable

China’s holdings of US Treasuries have fallen to the lowest level since August 2008, amid the growing divergence between the world’s two largest economies, the Financial Times (FT) reported on 17 September.

The value of US government debt held by Chinese investors fell to $618 billion in July, according to data released by the US Treasury.

At its height in November 2013, China held more than $1.3 trillion in US Treasury securities, which finance US government spending.

China built a large position in US sovereign debt in recent decades by investing proceeds from its massive trade surplus. Investing its foreign currency revenues abroad helped keep the value of the yuan low and Chinese exports competitive.

At the same time, investments in US treasuries by China and other countries helped the US run huge fiscal deficits.

However, China and others have begun diversifying into other assets, including gold, US Agency bonds, and stocks.

Agency bonds are mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the US government that typically pay higher interest rates than treasuries.

China’s falling US Treasury holdings were part of “a global trend of diversification into gold … and agency bonds, as well as other assets like equities, especially with the AI boom,” said Wei Li, head of multi-asset investments for BNP Paribas Securities in China.

Beijing accelerated its sales of US Treasury securities after Washington froze Russian assets following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, fearing the US could take similar action against China.

China’s shift has not been in isolation. Foreign investors now purchase more US stocks than US government bonds, thanks to higher stock market returns from the AI boom, which many view as a bubble.

Investors have also become concerned about the “risk-free” status of Treasuries as US debt climbs to levels increasingly viewed as unsustainable. The US national debt recently reached a record $40 trillion.

Foreign purchases of US stocks averaged 2.8 percent of US GDP in the first half of 2026, compared to two percent for Treasuries.

“China’s move is mostly showing the US they can dump Treasuries,” said Alicia García Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at investment bank Natixis.

China is now the third-largest holder of Treasuries behind Japan and the UK.

In contrast to China, the UK is expanding its holdings of US Treasuries, which recently reached $1 trillion for the first time.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/china-cuts-us-treasury-holdings-to-lowest-level-in-18-years

UN to allow Palestinian Authority president to speak via video after US ban

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(Photo credit: Stephanie Keith / AFP)

The Cradle

SEP 18, 2026

Washington barred Palestinian officials from New York for a second year, citing their support for ICC and ICJ cases against Israel

The UN General Assembly voted on 17 September to allow Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to address its annual session via prerecorded video after the US barred him and other senior Palestinian officials from traveling to New York for the second consecutive year.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates hailed the resolution, saying it “represents a breaking of the attempt to prevent Palestine’s participation” and vowed to keep pursuing statehood through “political, legal, and diplomatic channels. ”

The ministry said the address would still air by televised broadcast in its original slot, adding that the vote proved Palestinians would be heard and exposed the failure of efforts “to sideline Palestine and its cause.”

Abbas is expected to push for Palestinian state recognition, following recent decisions by the UK, France, Canada, and other western countries. He will also highlight the Israeli-created humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the spread of illegal Jewish settlements, and the increasing settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Washington renewed visa sanctions on PA officials and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) members, citing their support for genocide and war crimes cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, along with what it called the PA’s failure to “reform.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin denounced Washington’s move, warning that the restrictions “undermine peace and a two-state solution.”

The State Department accused the PA of violating US law by seeking international recognition without talks with Israel and providing social welfare payments to Palestinian prisoners and families of those killed by Israeli forces, a program called “pay to slay.”

Amnesty International demanded the decision be reversed, with senior director Erika Guevara Rosas calling it “a clear violation of the UN Headquarters Agreement” and accusing Washington of exploiting “its privilege as the host country of the UN to impose arbitrary restrictions” on access to the body.

No Israeli official faces any such US restrictions, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains wanted by the ICC for his leading role in the genocide in Gaza.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/un-to-allow-palestinian-authority-president-to-speak-via-video-after-us-ban