Since August, the US has amassed the largest military presence in the Caribbean Sea in decades, causing alarm among governments there. The Trump administration claims this is warranted because the trafficking of drugs to the US constitutes a national emergency, but multiple reports have shown that Venezuela is not a major source of drugs being transported across borders.

On September 2, the US began striking small boats in the Caribbean that it alleges were trafficking drugs. It is thought it has struck more than 30 vessels since then. The Trump administration says the vessels are operated by Venezuelan “terrorist” organisations, including the Tren de Aragua group and the Colombian National Liberation Army. However, it has provided no evidence for this.

At least 95 people have been killed in the boat strikes, Human Rights Watch revealed on December 16, accusing Washington of “extrajudicial killings”.

In early December, US lawmakers from both Republican and Democratic sides urged the Pentagon to release full footage of the first strike on September 2, which has proved even more controversial following revelations that the vessel was subject to a “double tap” attack – two survivors of the first attack clinging to debris in the water following a first strike were killed in a follow-up strike.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the footage will not be released.

Caracas accuses the US of using claims of drug trafficking as a cover for seeking a government change in Venezuela. Trump, meanwhile, has called Venezuela a “narco state” and said President Nicolas Maduro’s days “are numbered”.

Nigeria

On Christmas Day, the US launched the first of what Trump said would be “powerful and deadly” strikes against groups Washington claims are affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) in Northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto State.

It followed weeks of diplomatic pressure on the Nigerian government, which Trump and senior conservative Republicans, including Ted Cruz, have accused of enabling a “Christian genocide” in a country whose population is a nearly even mix of Christians and Muslims.

Nigeria has been plagued by violence from armed groups linked to al-Qaeda or ISIL, operating in the predominantly Muslim northeast and northwest regions. Abuja denies allegations of genocide and says Muslim and Christian communities alike are affected by the violence.

Furthermore, alleged attacks on Christian farmers in Nigeria have taken place in a completely different part of the country. US Senator Ted Cruz first accused Nigeria’s government of enabling a “massacre” against Christians in October 2025, citing a rising number of attacks against the community in the country’s central Middle Belt region, which is separate from the violence in the north.

Even though these two issues are separate, Abuja, under pressure, agreed to the US military operation in the north of the country on December 25.

Details of that strike are still emerging. The US Africa Command said in a statement that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps”, and Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the strike was “successful”.

It appeared to target the newly emerged “Lakurawa” group, which conflict monitors say is made up of armed fighters from Mali and Niger who may be linked to ISIL or al-Qaeda.

The group is known to operate in forested corridors between Sokoto and Kebbi states. At least one US missile, or debris, hit Jabo town in Sokoto. The Nigerian military, speaking to local media, later confirmed strikes on armed group hideouts in Buani Forest, but did not reveal casualty numbers.

The US and Nigeria have a long history of security collaboration through training and intelligence sharing, but the Christmas strikes marked the first known kinetic US military action in the West African nation.

It was timed, analysts say, to appease Trump’s Christian supporters as Washington doubles down on a narrative of “saving” Nigerian Christians, although Nigerian authorities insist the strikes are not about any one religion.

Trump said more strikes will follow.

Somalia

The US has long trained Somali forces and conducted air attacks in the region against armed groups, including al-Shabab, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, which has launched several attacks in Somalia and in neighbouring Kenya. They also target an ISIL offshoot known as ISIS-Somalia.

Al-Shabab, which has about 7,000 fighters, holds large swaths of land in south-central Somalia, while the smaller ISIS-Somalia, which has about 1,500 fighters, is active in the mountainous regions of autonomous Puntland, in northern Somalia. In the past year, 7,289 people have been killed by armed group activity, according to the US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

In his first term as president, Trump withdrew most US troops from the country, but the Biden administration redeployed them in May 2022.

In Trump’s second term, the US has remained active in the country, at Somalia’s urging. Washington has dramatically intensified air attacks since February, according to the New America Foundation.

Overall, at least 111 strikes have been recorded this year, surpassing the number carried out under the George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden administrations combined, monitors say.

Civilians have been killed in the Somalia attacks. Investigative site Drop Site News revealed in December that at least 11 civilians, seven of them children, were killed in a strike in the Lower Juba region, in Somalia’s southwest, just last month.

The US does not reveal the number of civilian deaths in Somalia.

Syria

US strikes on 70 ISIL-positions in Syria on December 19 were carried out in retaliation for a shooting in Palmyra which killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter a week earlier.

Three other Americans and two members of the Syrian security forces were injured in the shooting. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Trump placed the blame on ISIL.

Syria’s Ministry of Interior Affairs later said an individual who targeted the US troops had been a member of the state security service slated for dismissal for hardline views.

The US retaliatory operation, dubbed “Hawkeye” in reference to Iowa, the “Hawkeye State” where both killed soldiers were from, damaged several ISIL weapons storage facilities in locations across Syria, an official told CNN.

“I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump posted on Truth Social on December 19.

“We are striking very strongly against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a place soaked in blood which has many problems, but one that has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated,” he added, warning against further attacks on US service members.

Hegseth said in a post on X on the same day that the strikes represented a “declaration of vengeance” on ISIL.

US troops have long been stationed in Syria to target ISIL, which once controlled large areas of land across Syria and Iraq in the mid-2010s.

Under the Biden administration, about 900 US troops were stationed in the country until December 2024, when the Pentagon said numbers were temporarily doubled to fight ISIL, amid the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government. The US has carried out more than 80 operations aimed at neutralising armed operatives in Syria, according to the US military’s Central Command.

At the time, Trump, as the president-elect, warned against US interference. He posted on Truth Social: “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”

Fewer than 1,000 troops remained in Syria by April, according to the Pentagon.

Iran

Amid short-lived hostilities which broke out between Iran and Israel earlier this year, the US intervened and struck three key nuclear sites in Iran on June 22. Analysts said it was a highly sophisticated mission involving the US Air Force and Navy.

In a televised address, Trump justified the attacks on Iran’s Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow nuclear sites, saying they would curtail the “nuclear threat” posed by Tehran.

The three sites were involved in the production or storage of enriched uranium, which the US claimed had become or was approaching “weapons grade”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later confirmed that some of the sites had sustained extensive damage, and the Pentagon estimated the attack set back Iran’s nuclear program by about two years.

Under pressure to respond in a manner that appeared proportionate, Iran struck a US airbase in Qatar the day after the US strikes, in what was likely a symbolic action as no injuries or deaths were reported.

On June 22, Trump declared a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, bringing the 12-day war to an end. More than 1,100 Iranians and 28 Israelis were killed during the open hostilities.

But during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, Trump threatened to hit Iran again.

“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” he said, referring to the nuclear programme. “We’ll knock the hell out of them.”

Iran is forbidden from developing nuclear weapons as a signatory to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 2015, it also signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Western powers, including the US, agreeing to limit uranium enrichment levels in exchange for sanctions relief.

However, Trump withdrew the US from that pact in 2018 – during his first term as US president – claiming it had been badly negotiated under the Obama administration.

Yemen

Since January 12, 2024, the US has targeted Yemen’s Houthis, an Iran-aligned group that controls much of Yemen’s populous northwest, in a series of air and naval attacks.

The US says strikes were carried out in retaliation for Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked vessels passing through the Red Sea, in solidarity with Gaza.

The strikes escalated to daily attacks in March 2025 under the new Trump administration, under a mission codenamed Operation Rough Rider.

Dozens of people were killed, and the attacks extensively destroyed infrastructure, including ports, airports, radar systems, air defences, ballistic launch sites, and even migrant holding centres in Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The US strikes finally came to an end on May 6, following a truce brokered by Oman.

Casualty counts from both sides differ: The US claims to have killed about 500 Houthis, while Yemen’s Houthi-run Ministry of Health said 123 people, most of them civilians, had been killed by April, following the US escalation.

As many as 247 people, including many women and children, were injured, the ministry said.

Iraq

The US launched air strikes on Iraq’s al-Anbar province on March 13, killing a high-profile ISIL member, according to the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM).

[…]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/31/how-many-countries-has-trump-bombed-in-2025

By Brian Shilhavy

Who Imports Venezuelan Oil?

This chart for 2024 (2025 stats not out yet) clearly explains what happened today. It almost needs no commentary.

I am somewhat surprised that Trump so quickly abandoned the “drug cartels” excuse for these attacks and now kidnapping of Maduro, and today freely admitted it is all about the oil.

As this chart shows, China imports more Venezuelan oil than almost all other countries combined.

They had a slight decrease in imports in 2024, but the U.S. increased their imports of Venezuelan oil by 64% in 2024.

And they want us to believe that Maduro was a threat to the U.S.?? He was making a ton of money from sales of oil to the U.S.!

Could the real story be that the U.S. asked him to stop selling to China, as they have to other oil producing countries, like Iran and India, but Maduro refused?

China has many ways to respond to this if the flow of oil to China from Venezuela now dries up. They still control about 90% of the worlds “rare earth” minerals needed for Big Tech’s AI.

[…]

Via https://t.me/healthimpact/2925

Marduk

Episode 16 Archemenid Religion

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

There is little historical information on the religions practiced in the Persian empire. The limited information we have comes from the Greeks and modern Iranians.

The most prominent prophet/sage influencing Persian religious practice was Zarathustra (known as Zoroaster in Greek). It’s believed he was born around 1000 BC in northeast Iran or southwest Turkmenistan. The Avesta, reflecting his teachings, was written around 500 BC, which means the the texts were transmitted orally for five centuries.

Zarathustra taught that Ahuramazda was the supreme god among many, that he was good, that he created people and gave them free will (with women naturally more prone to evil). Although Zarathustra didn’t condemn sacrifice, he discouraged some of the more violent cult behavior (eg human and child sacrifice) the Persians associated with Babylonian cults. He taught there was a last judgement in which people went either to paradise or to hell depending on whether they followed truth and order or untruth and chaos. This Persian god was a marked contrast to the Greek gods, who were fickle and jealous.

The Persian emperors believed Ahuramazda mandated them to conquer other countries to stamp out violence and chaos.

Ahuramazda was never prominent prior to Cyrus I, and Zoroastrianism never became the official religion of the Achaeminid Persians though their successors who founded the Sassanian empire adopted it as their state religion.

The Persians adopted many gods from the countries they conquered. In addition to fire, water and sacred mountains and rivers, they also worshiped Mithras,** the god of sun and light, Anahita, the goddess of water and fertility, and Agni the fire god. ‘

Cyrus restored the worship of Marduk* when he captured Babylon from the Assyrians. He also protected the Apis bull in Egypt and the shrine of Apollo in Greece. Anahit became identified with Ishtar in Egypt and Aphrodite, Artemis Athena in Greek colonies.

The magi were the most prominent Persian priests. They interpreted dreams and omens, presided over sacrifices and advised the Persian kings both at home and on military campaigns.

The hatin (Elamite word) priest supervised the worship of Babylonian, Elamite and other foreign gods.

The Megabysos temple of Artemis at Ephesus (an ancient Greek city on the Anatolian peninula) was always supervised by Persian families.

Persian priests practiced hoama rituals in which they crushed psychedelic plants containing ephedra, fly agoric or mountain rule) and mixed them with milk and water. They also conducted the monthly Lan Ceremony, making offerings of grain, wine and livestock to improve the harvest.

*God from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC

**The Cult of Mithras, also known as Mithraism, was a mystery religion that flourished in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD, centered around the god Mithras. It involved secretive rituals, including a complex initiation system and communal meals, and was particularly popular among soldiers and merchants.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372394

Episode 15 Cultures in Contact

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

After Athens successfully defended itself against Persian conquest, the Athenian Greeks captured lots of Persian booty and Persian slaves. During the fifth century BC, Persian styles became extremely fashionable in Athens and other Greek cities. Influenced by Persia, sleeves appeared in Greek garments for the first time. Greeks also adopted the Persian Kandys, a leather jacket the Greeks made out of linen, as as well as Persian slippers, drinking bowls and pitchers. The Greek elite also mimicked the Persians in raising peacocks a pets and carrying parasols to display their high status. It’s also believed Persian-style friezes influenced those that subsequently appeared on the Parthenon.

Conversely Persian elites adopted pederasty (mainly older men with teenage boys) from the Spartans and other Greeks, Athenian pottery and Greek perfumed flasks.

Persian troops returning from Egypt also adopted Bes, the Egyptian god of households, mothers, commoners and ordinary soldiers.

The Persian Empire was unique in history in with only one million of its 25 million subjects were native Persians. In addition, their use of multinational mercenaries led to significant intermarriage between Jew, Greeks and East Asians in Persian client states, especially Egypt.*

*The Old Testament reveasl how the Judges Ezra and Nehemiah clamped down on Jewish intermarriage with Persians.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372387

Episode 14 Xerxes War 480-479 BC

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

In Persia’s second attempt to conquer southern Greece, Xerxes used a dual land/sea approach. His land forces included 10,000 cavalry and 80,000 infantry, made up of Persians, Medes, Eastern Iranians, Bactrians, and Ionian and Thrace hoplites (non-professional citizen-soldiers) and 10,000 elite palace guards. The Persian infantry was armed with bows, spear and daggers. Most archers were paired with shield holders to protect as they fired their arrows. Calvary members carried both lances and bows.

At the start of the campaign, Xerxes ordered 400-600 triremes (ancient rowed warships – see The Ultimate Warship of Ancient Greece) to et off from Egypt, Phoenicia, Silicia and Ionia. Following the Aegean Coast from Anatolia to the northern Greek mainland, Xerxes’ cavalry and infantry set up supply dumps in Thessaly, Thebes and Macedon after they capitulated rather than do battle.

A total of 30 Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, resisted the Persians with a total of 40,000 hoplites. Owing to their inferior numbers, they postponed attacking the Persians until the reached the narrow passes of Thermopylae and Artemesium that left them little room to maneuver.

At Themopylae, 7,000 Greek hoplites under the leadership of Leonides defeated the Persian land troops. The latter recovered sufficiently to continue south to burn Athens, simultaneously sending their navy to attack the island of Salamis, where the vast majority of Athenians had fled. Outmaneuvered the Persian fleet suffered serious damage and withdrew. With no sea support, the Persian land forces were also forced to withdraw for the winter.

After Xerxes withdrew to Sardis, the Persian general Mardonia retook Athens in spring 479. Marching from Sparta, the allied Greeks attacked the Persian camp at Plataea. Lacking a cavalry the Greeks employed a heavy infantry armed with shields and spears, reinforced with light infantry who threw javelins and stones. Once they killed Mardonis, the Persians fled. The Greek allies also sent a fleet across the Aegean to attack the Ionian coast where they won several battles.

Hostilities continued for years.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372444

Xerxes

Episode 13 Xerxes Becomes King

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

Xerxes was born in 515 BC, son of Darius I’s second wife. Like most Persian nobles, Xerxes had 20 years of military training starting from age five. He learned archery and how to hunt, grow plants and collect herbs. He was also sent to survive in the wilderness.

In 486 BC Darius I departed Persepolis to put down a revolt in Egypt and appointed Xerxes (who had governed Babylonia for a decade) as crown prince over his older half brothers. Darius I died a year later under unclear circumstances. Immediately after assuming the throne, Xerxes departed for Egypt, suppressed the revolt and appointed his brother Achimedes the Egyptian governor. An extremely harsh ruler, the latter only provoked further rebellion.

in 484 BC there was a revolt in Babylon after Xerxes carried off the official statue of the Babylonian god Marduk. Xerxes crushed the revolt and significantly reduced Babylonian autonomy.

Xerxes was notorious for holding lavish banquets hosting thousands guests. The latter dined on wheat, barley, apples, pomegranates, grapes, garlic, onions, capers, ducks geese, grape and palm wine, lamb, beef, turtle doves, ducks geese while entertained by flautists and harpists.

According to Dr Lee, the Greek playwright Aeschylus and the Greek historian Herodotus portray Xerxes as the most decadent and despotic of the Persian kings. However referring to him as Ahasurus, the bibical books of Daniel and Esther speak very favorably of his reign.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/15372393/15372428

Episode 12 Across the Bitter Sea 

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

Darius I claimed the god Ahuramazda directed him to attack Athens and Eretia to punish them for their sneak attack during the empire’s battle to suppress the revolt of the Ionian Greek cities (on the Anatolian Peninsula, ie modern day Turkey)

With the intention of restoring the tyrant the people of Athens had ousted to establish a democracy, Darius sent 200 ships, 10,000-15,000 infantry, 500 cavalry and numerous siege engines on the long journey from Sardis on the Anatolian peninsula, through Thrace and Macedon (both controlled by Persia) to capture and burn Eretria (on the island of Euboia), deporting all its residents to Elam near Susa.

From there, Darius I marched his forces to the Marathon Plain in Attica, territory belonging to Athens. A militia of 10,000 Athenian citizens (regularly employed as farmers and craftsmen), providing their own weapons and food marched to the Marathon Plain.*

The Athenians launched a surprise attack on the Persians, who unlike the Greeks were all professional warriors, many of them Phoenician, Socca and Ionian mercenaries. The latter had sent their cavalry horses north to graze after running short of fodder.

In addition to defeating the Persians, the Greeks captured seven ships. 192 Athenians were killed, in contrast to 600 Persian troops.

*The Greeks had sent a runner (historical origin of the “marathon” race) to Sparta requesting their assistance, but the Spartans declined because they were celebrating a special feast of Apollo.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372390

Episode 11 Challenges in the West

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

To stop the continual raids by Scythian nomads on the Eastern Persian empire, Darius I led his warriors into Scythia (modern day Ukraine) intending to incorporate the region into his empire. He built a special pontoon bridge ( there would be no permanent bridge in modern day Istanbul until 1973) to cross the Bosporous into Thrace while the Ionian Greeks provided naval support.

The Scythians proved impossible to defeat because they kept withdrawing and refused to engage militarily with the Persians. However Darius I did succeed in bring Trace and Macedon on the Greek mainland into the empire.

In 494 BC the Greek cities in Ionia (on the west coast of the Anatolian peninsula) revolted against Persian control. Athens and Eretia on the Greek mainland supported the them.

It took a total of five years to suppress the revolt. The Persians castrated the most handsome Greek boys and sold the most attractive girls into slavery.

Darius appointed Artaphenes satrap of Sardis. The latter enacted a series of reforms to prevent further insurrection by the Greeks:

1. A system to arbitrate disputes between cities.

2. Land reform – to provide farmland for landless Greek peasants.

3. After Artaphenes deposed the tyrants ruling the the Ionian Greek cities, he allowed them to establish democracies.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372419

Episode 10 East of Persepolis

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

In this lecture, Dr Lee looks at the eastern Persian empire, which controlled roughly 2,000 miles of the Silk Road to China, which started in Bactria. This was the first time in history the western section of the Silk Road was controlled by a single power. The Asian climate was much wetter in 500 BC, and there was a substantial crop cultivation around oases and caravan cities, especially after the Persians provided them with irrigation canals.. Largely pastoral nomads, Persia’s eastern subjects revolted frequently against the Persian kings.* The most prominent eastern satropies were

• Karasmia – northern most satropy in the eastern empire, located in modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Although some Karasmians remained nomadic pastoralists, others mined turquoise, worked as palace administrators, as metal or stone workers or as mercenaries in Egypt.
• Bactria – in modern north-central Afghanistan, had a population of 2 million and was famous for fertile lands, cattle and land. Its people spoke a language related to old Persian but used Aramaic for administrative purposes.
• Sodiana – in modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, had vast open areas for pastoral nomads. Its largest city Samarkind, a center of culture and Silk Road trade, was renowned for its lapis lazuli and cornelian. Western Sodiana residents were known as Scythians. Scythian nomads became infamous for their aggression against the the Persians, who built a series of military forts to contain them.
• Gandara – having built cities and kingdoms (in region corresponding to modern day Pakistan) prior to their conquest by the Persians, Cyrus appointed native born satraps to administer this region.
• Hindush (Indus River Valley) – Indian satraps were required to send gold, ivory, elephants, and camels as tribute, as well as supplying the emperor with troops. Many Hindus from this region worked as administrators in the Persian capitols.

*Cyrus was killed trying to suppress a nomad revolt.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372408

Episode 9 Royal Roads and Messengers

The Persian Empire (2012)

Dr John W I Lee

Film Review

In this lecture, Dr Lee looks at the 20 provinces Darius I governed, along with the extensive road and messenger system that enabled the him to control an empire of 25 million people. Lee calls the Persian Empire the first “information empire.”

Darius began by expanding on the the road network of the Assyrian Empire, which also had a long distance messenger system. Although Persian roads were only paved in the major cities, all were extremely well-maintained with relay stations (providing food, water and fresh horses) every 10-20 miles. In addition, tens of thousands of private persons used Persian roads daily, traveling by donkey camel, chariot and light two-wheeled carts. Goods were transported in caravans of four-wheeled ox drawn carts.

The government issued leather passports to messengers and officials (eg tax collectors, judges and inspectors monitoring the satrapies). Printed in Aramaic, they entitled the bearer to food and drink at the relay stations. The Persian kings also built canals, an equally important form of transportation.

Darius divided the empire into 20 provinces or satrapies. The satraps appointed to rule them were responsible for maintaining local roads and canals. Most of the satraps were Persian, and each had their own palace, treasury and troops (to defend both the satrapy and, where required, the king). Satraps often rewarded retired soldiers with grants of land for their services.

Although most of the old Assyrian cities were abandoned following Persian conquest, Babylon remained a major financial and religious center. Likewise Phoenicia kept their own king (who was required to pay tribute) and issued their own coins after being conquered by Persia.

After proclaiming himself pharaoh in Egypt, as well as king of Persia and Babylon, Darius built numerous Egyptian canals, including an early version of the Suez Canal between the delta and the Red Sea.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372432