day two hundred nine (13. 850)

According to Trump, European countries, at his bidding, agree to release a “massive amount” of diesel reserves as fuel prices continue to soar worldwide, the American president blaming Ukraine for the supply shortage. EU stockpiles dwarf those of the US (as do China’s) because the bloc requires members maintain a ninety-day emergency contingency, and the energy shock was blunted by Beijing’s decision to tap its reserves rather than buying on the open market and further tightening the stocks and driving up prices even further. The reasons behind this magnanimity remain unclear but EU should at minimum leverage their decision with a demand for ending tariffs or be consulted before casting the world into chaos—or perhaps it’s just like the potash from Belarus deal.  Houthi rebels clash with Yemeni forces in Sanaa as the struggle for control of the country escalates. Iraq is granted an exemption to US sanctions on Iranian air carriers and allowed to administer a limited number of flights between Najaf and Tehran. The supreme court of Israel unanimously overturns the earlier decision by the country’s central elections commission to exclude Arabic parties from the upcoming parliamentary vote.

day two hundred seven (13. 844)

During a Hispanic Heritage Month ceremony at the White House (I thought they weren’t doing woke any more), acknowledging the departure of the last US troops from Iraq, Trump issues another ultimatum to Iran to either make a deal or be blown up. Baghdad declares a four day national holiday to celebrate its liberation. Meanwhile, announcing cuts to the ranks, secretary of war Hegseth says that American might has crippled the Islamic Republic. The conflict still deadlocked, Tehran receives a counterproposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz through diplomatic channels. Iran rejects UK narrative linking them to the foiled plot to attack a RAF Fairford, host to American fighter jet. A hijacker attempts to down an Israel bound flight from Dubai. More tankers receive fire in the Persian Gulf. Houthis target a major Saudi petroleum refinery.

day two hundred six (13. 840)

US troops completes its withdrawal of troops from Iraq after two decades. Frustrated that the White House press pool isn’t covering his daily activities non-stop, the American president has launched Trump TV, whilst tax-payer funded propaganda spots are aired on commercial networks, justified as public service announcements. Hegseth announces a further twenty percent reduction in generals and admirals. US tariffs on Canadian exports go into effect. Settlers attack villagers, burn homes in the occupied West Bank and IDF planes continue the bombardment of souther Lebanon. US fuel economy standards are considerably relaxed, in hopes of making new automobiles cheaper, more expensive to operate.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Chicago Tribute switches to standard spellings (with synchronoptica) plus more adventures in the Alsace

two years ago: sea birds in a hurricane plus a Schoolhouse Rock!-style explainer for Project 2025  

three years ago: another fiscal cliff edge for the US 

four years ago: the Mayak disaster (1957) 

five years ago: assorted links to revisit

six years ago: Star Trek tarot,  the Feast of the Archangels, the cartoons of R Cobb plus more links to revisit

seven years ago: more Theremin maestros plus more Middle English vulgarities

eight years ago: the Munich Agreement (1938) plus the Suprematism movement

 

day one hundred ninety (13. 789)

As deadly Russian strikes hit all corners of Ukraine, Zelenskyy offers to meet with Putin at the upcoming G20 conference to be held in Miami. Moscow disinters the remains of a fourteenth century sainted warrior prince Dmitry Donskoi, who expelled Mongol-Tartar forces from western Russian, and distributes the relics to all corners of the country to boost the war effort. Iraq seizes an Iranian drone launching platform used to disable the Saudi East-West pipeline. The US navy attacks an Iranian commercial vessel near Qeshm Island, killing one crew member. Yemeni government forces exchange fire with the Houthi in attempt to wrest back control of the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint in the Red Sea, the rebels having taken the strategically important island of Perim. A parliamentary spokesperson says that the Islamic Republic will withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and revise the doctrine for its programme accordingly. Tehran and Muscat reach agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz but there will be no action taken until the US proves that it will comply with the terms of the MOU. Visiting the taoiseach, Trump advocates for a united Ireland.  The IDF continues to shell southern Lebanon. A documentary on Israel’s use if artificial intelligence to target Palestinians in Gaza receives a twenty-five minute long at its debut at the Venice Film Festival. Anthropic restricts Iran’s use of Claude under the aegis of Operation Economic Outcast, saying it used the chatbot to spread propaganda and spy on dissidents.

day one hundred eighty-five (13. 773)

Forces of the Yemeni regular army begin a counteroffensive in hopes of retaking Sanaa from Houthi rebels, the Saudi-led regional defensive pact vowing to intervene if more civilians are killed in the crossfire. Iraq searches for alternate routes for petroleum exports as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz again grinds to a halt. Israel constructs a road partitioning the West Bank. Qatar warns of an irrecoverable “industrial catastrophe” if the crisis in Iran is not resolved soon. EU pledges over two hundred million in aid to Greenland amid continued threats of annexation from Trump. The Panama Canal cuts maritime traffic further as El Niño strengthens. Russia closes a consulate in Germany as tensions rise.

day one hundred seventy-nine (13. 760)

The US house of representatives pass a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown before the midterm elections, although only punting the issue to the second week of December. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll abruptly resigns following a falling out with Secretary of War Hegseth over support for Ukraine and drone development—possibly to join the campaign of vice president JD Vance, whom recently came out as pro-apocalypse, that he would be comfortable ushering in the End Times. The US launches a fresh round of strikes on Iran, targeting sites near the Strait of Hormuz—promising heavier attacks should Tehran retaliate. Pezeshkian suggests that the Islamic Republic would “immediately reciprocate” if Washington honours its commitments under the MOU. Though appearing limited in scale at first, the American raids turn deadly with several civilians killed, including the members of a wedding party, prompting the Revolutionary Guard to launch ballistics on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan—adding that these attacks will stop once the host nations expel US troops. Despite threats and the escalation in fighting that precludes any diplomatic settlement, operational constraints and depleted munitions likely mean that Trump’s only tool is economic strangulation. IDF bombs southern Beirut.

day one hundred sixty-seven (13. 723)

Meeting with the Iraqi prime minister in Baghdad, Iran’s speaker of parliament speculates that the US is seeking an „honorable exit“ from the region as the two nations forge security alliance in preparation for a Middle East free from foreign interference—whilst working to counter American supported Kurdish rebels. Tehran further reckons the damage to the country, excluding the capital, from the joint US-Israeli war of aggression to amount to two hundred billion dollars. The IDF continues patrolling Gaza and erects a gallows to hang Hamas militants as the occupied territory faces a thirst crisis over a failing water utility and settler violence persists in the West Bank. NATO, despite limited confidence that the US would honour an invocation of Article V after allies wanted no part in its war of choice, pledges to defend all members after a supposed threat against Bulgaria and Cyprus for their hosting of American assets—which strikes as propaganda from Washington, as Iran retains better standing in this unpopular military adventure and has no interest in widening its belligerents and lessening its perception as victims. A false flag terror attack elsewhere in Europe on a US base seems more likely and the excuse to leave the continent and turn inward for the administration’s policy of hemispheric domination.

day one-hundred forty-seven (13. 671)

After a pause of nearly a fortnight, the US resumes air raids on Iran in retaliation to Tehran’s targeting of American bases in Jordan with explosions reported in Kish, Bushehr and on Qeshm island. Washington’s treasury department applies sanctions to Iranian linked maritime insurers and its shadow fleet as part of its economic pressure campaign as inflation surges for basic goods, nearing ninety-percent. A drone strike has hit a US owned floating liquified natural gas platform at an Egyptian port. Joint US-Saudi attacks in Mosul kill twenty fighters of the Popular Mobilisation Forces. The US federal reserve holds interest rates steady as the ongoing conflict bodes for an inflation shock.

day one-hundred forty-six (13. 669)

Following an impassioned appeal by Zelenskyy, who was in Washington for the funeral of Lindsey Graham (as was Netanyahu), the US senate passes landmark sanctions on Russia. American and Saudi forces launch strikes against Iranian affiliated targets in Iraq. Ukraine hits more Russian bound Iranian cargo ships in the Caspian Sea, calling them indirect combatants. China is accused of supplying Iran with shoulder fired missile launchers. US Central Command announces joint AI working group in partnership with the UAE, the task force called Talon Synapse aimed at integrating artificial intelligence in military applications and cyber security. Negotiations still stalled with Trump claiming some “good” talks, the US president threatens Tehran with a fresh wave of strikes on civilian infrastructure if no deal is reached. 

8x8 (13. 643)

elbows up: Trump threatens to impose a fifty percent tariff on a range of Canadian export, claiming that the country discriminates against American dairy products, alcohol and automobiles  

ashurbanipal: massive stele discovered by the Sun Gate of Nineveh in Mosul  

no mutation without representation: the 1974 manuscript, The Periodic Table of Energy, authored by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson during their unfortunate incarceration inside Vacaville Prison—via Boing Boing  

the old man and the strait: with apologies to Ernst Hemingway on his birthday 

calves and calves nots: guides’ exodus over global warming tourism  

fungus among us: mapping the underground of rhizomal networks—see also here and here 

 ziwiye horde: actor Zendaya, in the role of Athena, sharply criticised for wearing three-millennia old Assyrian earrings to an event promoting Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey—see previously  

fellow travellers: US department of state continues Red Scare on left politicians as Cuban agents

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s push to bring back the Redskins (with synchronoptica) plus Appetite for Destruction (1987)  

two years ago: an entrepôt on the Seine, assorted links worth revisiting, more from Marshall McLuhan plus Joe Biden steps down as the Democratic presidential nominee

three years ago: more links to enjoy 

four years ago: a concert in Potsdamer Platz to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall plus meandering along the Spey

five years ago: a nuclear powered cruise ship, the Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) plus the outskirts of Göteborg 

six years ago: the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World plus remote screaming into the void

day thirty (13. 305)

Pro-Iranian elements in Iraq have targeted Syria, including lobbing missiles at US bases in the northeastern province of Hasakeh as Oman and Kuwait continue to repel drone assaults and Iran destroys Bahraini and Emirati aluminium factories in retaliation—connecting the industry to the US military. After multiple universities came under attack in Iran, Tehran declares American institutions of higher education in the region to be legitimate targets. A contingency of paratroopers and marines arrive in the Middle East as the US prepares for ground operations, reportedly planning raids rather than a full-scale invasion. The exiled crown prince, the son of the deposed shah is encouraging protesters to rise up and overthrow the theocracy, signalling that he would be willing to take on a leadership role in government. Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have killed three journalists and numerous health care workers, drawing international condemnation.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: whitewashing America’s past (with synchronopticæ) plus happy birthday Amy Sedaris

 

thirteen years ago: A Carol for Another Christmas

 

fourteen years ago: Big Pharma and its lobby 

 

fifteen years ago: the convenience industry of spying 

 

sixteen years ago: Easter break 

day fifteen (13. 264)

A Jewish school in Amsterdam is damaged by a terror attack. Explosions were also heard at the US embassy in Baghdad. Hamas calls for Iran to stop its provocative attacks against neighbouring states, while there are conflicting claims about oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, the chief export terminal for Iran’s petroleum exports after Trump claims it was obliterated by US strikes. Reportedly, an amphibious detachment of five thousand Marines (aboard the USS Tripoli) is ordered to deploy to Iran from their home base in Okinawa.  Though prices barely responded to the historic announcement of releasing strategic reserves by member states of the International Energy Agency, surpassing even the coordinated actions taken to offset the market shocks of the 1973 Oil Crisis, the US depart of the interior assures east Asia that it can provide “reliable” energy supplies—America, although a net exporter through fracking to ease dependence on the Middle East following the last disruption and a modest pivot towards renewables, is still bound by the global market.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: an anti-slavery primer (with sychronopticæ), more on microseasons, a subtle expression of solidarity with Canada plus US government shutdown averted

twelve years ago: ski-yoga 

thirteen years ago: more manhole covers plus the endurance of treats

fifteen years ago: the Fukushima disaster 

sixteen years ago: daffodils and asphodels plus a non-existent conquest

day eight (13. 240)

Oil refineries in Basra operated by US defence contractor Halliburton have been struck. As the Gulf states of the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia suffer fresh attacks and bombardments continue in Lebanon and Iran, independent reporting speculates that supplies of both ballistics and countermeasures are beginning to dwindle, with the US claiming that firepower on Tehran was to surge dramatically in the coming days and Trump saying there would be no further negotiations and would only accept unconditional surrender, the world still guessing about his endgame. An Iranian frigate was sunk outside of the theatre of war, returning from training manoeuvres off the coast of Sri Lanka by American naval forces, the first such expansion since WWII. Russian intelligence is supplying Iran with telemetry on US targets in the region.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Silla Smile (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

thirteen years ago: historical monetary unions 

fourteen years ago: human-robot collaborations 

fifteen years ago: cooking by substitiution 

day six (13. 233)

Following the outcry by thousands of Americans stranded in the Middle East and told to attend to their own exit-strategies, the US is chartering evacuation flights to retrieve them. Although saying the war started by the US and Israel is inconsistent with international law, Canada and Australia indicated that they may join the effort to help allies. Congressional Democrats privy to a classified situation brief emerged from the meeting grim and disheartened, convinced that America was now entangled in another forever war with no real plan with military leadership admitted that the US may no longer have sufficient stockpiles to counter all of Iran’s arsenal—the press secretary shifting blame to Biden and his support for Ukraine: “unfortunately, we had a very stupid and incompetent leader in this White House for four years who gave away many of our best weapons for nothing.” Meanwhile, the US is looking to arm Kurdish separatist militias to infiltrate Iran, adding another front to the rapidly expanding war.

synchronoptica

one year ago: covering the coup (with synchronopticæ), the Homebrew Computer Club plus communications officer Johnny Cash

thirteen years ago: spying on ourselves 

fourteen years ago: smoking ban in Bavaria plus outgrowing democracy

fifteen years ago: insider jokes 

sixteen years ago: Germany votes 

seventeen years ago: an optimistic economic outlook plus double-vision

 

 

si vis pacem para pactum (12. 536)

As if Trump’s low turn-out, low-energy birthday parade was not already overshadowed by the poor juxtaposition of the crack down on protests in Los Angeles and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, with no boots on the ground though America can hardly claim it’s not deeply entrenched, the politically motivated assassination of a Minnesota state legislator by a crazed MAGA evangelist still at large and with a kill-list of other politicians, the surprise from Israel on Iran gave some in the administration a chance to try to have it both ways. Like the false claims last month of brokering a cease fire between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, despite vehement disavowal of having anything to do with the strikes on Iranian cities and infrastructure, Trump is insisting that peace is contingent upon Iran settling the nuclear deal—talks scheduled to continue in Oman next week—as if Israeli incursions were leverage in the negotiations, if anything possibly a provocation to draw the US into the situation. The last time Washington DC hosted a military parade of comparable scale was in 1991 as a premature victory celebration for the hundred-day Persian Gulf War, what became a multipart quagmire squandering many lives and much treasure, the US resuming its push to remove Saddam Hussein after premised on the untrue narratives of Baghdad involvement with the 9/11 terror attacks and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. America should have lost global trust and confidence back then. Now, with Iran having been only five years away from producing a ballistic nuclear missile for the past thirty years (and surely have been capable of making an arsenal but chose not to despite decades of conflicts with neighbours including Iraq and Israel), the Trump administration and his negotiators are using the WMD playbook once again and this time, the world is far more skeptical of their motives to stoke forever wars.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Dutch roll (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, Trump’s migrant detention centres, fear of palindromes plus Stephen Hawking interred with honours

eight years ago: Ford’s soybean car plus the feast of Corpus Christi

nine years ago: the UK’s proposed withdrawal from the EU, even more links, machine dreams plus the long-s

ten years ago: a visit to Gemünden am Main, the internet of trolls plus a church that resembles the courthouse from Back to the Future

operation red dawn (11. 187)

Codenamed after the 1984 World War III invasion scenario of the US by a coalition of the Warsaw Pact and Latin American countries—starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze as resistance-fighters—a task force of American soldiers apprehended deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on this day in 2003, having disappeared and gone into hiding shortly after the US invasion, discovered in his hometown of ad-Dawr near Tikrik, holed up in a foxhole or spider-whole with guns and three-quarters of a million dollars in cash. The site where Hussein was captured, Wolverine 2, is also a reference to the teenaged band of guerrilla fighters of the movie. Put before a special tribunal called by the provisional authority and interim government (which many characterised as a creature of American jurisdiction and a show trial not representative of an independent Iraq) six months later and found guilty of crimes against humanity for genocidal campaigns against the Kurdish and Shiite populations during the war with Iran and subsequently executed at the trial’s conclusion and having exhausted appeals in November of 2006.

casus belli (10. 624)

In a late night address from the Oval Office on this day in 2003, US president George W Bush, without mentioning the pretext of “weapons of mass destruction” whose rhetoric had already been established in the weeks leading up to this announcement after issuing a forty-eight hour ultimatum, committed America and allied partners to a decade of bloody and violent conflict, dearly bought with the lives of over a quarter-million Iraqi civilians, over five thousand allied combatants at a cost exceeding two-trillion dollars, causing permanent economic and credibility losses with only the military-industrial complex profiting from the violence. The preoccupation and extension of the “War on Terror” moreover significantly contributed to the loss of the fragile uni-polar world order and led to the ascendance of China as a world power and the undelivered democratic reforms of the Russian Federation due to the years of focus spared for this crusade. After the “shock and awe” and following his cabinet’s over-confidence that this adventure would be decisive and over in “five days or five weeks or five months” as defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Bush would appear in military fatigues (very much the image of his nemesis, Saddam Hussein) less than a scant two months later on the deck of an aircraft carrier to deliver his “Mission Accomplished” speech. The allied Iraqi army was disbanded, fuelling a counter-insurgency that made the ultimate US withdrawal a protracted one, resulting in civil war and a would-be caliphate unleashing more terror and displacement regionally and globally.

coalition of the drilling

In the first State of the Union Address to the American people since the 9/11 terror attacks some five months hence, delivered on this day in 2002, George W Bush minted the coinage “axis of evil”—a portmanteau of Ronald Reagan’s characterisation of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire and the Axis powers of World War II, Germany, Italy and Japan. Originally levied against Iran, the Baath party of Iraq and North Korea as sponsors of terrorism, net exporters and actively seeking weapons of mass destruction to define a common enemy and threat to US and its allies, other politicians and commentators expanded the term to include Syria, Cuba, Libya, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

cyrus charter

Though in possession of the British Museum, the ancient clay cylinder bearing the declaration of king Cyrus the Great, outlining his genealogy and conquest of Babylonia as favourite of the god Marduk and documentation of the end of exile of the Jewish people and allowing them to resettle within the empire was loaned to Tehran on this day in 1971 for a period of sixteen days for the gala celebration of the two-thousand-five-hundredth anniversary of the founding of Persia—see previously, beginning mid-month ten days later. The artefact recovered in 1829 (in Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq) is considered by many historians as the pioneering attempt to administer and multicultural state with universal human rights and was made the official symbol of Iran in absentia.

resolution 678

On this day in 1991 Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and US Secretary of State James Baker held a conference in Geneva lasting some seven hours to try to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the invasion and annexation of Kuwait (August 1990).
Though the dialogue was overshadowed by the respective parties’ messaging, that George H W Bush was willing to continue talks and privileged peace and regional stability over any exercise of power—and that Saddam Hussain would not agree to an unconditional withdrawal, arguing that the region was put in turmoil over Palestine issue well before the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and targeting their advances with the backing of the UN and the US-backed coalition was hypocrisy and an injustice. Both sides lost their leverage and no progress was made in finding a mutually acceptable solution, and the failure of the Geneva Peace Conference precipitated Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.