day one-hundred fifty-two (13. 689)

Jordan, whose Hashemite monarchy administers the religious site in Jerusalem and maintains the status quo treaty that stipulates only Muslims can prayer there, convenes an emergency meeting of ministers from the Islamic world due to the possible Israeli takeover of the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, which the Jews refer to as the Temple Mount. Tensions are heightened as illegal settlements continue to edge out the Palestinian population in the West Bank. With Qatar reportedly brokering indirect talks, US secretaries of state and the treasury hint that a deal over the Strait of Hormuz will be achieved very soon (“possibly today or tomorrow” as opposed to two-weeks) and fuel prices will begin to tumble as Trump complains about oil companies’ record quarterly profits and demands lower petrol prices. Iranian president Masud Pezeshkian asserts he has no intention of resigning amid speculation regarding his political future.

day one-hundred forty-seven (13. 674)

Saudi Arabia announces a maritime defensive alliance to secure navigation through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab correcting the Red Sea and the gulf of Aden and repel attacks by the Houthi. Trump claims breakthrough deal for the disarmament of Hamas in Gaza reached by his Board of Peace—saying the US will implement the accord unilaterally if Israel does not agree. NATO jets scramble as Russian missile strays into Polish airspace and detonates outside of a village, the latest in a series of incursions. Under protection of IDF, dozens of Israeli settlers storm a small village near Nablus in the Occupied West Bank. Iranian drones hit a US base and Chinese-owned commercial tower in Kuwait.

day one-hundred forty-three (13. 656)

An individual known to authorities as a member of the “Islamist scene” drives a van through crowds gathered for Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade, the Pride festival named after the address of the Stonewall Inn in New York City, riots against police raids there starting off the gay rights struggle. The ramming incident leaves one dead and sixteen injured. Iran reports the first night without US strikes in two weeks—Washington officials cite the potential to “dangerously drain” already diminished munitions stockpiles in the region. The Houthi launch ballistics at Saudi Arabia in reprisal for the destruction of the airport at SanaaTehran’s foreign ministry summons Ukrainian diplomatic envoy to explain why Kyiv targeted an an Iranian flagged vessel in the Caspian sea, straining tensions between the two star-crossed and besieged underdogs. Israeli settlers in the West Bank burn down a mosque as more neighbourhoods are bulldozed.

day one-hundred thirty-eight (13. 641)

Middle Eastern nations are on high alert has hostilities continue to flare, the Revolutionary Guard declaring that Iran is in a state of all out war as US forces strike the southern cities of Shiraz and Tabriz and western Azerbaijan province. Sirens blare across Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar as more ballistics fall. Trump repeats his vow that the deaths of service members will be avenged many times over with secretary of state Rubio accusing Iran, rather obviously, of using its control of the Hormuz as “leverage against the world” whilst calling on other countries to share the burden of protecting global shipping. US fighter jets based in Germany are to be stationed at Israeli air force stations for safety. New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani speculates on the possibility of enforcing a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court—of which the US is not a signatory—should Netanyahu visit for a UN summit in September to the outrage of the American president, saying that the Israeli prime minister will in “no way, shape or form be arrested” and extradited. After a Riyadh-led occupation of the airport of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa to prevent Iran from sending aid to the rebels, the Houthi declare access to the Red Sea cut off to Saudi Arabia. US peacekeeping operations begin in southern Lebanese “pilot zones” as part of the trilateral peace agreement with Tel Aviv. Hamas names new political bureau chief, Khalil al-Hayya.

day one-hundred thirty-six (13. 635)

The FBI subpoenaed several journalists from the New York Times, pressuring them to reveal their sources regarding Trump’s change of planes upon departing the NATO summit in Ankara, leaving on the old Air Force One, rather than by the one gifted to him by the Qatari government—the reporters uncovering it was done out of safety and security concerns over the retrofitted aircraft and not a chance for the new plane to make a publicity tour of European US bases as officially put out. Already targeting infrastructure and energy facilities across Russia, Ukrainian strikes destroyed major logistics hubs and warehouses in the Tambov and Moscow regions of Wildberries (Ва́йлдберриз), the Russian e-commerce giant and Amazon equivalent. Iran’s Supreme Leader suspends the MOU as Washington and Tehran continue to exchange fire. Two American soldiers stationed in Jordan were killed by incoming Iranian ballistics and a third service member is missing. A US radar station in Camp Arifjan in Kuwait was destroyed. Shelter in place orders were issued for Bahraini citizens near the base hosting the US Fifth Fleet. Israel moves to seize ancient freshwater reservoirs in Bethlehem as desalination plants of neighbouring countries continue to sustain damage.  Israel also reclassifies the endangered status of the Nile crocodile in order to use the animals as deterrent for escape from a prison holding suspected Hamas militants and sympathisers.  

day one-hundred thirty-five (13. 630)

US Central Command conducts its seventh consecutive night of raids, attacking maritime and energy infrastructure, civilian targets tantamount to a war-crime though the American military considers them dual-use facilities. The latest flareups in fighting has essentially stopped all shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran promising a full-scale offensive response and allied gulf states continue to repel drones and missiles.  Israeli ministers announce new illegal settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. Trump threatens Canada with new tariffs over raging forest fires sending “filthy” air into the US.

day one-hundred thirty-four (13. 627)

Trump’s Board of Peace scales down recovery programme to a tiny pilot plot in south Gaza. The US unleashes fresh waves of assaults, with American gulf allies taking the flak, as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz grows. The Revolutionary Guard has made arrangements with Houthi rebels in Yemen to close access to the Red Sea should the US begin threatened attacks on bridges, highways and power plants. During a primetime televised address, Trump speaks at length regarding election integrity, citing without evidence widespread voter fraud, McCarthy-era Communist infiltration and repeated false claims about the 2020 presidential race being stolen from him—an unremarkable rehash of old grievances ahead of the midterms when some expected more of a bombshell, like announcing that elections were postponed indefinitely due to the war or that he was running for a third term.

day one-hundred twenty-seven (13. 601)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation to American strikes against Iran following attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Washington restores economic pressure on Tehran, curtailing exports. The NATO alliance annual leadership summit begins in Türkiye. Israeli settlers are emboldened to take more land in the West Bank ahead of Netanyahu’s reelection bid. Damascus is rocked by bomb blasts during a visit from Macron to Syria. Team USA out of the World Cup, bested by Belgium, after pressure scandal.

day one-hundred eighteen (13. 566)

For the second night in a row, US forces have struck multiple targets in Iran for Tehran’s “aggression” against commercial shipping as the fragile ceasefire continues to fray—following on with a threat to wipe out the Islamic Republic. The Revolutionary Guard say that further violations of the truce will bring diplomatic talks to a halt as religious hardliners split on settlement negotiations. Bahrain is attacked by drones in response. Hezbollah rejects the ceasefire arrangement brokered by Washington between Israel and Lebanon. The draft resolution of Trump’s Board of Peace seeks sweeping immunity to block members and contractors from potential prosecution for work in “rebuilding” Gaza and allowing them to appropriate public property free of charge and with no oversight. Rocked by a wave of attacks that have resulted in fuel shortages, Moscow is building on new air defence complex on the grounds of Putin’s daughter’s intellectual development foundation just outside the capital.

day one-hundred eight (13. 522)

As politicians and the press debate the merits and durability of Trump’s grand deal with Tehran (the administration hinting it will publish the terms of the MOU ahead of the formal signing ceremony), a Russian frigate, known to escort its shadow fleet of oil tankers through the Channel, fired warning shots at a pleasure yacht off the Island of Wight. The G7 vows for new sanctions against Russia amid optimism for peace in Ukraine. Elon Musk threatens to sue German public broadcaster ZDF for its reporting on how he is stoking anti-immigrant sentiment in Belfast. Scepticism mounts—everyone is angry and dissatisfied for different but overlapping reasons—over the peace plan with Iran insisting that any accord is contingent on IDF withdrawal from Lebanon—the rift between Washington and Tel Aviv apparently widening as Trump criticises Netanyahu and says that Syria would do a better job in extracting Hezbollah without killing everyone else in the process. Destruction in Beirut persists but many displaced Lebanese are trying to return home.

day one-hundred seven (13. 519)

Far from settled or over with the MOU digitally signed, unless America is accepting their defeat in this adventure, the chronology continues. With no force behind it, the grand deal is akin to an empty table of contents, waiting to be limned by a negotiation process that will prove thornier than the talks—or lack of dialogue—that brought us to this juncture. The terms, not fully disclosed to the public, provides a cessation of strikes in Lebanon but provides no timeline for IDFs withdrawal from southern Beirut. The Israeli government, with Netanyahu also using the opportunity to announce his reelection campaign, has said it will not leave its security zones established in Lebanon, Syria or Gaza, and the country’s defence ministry denounced the draft agreement as not only bad for Israel but for bad for the entire world, accusing US special envoys Kushner and Witkoff of driving a wedge between Washington and Tel Aviv. In addition to sanction relief, apparently with no strings attached though Trump says otherwise—saying a lot things—with its own funds unfrozen, the US tax payers will be remitting some three-hundred billion dollars in reparations under the aegis of an Iranian freedom fund, without reform or the promised regime change nor appropriating oil revenues to repair gulf nation energy infrastructure damaged in the war, with monitoring of its nuclear programme and the matter of its stockpile of enriched uranium deferred for negotiations yet to come. The Strait of Hormuz will supposedly be open to all traffic without restriction as well as Iranian ports—tensions between India and the US flaring over the refusal to apologise for attacking an Indian tanker accused of violating the US naval blockade—on Friday following the formal signing ceremony, with all parties uphold their commitments. Blasts were heard in the area of Qeshm island and the strait.

day seventy-eight (13. 439)

As former leader Raul Castro faces possible indictment, charged in absentia, the Cuban people brace for imminent invasion by the US as the country runs out of oil. The aircraft carrier group, the USS Gerald Ford, leaves the Persian gulf to return to the Americans. Pakistani interior minister Moshin Naqvi travels to Iran to resume indirect talks with America. Taiwan reiterates its de facto independence after Trump warns Taipei not assert itself separate from mainland China. Counter-rallies occur in London as marches to commemorate Nabka Day, the displacement of the Palestinians, are met with far-right, ethnonationists Unite the Kingdom demonstrations, with calls to prepare for the second battle of Britain.  Putin and Xi will meet next week.  Israeli defence minister Katz criticises Spain and other European nations for boycotting the Eurovision song contest over his country’s participation.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Baywatch spinoff (with synchronopticæ), assorted links, Trump in the Middle East plus former FBI director James Comey accused of threatening the president’s life

twelve years ago: generative journalism, immortal jellyfish plus the motivating factors of video game scores

thirteen years ago: EU assault on communal condiments

fourteen years ago: letterpress cities plus EU-US tax treaties

fifteen years ago: puritanical essences

day seventy-three (13. 422)

Further rubbishing the Iranian response to the US fourteen-point peace plan, calling the proposal stupid and “a piece of garbage” he did not finish reading, hoping moderates in the government would prevail over hardliners, Trump told reporters that the month-long ceasefire was precariously close to failure, characterising the tenuous truce as “on massive life-support.” Tehran’s speaker of parliament said that the country’s armed forces stand ready to respond to any act of aggression and still have military options. The EU has adopted measures to sanction Israeli settlers in the Palestine territories, to the condemnation of Tel Aviv—foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas saying that extremism and violence in displacing people carries consequences. The US is in talks to open three more military installations on Greenland. As a potential data chokepoint, Iran looks to charging global technology companies for undersea cables running through the Strait of Hormuz.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an endorsement of hypertext markup language (with synchronopticæ) plus a pause in tariff brinkmanship

thirteen years ago: a visit to Frankfurt-Eschborn 

day sixty-one (13. 393)

Following chancellor Merz’ criticism of the administration for its lack of strategy and saying it was being humiliated by Iran, Trump is mulling on reducing the number of the some thirty-six thousand US troops station in Germany, whilst still entertaining the prospect of leaving the NATO alliance entirely over its unwillingness to be drawn into the war with Iran. 

Oil prices rise to above $125 per barrel on news that naval blockade could continue for months with no renewed negotiations on the horizon and Tehran saying it can withstand the US economic pressure campaign. Growth in the EU is surprisingly resilliant and stronger than expected despite the conflict and supply chain disruptions. IDF attacks continue in southern Lebanon and Israel seizes a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza in international waters.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Folkish Observer (with synchronopticæ) plus creating a data panopticon 

twelve years ago: US army updates allowable hairstyles plus the American Foreign Service

thirteen years ago: attuned cocktails plus new and novel punctuation

day fifty-three (13. 371)

With the end of the two-week ceasefire approaching, confusion and mixed messages continue to emerge from the White House, with chief negotiator JD Vance’s whereabouts unknown, contradicting claims he was already en route to peace talks in Pakistan aimed to forestall a resumption in fighting with reports the vice president has remained in Washington, though now apparently scheduled to depart. It is unclear if any meeting will take place with Tehran insisting no negotiations will happen under duress and threat as the blockade continues to be enforced. Trump, confident and denying news of pressure to restore stability, insists, “the DEAL that we are making with Iran will be FAR BETTER than the JCPOA,” referring to the agreement struck under the Obama administration in 2015. The spokesman of the Iranian paramilitary hints that the country still has unexercised options for the battlefield. Global stock markets are surrendering gains as optimism fades for a quick and tidy resolution and energy prices again rise. Clashes escalate in Gaza between the IDF and Hamas fighters.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the death of Pope Francis (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: GMO apples plus a pheromone party

fifteen years ago: energy-saving light bulbs 

sixteen years ago: the internet is for crying-wolf 

day fifty-one (13. 366)

With the rapidly degrading situation in the Middle East, yesterday merited a post-meridian post-script but we wanted to wait for an update to see how the renewed tensions played out, especially with pending peace talks and the weekend running out of runway. Israel accused Hezbollah of breaching the ceasefire in Beirut, including a deadly attacked on UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, created in 1978 to enforce withdrawal of Israelis from the country, its mandate renewed several times) peacekeepers and, meanwhile in Gaza, whose station has not improved, two UNICEF aid workers by IDF occupying forces. The Revolutionary Guard Corps has reasserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, closing it to commercial traffic with two India tankers taking light arms fire, in response to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports a day after declaring the waterway open. This move likely dashed the hopes of investors and bettors hoping to capitalise on the earlier positive turn for in the markets, besting the US administration at their game of stock manipulation and privileged information. Convening an emergency meeting in the White House situation room, Trump said that unless there was a significant breakthrough in peace negotiations—again not yet scheduled, Iranian deputy foreign minister Saaed Khatibyadeh insisting that a framework must be agreed upon, workable by both sides in the face of America’s unrealistic agenda, before talks can take place—he would resume airstrikes on Iran, bombardments already having killed over thirty-four hundred civilians. Trump went golfing afterwards.

day forty-one (13. 332)

The Pakistani brokers of the truce insists that it also applies to Israel and Lebanon, though Netanyahu disagrees as bombings continue and the Knesset passes a law legalising capital punishment—which only applies to Palestinians. White House officials privately admit that Iran’s ten-point plan was not the same set of conditions that the US agreed to for the pause.

Ten cargo ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz after securing permission from Iran but no oil tankers have yet attempted the journey, saying that the waterway remains closed and unlikely to be swiftly restored, the continued assault on Beirut jeopardising the already fragile ceasefire. Trump claims he will get a share of the maritime tolls.  Peace rallies dominate Tokyo as demonstrators fear the country’s conservative ruling party could be pressured into changing the constitution and the policy of no military intervention. Iranian hackers are attacking the US power grid and water treatment facilities as Hegseth announces that they will be hanging around and ready to execute any orders. Though not said verbatim, the out-brief for Operation Epic Fury seemed very much like a “Mission Accomplished” moment and some kind bequest for the next administration to clean up, like Trump’s deal with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan that his successor was held to. 

 

 synchronoptica 

one year ago: Chairman Trump (with synchronopticæ), de-extincting the dire wolf plus a musical montage 

twelve years ago: more on American imperialism plus data retention in the EU

thirteen years ago: fleet of US Abrams tanks to return to America 

fourteen years ago: drones of opportunity plus “What Must be Said”

sixteen years ago: street photography in Köln 

day twenty-seven (13. 296)

As Israel expands its buffer zone with the southern border of Lebanon with a literal scorched earth campaign, spreading white phosphorus on the land to make it fallow and uninhabitable, Hezbollah is refusing ceasefire negotiations with the aggressor as IDF bombing runs continue over Iran and that country, following international condemnation saying that the area of Beirut cannot become another occupied territory, another Gaza. Mixed signals came out of both Tehran and Washington over potential peace talks, Iranians insisting that Trump is delusional and holding court with himself and that they will never surrender to the US excessive demands and never accept defeat, Trump pushing for a status quo ante bellum that was nearly achieved before fighting commenced (the goals seem to have shifted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war) and Iran signalling its readiness to carpet bomb its own land should US troops set foot and seize Bahraini and Emirati territory in response. Not entertaining the draft peace plan, Iran further demands any truce must include stopping hostilities in Lebanon and an Israeli withdrawal and reparations. Aside from the rising death toll approaching nine thousand individuals, the global economic fallout has nearly reached a tipping point with the worldwide petrodollar market dictating costs even for countries saturated in oil and natural gas, importers enacting energy-saving measures, supply chains and infrastructure points disrupted and not quickly or cheaply restored and clouding prospects for industry and manufacturing as resources dwindle—even the AI boom and bubble that is buoying up the broader stock market is in peril, relying not only on investment for mushrooming data centres, those facilities themselves very energy- and water-intensive.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the unique pop culture of Greenland (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit 

 

twelve years ago: a Spanish monarch for Scotland 

 

fourteen years ago: an Easter bouquet 

 

fifteen years ago: Earth Hour 

 

sixteen years ago: the US affordable care act 

they’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for forty-seven years—and now, i, as the forty-seventh president of the united states of america am killing them (13. 263)

Speaking earlier with Fox News, Trump referenced the 1979 Iranian revolution without mention of the US undermining efforts towards democratic reform and echoed previous ambitions announced a few days prior of “hitting the country very hard” and to “watch what happens to these scumbags.”

During a wide-ranging and cringe-inducing press conference, US secretary of war Pete Hegseth, among other topics—including remarks that the press was not delivering good headlines for this special operation and that David Ellison couldn’t take over CNN soon enough, War Widening should be Iran Shirking, Iran Going Underground—questioned Mojtaba Khamenei’s ability to govern, given his public absence since being appointed the Supreme Leader, saying without evidence that the ayatollah’s son was likely wounded and disfigured in the same air attack that took out the family compound. On this day of al-Quds march ( روز جهانی قدس , Jerusalem Day)—observed annually on the last Friday of Ramadan in support of Palestinian statehood, president Masoud Pezeshkian, took part in seeming defiance in response to Hegseth’s comments that all leadership was in hiding, whilst Israel announced funded for militias in eastern Gaza to oust Hamas through clandestine raids and abductions deep within the beleaguered territory and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres travelled to Beirut in solidarity, calling on Israel and Hezbollah to halt the fighting that has engulfed the country in violence without respect to the sovereignty of the populace.

the power of the people is stronger than the people in power (13. 192)

As we are informed by MetaFilter, for Ash Wednesday, Irish band U2 released a surprise extended play collection of six tracks called Days of Ash—their first recording since 2017 originally planned for later this year but decided that they couldn’t wait as the songs were growing more and more impatient and urgent by the day. The below lead is dedicated to Renée Good and the resistance of Minneapolis and others deal with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, also paying tribute to Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh killed during protests and Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen. Postcards from the present moment, the album reaffirms the group’s political boldness and combines biblical allegory with partisan messaging. “The Tears of Things” and “Yours Eternally” was especially powerful.