The administration of US President Donald Trump has requested $152 million from Congress to restore the Alcatraz prison. Democrats have slammed the plans as “lunacy” and vowed to block their implementation.

Originally a fortress sitting on the eponymous island in the San Francisco Bay, the correctional facility housed inmates from 1934 until 1963, when it was closed due to high operating costs. Among those held at Alcatraz were such notorious ​criminals as ⁠mobster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun”Kelly. The prison was considered one of the country’s most secure facilities, with no ⁠successful escapes officially recorded.

Presently, Alcatraz is a major tourist attraction in the region, run by the National Park Service.

From 250 to 700 dollars per article: How Russia influenced West African media content
A leak of confidential documents from a network of Russian agents operating on the African continent reveals how Russia managed to place hundreds of articles in 35 different West African French-language media outlets – sometimes without their knowledge. The FRANCE 24 Observers team worked with an international media consortium coordinated by Forbidden Stories to analyse these leaked documents, which show just how susceptible these media outlets are to foreign interference.

The list of articles included in these confidential documents is nearly 80 pages long. The spreadsheets, written in Russian, catalogue dozens of media outlets based across Africa.

As the United States is clearly lying about the number of the US military casualties in the current war with Iran, the veracity of other claims made by the US is dubious, former US Department of Defense officer David T. Pyne tells Sputnik.

Properly assessing Iran’s losses is also difficult due to the fact that it is unclear whether US claims of destroyed Iranian missile launchers take into account the decoys and dummy targets, he points out.

US Boasts of Destroyed Iranian Launchers Lack Credibility – Ex-DoD Official

“I believe that US estimates of the total number of Iranian ballistic missiles are likely much lower than is actually the case as I believe Iran may have tens of thousands of missiles in its stockpile,” Pyne adds.

Two more US military aircraft were downed in the Middle East on Friday, in addition to an F-15E Strike Eagle that crashed earlier. 

An A-10 Warthog reportedly went down contemporaneously with the crash of the F-15, according to the New York Times.

Officials have not stated the cause of the crash or the country where it occurred, but it reportedly occurred near the Strait of Hormuz.

The pilot was safely rescued.

As the criminal Zionist-American war on Iran enters its second month, the conflict has proven so ruinous for the aggressors that dire alarm is being widely sounded. Embarrassing failure to subdue the Islamic Republic from the air has raised the prospect of a US ground operation of some kind, widely perceived as a suicide mission. Washington has also burned through over 850 Tomahawk missiles and 1,000 air-defense interceptors, at a rate the Pentagon finds “alarming”. In the process, Israel is rapidly approaching total disarmament.

As violence spreads from the Caribbean to Western Asia, the United States and Israel’s war of aggression against Iran is paralysing the global economy. 

Its consequences were predictable: it was known that if the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the Strait of Hormuz – through which a quarter of global seaborne oil trade passes – would become a chokepoint. 

Vijay Prashad: US Aggression Across the World

In its latest statement, No Cold War takes stock of the long history of U.S. aggression across the world and the need to reject a future of wars without end.

One of Germany’s biggest and most iconic car manufacturers, Volkswagen (VW) and one of Israel’s most well-known arms manufacturers, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, part of the global Rafael Group, are planning to collaborate. If the project is realized, VW will convert one of its German factories in the historic city of Osnabrueck from making automobiles to producing components of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

This company used to make weapons for the Nazis. Now it will do the same for Israel

This is a grave case of political punishment without due process. I speak with journalist Hüseyin Doğru, who says EU sanctions turned him into a non-person inside Germany. The discussion covers the lack of trial or hearing, the struggle to challenge sanctions in court, frozen bank access, the seizure of his wife’s accounts, and the danger this creates for his children. They also discuss the silence of major media and unions, the wider use of sanctions and debanking against dissent, and the need for public protest and political pressure.

Links:
Hüseyin Doğru on X: https://x.com/hussedogru

Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com
(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)
Merch: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...
Donation: https://neutralitystudies.com/donate

The war in Iran is in its second month. A war started by a criminal defendant, a convicted felon, and a blackmail network that explains everything Western leaders won’t say. Andrew Brown with the second in a series.

There are two men mainly responsible for the Iran war. And then there are those – such as our Prime Minister – who wilfully acquiesce to their murderous whims.

It’s the men. Not their press releases. Not their carefully managed public personas. Not the language their communications teams have stress tested for maximum palatability.

The genocide in Gaza is the beginning. Welcome to the new world order. The age of technologically-advanced barbarism. There are no rules for the strong, only for the weak. Oppose the strong, refuse to bow to its capricious demands and you are showered with missiles and bombs. We watch this madness daily with the war on Iran, the saturation bombing of southern Lebanon and the suffering in Gaza.

'Iran and Gaza are Only the Beginning' (Chris Hedges at Princeton)

• Pam Bondi has been removed as US attorney general in the Trump administration

• Trump posted on Truth Social that Bondi "will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector"

• Todd Blanche will be acting attorney general, Trump confirmed

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired two more Army Generals on Thursday after he ousted Army Chief of Staff General Randy George.

General George served in the role under Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“General Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

“The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” Parnell said.

Hegseth has not released his own statement on the latest shakeup at the Pentagon. 

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was pictured rejoicing in the passing of a controversial bill that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

The far-right minister, who has largely championed the legislation, was seen celebrating its approval by drinking and serving alcohol to members of the Israeli parliament. 

London: US President Donald Trump has sparked a furore by mocking French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte during a speech about the war with Iran, adding a new personal barb to his deepening dispute with European allies.

Trump joked that Brigitte Macron treated her husband “extremely badly” and the French leader was still recovering from a “right to the jaw” from his wife, drawing laughs from the audience at a White House lunch.

The remarks infuriated French politicians including Macron’s biggest rivals, with left-wing leader Manuel Bompard declaring it was “absolutely unacceptable” for Trump to speak of Brigitte Macron in this way.