In recent weeks, we have referenced Gavin Newsom, the California Governor and presidential hopeful, who had seemingly modified his public position on Israel amid the war on Iran.

During an interview, Newsom said Israel was an apartheid state and floated the idea of conditioning military aid to the country. However, in a new interview with Politico, Newsom said he regrets using the word "apartheid" and insists he was only referring to a possible future where Israel emerges as an apartheid state.

Newsom told the website that he was simply referring to a New York Times Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the paper, where he said that Benjamin Netanyahu's success in possible upcoming Israeli elections would "be a major propellant to his efforts to annex the West Bank, cripple the Israeli Supreme Court and make Israel an apartheid state."

Newsom's latest about-face comes amid even more polling showing that support for Israel has all but entirely cratered among Americans.

An NBC News poll shows that just 32% of registered voters view Israel in a positive way. 13% of Democrats view the country positively, and nearly 60% of them view it negatively. A recent Gallup poll also showed that, for the first time in 25 years, a majority of Americans sympathize with Palestinians more than Israelis.

After leaving the 2026 Austrian Economics Research Conference — having presented a forthcoming paper on the concept of interventionist non-intervention with Connor O'Keeffe — I experienced some lesser degree of it at the Atlanta airport (with Jeffrey Degner who I coincidentally joined in line). Due to a partial government shutdown affecting the TSA, in which TSA workers are not being paid, many workers are no longer showing up, making wait times to get through security hours long. (In our case, we got through the line in 5+ hours — from about 7:50 a.m. to 1:12 p.m.). While there are plenty of pictures and videos of this phenomenon, especially from Atlanta, they cannot do the situation justice.

Danish soldiers flown to Greenland in January were prepared to blow up key airport runways over fears that US President Donald Trump could invade the Arctic island, Denmark's public broadcaster DR says.

Citing sources in the Danish government and military, and also among European allies, DR says blood supplies were also brought in to treat the wounded in the event of fighting.

The Financial Times newspaper said two European officials later confirmed the report. The Danish defence ministry told the BBC it "has no comment".

A senior Danish military official, speaking anonymously, told the BBC "only a limited number of people would have been aware of the operation for security reasons".

Both the US and Denmark are Nato members, and the issue of Greenland - a semi-autonomous part of Denmark - has deeply divided Washington and its European allies.

Republican lawmakers are belatedly starting to wake up to the potential for the United States to once again get bogged down in yet another Middle East quagmire, but this time with a country double the size of Iraq (both in geography and population).

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace has led the charge this week, blasting any potential Trump admin move to put American boots on the ground, warning she will vehemently oppose new war funding if American troops are deployed in Iran. "I'll be voting against the funding if we're putting troops on the ground," Mace told a reporter outside the Capitol earlier in the week. "I'm not going to fund that."

Israel goes after Iranian industrial targets

Vital Iranian Steel Plants, Industry Attacked

Israeli media citing military officials on Friday: "The IDF attacked Iran's two largest steel plants, in Isfahan and Ahvaz. Both plants are vital to Iran's military industry and are partially owned by the Revolutionary Guards. The strikes on the plants are expected to cause billions in damage to the Iranian economy."

This could mark a new, expanded phase of the war as Israel goes after key defense industrial targets, which also serve central civilian infrastructure development. The US has still held off on pursuing more attacks on energy sites, but it seems Israel is maintaining a more gloves off approach - opting for total societal destruction, and going after industry. This seems to also be part of efforts to ensure ballistic missile production is degraded.

Reuters: US is certain about having destroyed third of Iran's missiles, say sources. Another third is believed to be damaged, destroyed or buried.

"One of the sources said the intelligence was similar for Iran's drone capability, saying there was some degree of certainty about a third having been destroyed," Reuters writes, noting that all of this contradicts White House claims of Iran having "very few rockets left".

The infernal escalation machine is reaching Desperation Row.

The Secretary of Forever Wars employed by the We-Are-So-Tired-of-Winning Baboon of Barbaria is mulling several "ground invasion" scenarios parallel to a devastating bombing campaign to allegedly unleash the "final blow" on Iran.

Kharg island is a diversion: too far away from the action. Seizing ships on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz is unfeasible: that will inevitably be met by a barrage of anti-ship missiles.

Two scenarios remain: seizing Abu Musa and the big and small Tunb islands, north of the UAE (and claimed by the UAE); or the strategic small island of Larak (east of the larger Qeshm), part of the nautical corridor where the IRGC Navy controls the passage of tankers that paid the toll booth in the Strait of Hormuz.

The only way to get to Larak is from Qeshm.

Qeshm is bigger than Okinawa. During WWII it took 3 months, 184,000 troops, and at least 12,500 K.I.A. to take Okinawa. Queshm is crammed with countless Iranian anti-ship missiles and drones dug into cliffs and caves for hundreds of kilometers back.

Now to the three Iranian islands also claimed by the UAE.

The UAE rejects even the possibility of a ceasefire with Iran. Their ambassador to the U.S., Yousef al Otaiba, wrote a warmongering op-ed calling for a "conclusive outcome" of the war, as in dismantling the "Iranian threat". He later confirmed that Abu Dhabi wants to lead a "coalition of the willing" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz (which is not closed; only for hostile nations to Iran).

What really matters is the "follow the money" angle: Yousef al Otaiba reaffirmed the $1.4 trillion UAE investment commitment in the Empire of Chaos - which covers multiple deals in energy, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and manufacturing.

The infernal escalation machine is in full effect. Tehran carefully studied every instance of the UAE's direct involvement not only in the outbreak of the war but also the current escalation. Abu Dhabi not only hosts U.S. military bases; but also allowed the U.S. to use some of its own air bases to attack Iran, and helped hostile entities to develop their target database using the Emirates AI infrastructure.

That's more than predictable, because Abu Dhabi is a de facto, key Zionist axis ally in the Persian Gulf.

At its core, the Gulf states' interest in the current war is not victory for any side, but regime survival (which is far from guaranteed) and strategic autonomy. The conflict has exposed a hard reality: reliance on external security guarantees, particularly from the United States, no longer ensures even the illusion of protection. Instead, it risks turning Gulf territory into a frontline without consent.

As a result, GCC states are recalibrating seeking to avoid further kinetic retaliation from Iran made difficult by Israel bombing of Iran's steel plants today, protect economic lifelines essential for their fragile hold on power, and preserve room to manoeuvre between competing powers. This means accelerating self-reliance while quietly hedging through deeper ties with China.

Gulf states are broadly aligned in refusing to attack Iran, knowing a wider war would mean catastrophe and that US bases have increasingly invited risk to the current fragile regimes rather than security.

Gulf leaders have little appetite for joining what they see as Israel's war. They remain deeply sceptical that the US can or will restrain Israel from further escalation.

The primary security objective is clear: keep the war out. U.S. bases, once viewed as deterrents, are now increasingly seen as radioactive liabilities that invite retaliation.

Even traditionally hawkish states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are signalling caution in spite of bellicose rhetoric, prioritising de-escalation over alignment.

Eyal Zamir reportedly told the cabinet he was "raising ten red flags" due to acute personnel shortages.

The Israel Defense Forces is "on the verge of collapse" due to acute personnel shortages, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has warned, according to local media. Opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of stalling on drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Military service is mandatory for most Israeli citizens, both men and women. However, members of the Haredi community have historically been exempt from conscription. While the Israeli Supreme Court revoked the exemption in June 2024, Netanyahu's cabinet has so far delayed drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Parties within the ruling coalition representing the Haredi community have repeatedly threatened to withdraw support for Netanyahu should he introduce the measure.

Addressing the cabinet on Wednesday, Lieutenant General Zamir said he was "raising ten red flags for you before the IDF collapses," as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

In addition to its ongoing campaign against Iran, the Israeli military is continuing its years-long operation against Hamas in Gaza. The IDF also launched an incursion into southern Lebanon in early March, targeting Hezbollah militants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday delivered some rare, wide-ranging and frank commentary on the US-Israeli war against Iran.

He compared the war and the Hormuz Strait closure, and subsequent impact on global energy, to the massive widescale impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But he also stated that outcomes to the war are at this point too hard to predict.

One year after Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu is on a winning streak." So reads the title of a recent Axios article describing the Israeli prime minister riding on an unbeatable wave of triumphs. These stunning military "successes," its author Barak Ravid notes, include the bombing of Yemen, the assassinations of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the pager attack against Lebanon.

The same author recently went viral for an article that claimed that Israeli attacks against Hezbollah are "not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach 'de-escalation through escalation.'" Users on social media mocked Ravid for this bizarre, Orwellian reasoning. But what almost everybody missed is that Barak Ravid is an Israeli spy - or at least he was until recently. Ravid is a former analyst with Israeli spying agency Unit 8200, and as recently as last year, was still a reservist with the Israeli Defense Forces group.

Unit 8200 is Israel's largest and perhaps most controversial spying organization. It has been responsible for many high-profile espionage and terror operations, including the recent pager attack that injured thousands of Lebanese civilians. As this investigation will reveal, Ravid is far from the only Israeli ex-spook working at top U.S. media outlets, working hard to manufacture Western support for his country's actions.