Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation. Palestinians returning to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing report systematic harassment, beatings, torture, and being told to leave Gaza with their families by Israeli border agents. As the Rafah crossing partially resumed operations in late January after having been closed by Israel in May 2024, increasing numbers of Palestinians who had left for Egypt during the war have begun returning to the Strip. Additional interviews with returnees upon arrival reveal that travelers received two distinct messages from the authorities with whom they interacted during the journey. The first appeared to come from the Egyptian side, who urged travelers to remain in Gaza and reject all offers of emigration. The message was nearly identical for every person crossing through Rafah: Every Palestinian making the journey must undergo mandatory questioning, in which Israeli officers alternate between aggressive intimidation tactics and feigned concern and helpfulness. Almost all travelers were detained for more than two hours, and sometimes up to the whole day. Israeli officers proposed what they phrased as “generous offers” to the travelers to assist them and their families in leaving Gaza permanently. Others were offered to work for the Israeli army by providing it with information from within Gaza upon their return. Maha Abu Qamar, who returned to Gaza with her two children, ages 11 and 13, described the Egyptian side as routine: bags were searched, passports stamped, and travelers were allowed to pass through toward Gaza without incident. When they entered Gaza to hand in their passports, they were received by armed members of the infamous Israel-backed militia formerly led by the late Yasser Abu Shabab, who was reportedly killed by one of his men in December of last year. They did not abuse us or cross any lines,” Abu Qamar told Mondoweiss. Then they led us into a makeshift room. They walk through sandy dirt paths with fences on either side, describing the Israeli-controlled area as a flattened “desert.” As of April of last year, Israel systematically razed the southern Rafah governorate. Abu Qamar says that after waiting briefly, an Israeli female soldier arrived and grabbed her by the hand, ordering her to face the wall. She sat in the room for ten minutes before being taken out of it, only to be called back in and led through the same process. The entire time, she was handcuffed and blindfolded. Interviews conducted by Mondoweiss show little difference from one interrogation to another. Returnees consistently say that the message conveyed by interrogators was uniform: Gaza will not be rebuilt, it will remain destroyed for 20 or 30 years, and Israel will ultimately take it over and expel all Palestinians from the Strip. One returnee, Sabah al-Rakab, 41, tried to raise her head when she was being questioned, but when she did so, an interrogator immediately hit her head with his hand, ordering her to keep it down. “I told him I was awake, preparing my children for school, when we were surprised by what happened,” she said. He asked where her husband was at the time. She replied that he was at home, resting after his night shift, before leaving for his daytime job. The interrogator then asked about a relative and whether he worked for Hamas, which she denied. He then asked about her nephew, repeating the same question. He was a nurse training at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. She said they were colleagues who worked together. The interrogation lasted more than an hour and a half. Questions were not asked consecutively; instead, a question would be posed, followed by 10 minutes of repeating the same question to elicit more answers. When the interrogation ended, she was handed over to the Red Crescent, taken to a bus, and then transported into Gaza. Abu Qamar said she answered in the affirmative. “If you provide me with a dignified life — a home and a salary for my children for life, and for my husband — I would leave,” she said. He told me Gaza has no life, that it's completely destroyed and there's nothing worth returning to. I want to see my family again. '” The interrogator then interjected to say that her husband was not in Gaza, but Oman. “He said, ‘I will send you to your husband in Oman. I will bring them and help them travel to Oman—on the condition that you never return to Gaza and that you turn back immediately. She added that she had lived in Egypt for more than a year and never felt comfortable or safe, and that she would only feel that way in Gaza. Over the course of an hour and 40 minutes, Sabah al-Rakab was subjected to “intense pressure” by two interrogators she could neither see nor identify. During the interrogation, the two played contrasting roles: one acted kindly, promising help, family reunification, housing, a salary, and a suitable life outside Gaza if she agreed to leave and never return; the other slammed the table, shouted, accused her of lying, and hurled insults she refused to repeat due to their nature. When al-Rakab denied their offer to leave Gaza and never come back, the two interrogators went back to hurling insults. She says she had been wearing a woolen shawl to protect herself from the cold, but that they took it from her. Instead of returning the shawl, they sprayed water on her back. Another traveler, Taghreed Marouf, says that from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m., she was made to sit on a steel chair, hands cuffed and eyes blindfolded. They were asking about her husband, who serves as a policeman in the Hamas-run civilian branch of government in Gaza. “They did not believe that he was a policeman. They kept insisting that he is a member of the Qassam Brigades,” she says. “I kept telling the interrogator that he isn't affiliated with al-Qassam, and that he is only working as a civilian policeman to feed his family and has nothing to do with any military activity.” During the interrogation, they asked Marouf to provide information about another individual, but she denied any knowledge of the details they sought. “The interrogators asked me where I had surgery. When I did, and he saw where they had operated on me, he hit me there with his rifle. He kept kicking me in the same spot. Another traveler, Routana al-Rakab, was offered the chance to reunite with her family and children at the border before they all left together. At that moment, the officer's tone shifted, his “generosity” turning into rage. He began slamming his hands on the table, raising his voice, and threatening to deprive her of her children, saying she would never see them again. Most travelers interviewed by Mondoweiss said they would not accept the Israeli offer to be relocated. Most of them cited their need to be with family. “I will never choose to leave without returning. “I lived in an occupation-free country,” she continues. Al-Rakab says that after over a year spent in Egypt, never felt safe or happy, despite not wanting for anything. In the last weeks, we have witnessed an authoritarian assault on communities in Minnesota and across the nation. The need for truthful, grassroots reporting is urgent at this cataclysmic historical moment. We refuse to let Trump's blatant propaganda machine go unchecked. Untethered to corporate ownership or advertisers, Truthout remains fearless in our reporting and our determination to use journalism as a tool for justice. But we need your help just to fund our basic expenses. Over 80 percent of Truthout's funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors. Truthout's fundraiser ended last night, and we fell just short of our goal. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger one-time gift, Truthout only works with your help. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. As we rise to confront Trump's fascism, Truthout appeals for your support. Any contribution you can make is a tangible act of resistance.

If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. That's what the Trump administration is arguing in a little-noticed federal appeals court case being decided in California, with sweeping implications for both the immigration and child welfare systems. In 2010, Sotero Mendoza-Rivera, an undocumented farmworker who'd immigrated from Mexico 10 years earlier, made a fateful decision. In addition to the pajamas, they purchased motor oil and brake fluid for their car. When they got back to the apartment, their 2-year-old son, who'd been in bed asleep when they'd left, had woken up and somehow gotten out the door. The Obama administration then opened deportation proceedings against Mendoza-Rivera, but did not keep him in detention. Circuit Court of Appeals, where some immigration matters from nearly a decade ago are still being decided. But in August, amid the Trump administration's campaign of mass deportations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Mendoza-Rivera and locked him up in another state. Child welfare officials and experts told ProPublica they are deeply concerned by the case, as well as several others like it that have been making their way through the courts and are now reaching a decisive point. “Imagine what a weapon it would be in ICE's hands if child welfare is added to all the other areas where a conviction for the most minor offense means deportation,” said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, an advocacy group. Indeed, if Attorney General Pam Bondi's team wins this case, thousands of immigrant moms and dads could be exposed to deportation for minor involvement in the juvenile court system, a new realm for President Donald Trump's deportation regime. But as ProPublica has previously reported, millions of parents are accused of child neglect every year in this country, in many instances for reasons stemming from poverty like a lack of child care or food in the fridge, rather than physical or sexual abuse. For one thing, due to their lack of legal status, they sometimes avoid interactions with officials at schools and hospitals, leading to potential allegations against them for neglecting their kids' health or education. They also disproportionately work long and unpredictable hours, sometimes having their older children look after their younger ones, which in the U.S. can be deemed inadequate supervision. Differing cultural norms regarding how much hands-on supervision is necessary also play a role. But data on specific child welfare cases is reported from states to the federal government annually, via the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. (The data contain identifiers for children but not their names, though state agencies have those.) “The million or so reports in NCANDS would be a gold mine for Noem and Miller,” said Andy Barclay, a longtime child welfare statistician, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and top Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “I never had any of those discussions around the data,” Milner told ProPublica. Medicaid data, for instance, is now reportedly being shared with the Department of Homeland Security, and those files can have more identifying information than NCANDS does on families with child welfare cases. DHS has also accessed Office of Refugee Resettlement data on migrant children, which can be used to identify young people's locations and the (sometimes undocumented) adults taking care of them. Indeed, DHS and FBI agents have visited migrant kids at the homes of their caretakers, ostensibly to perform “welfare checks.” The White House declined to answer questions for this article. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesperson in an email accused the Biden administration of letting Mendoza-Rivera's case languish and said that “as part of this Administration's commitment to making America safe again, the Attorney General will continue to defend efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens, especially those convicted of offenses which place children in situations likely to endanger their health or welfare.” It's an off-ramp from deportation that until now has been available to such moms and dads if they've been in the U.S. for 10 or more years, they have “good moral character,” and their deportation would cause extreme hardship to their U.S. citizen children. This would apply to Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez's kids, who are American citizens. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act overhauled immigration enforcement in part by stating that noncitizens, even lawful permanent residents, must be expeditiously deported if they've been convicted of certain offenses, including aggravated felonies, crimes of “moral turpitude,” drug crimes or domestic violence, or a “crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment.” Yet over the three decades since, societal norms around what constitutes bad — and even criminal — parenting have come to include all sorts of nonviolent and even harmless behavior. A range of parenting practices that were considered normal for most of the 20th century are now investigated and prosecuted as child maltreatment in many states; letting your kids play at the park and walk home alone could be “neglect,” especially if you're poor and a person of color. So could leaving them in their car seats briefly with the windows cracked and the car alarm on while you run into a store to buy diapers, or failing to properly secure their bedroom windows at night. Some rulings by other courts have blocked deportations for people with these sorts of alleged parenting lapses, while the federal Board of Immigration Appeals has offered changing guidance on the issue. Although the Obama and Biden administrations took similar positions to the Trump administration on this point, in general they didn't pursue deportations as aggressively. “There was some discretion being exercised,” said David Zimmer, Mendoza-Rivera's appellate attorney. “So it was at least possible, in a given case, that they might have decided not to pursue removal if the parent hadn't done anything meaningfully wrong.” That's no longer the case in a regime that is seeking any reason to expel an immigrant, Zimmer said. But negligence is still a “culpable mental state” deserving of deportation, he said, because it is “incompatible with a proper regard for consequences.” Jed Rakoff, a New York federal district judge serving as a visiting member of the 9th Circuit panel, responded that he's been hearing this argument since “my first year of torts class.” Negligence, he said, is by definition unconscious; otherwise it would be “recklessness,” which is a different, more serious act involving consciously disregarding potential harm. “I'm talking about the term ‘crime': What did Congress mean by that single word?” Rakoff said, referring to the 1996 law's description of a “crime” of “child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment.” Lawmakers clearly meant something more serious than briefly leaving kids unattended, Rakoff continued. Zaidi, the Justice Department lawyer, responded that if many state laws say that something is a crime of child neglect, then it is a crime of child neglect, and Congress said that a crime of child neglect is deportable. The two judges other than Rakoff seemed more open to this argument. Josh Gupta-Kagan, founder and director of the Columbia Law School Family Defense Clinic, said that it appears Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez “were not a safety threat to their children, let alone to anyone else,” even if they showed bad judgment by leaving toddlers alone for a half hour. So it is “fair to question,” he said, how pursuing either of their deportations serves the Trump administration's “stated interest in public safety.” It's also where Mendoza-Rivera spent all those years picking and packaging produce. The need for truthful, grassroots reporting is urgent at this cataclysmic historical moment. We refuse to let Trump's blatant propaganda machine go unchecked. Untethered to corporate ownership or advertisers, Truthout remains fearless in our reporting and our determination to use journalism as a tool for justice. But we need your help just to fund our basic expenses. Truthout's fundraiser ended last night, and we fell just short of our goal. Eli Hager is a reporter covering issues affecting children and teens in the Southwest. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. As we rise to confront Trump's fascism, Truthout appeals for your support. Any contribution you can make is a tangible act of resistance.

It's no secret that President Donald Trump's foreign policy in his second term has been more militaristic. He launched strikes on seven different countries in 2025 and even resurrected the US policy of deposing Latin American leaders with the operation in Venezuela. He has killed more than 150 people on alleged drug boats via extrajudicial strikes — which might well be war crimes. But his new attacks against Iran represent something else entirely. By Trump's own account, these are not limited strikes, but rather a “massive and ongoing” military campaign alongside Israel that he suggests is “war” and warns up-front could cost American lives. While his brief Iran strikes in June were about debilitating the country's nuclear program, he's indicated these carry the broader and bigger goal of regime change. Indeed, among all Trump's military actions, this one is the most contradictory. The president has explicitly pitted himself against regime change in the Middle East and argued for a focus that's close to home. He invoked this position often during the 2016 campaign while running against the war in neighboring Iraq and pitching Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton as an irredeemable and “trigger-happy” hawk. “We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria,” Trump said at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He said toppling regimes without sufficient plans creates “power vacuums that are filled simply by terrorists.” He said he would “break the cycle of regime change” and “abandon the policy of reckless regime change favored by my opponent.” “Our policy of never-ending war, regime change, and nation-building is being replaced by the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests,” Trump said. And his administration even this term has sought to downplay regime change. In a speech in December, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised his department would “not be distracted by democracy-building interventionism, undefined wars, regime change …” And after Trump struck Iran's nuclear facilities in June, Hegseth specifically assured it wasn't about regime change. To be fair, Trump's comments on this front sometimes referred to ill-considered and hasty regime-change wars, rather than opposing regime change altogether. And Trump has said for months that his June strikes had “obliterated” Iran's nuclear program, suggesting there remained little in the way of a direct threat to the United States. Indeed, at times they warned that voting for Kamala Harris would lead to such wars. This wasn't just a casual talking point; Trump and people close to his campaign emphasized it in the closing weeks, pointing to the fact that hawkish former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney was supporting Harris. “You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,'” Trump said less than a week before Election Day. Trump adviser Stephen Miller added on X: “Liz Cheney is Kamala's top advisor. Miller added that “KAMALA WILL SEND YOUR SONS TO WAR.” Now, Trump is explicitly telling Americans that their sons (and daughters) could die in a regime-change war. “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties — that often happens in war,” Trump said early Saturday morning. Vice President JD Vance also wrote an op-ed in 2023 titled, “Trump's Best Foreign Policy? Critics on social media Saturday quickly and widely circulated other Trump comments — ones he posted before all of the above, when Barack Obama was president. And in 2011: “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate.” Trump has now attacked Iran repeatedly, including after failing to negotiate his own deal recently. Today, Trump's own numbers have declined substantially during his first year in office, and Republicans are staring down a difficult midterm election because of that. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi screenshotted and shared Trump's 2012 post on Saturday, while calling the attack “wholly unprovoked, illegal, and illegitimate.”

Most of those killed in the crash on Feb. 28, 2023, were young students aboard a passenger locomotive carrying about 350 people from Athens to Thessaloniki that hit a freight train in the dead of the night. “It was an expression of an inhuman policy that, in the face of profitability and profit, does not even take human life into account, a policy that breeds and covers up crimes.” This year was to see demonstrations in more than 70 towns and cities across Greece. Unions went on strikes, while stores in Athens were urged to close. European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi said the accident could have been avoided if an EU-funded railway signaling project had been completed on time. Several parents have also demanded tests to determine whether their children were killed by the collision, or by a fire that broke out afterwards, with one going on a hunger strike last year. Despite the disaster, Mitsotakis comfortably won re-election just months later, and went on to defeat two votes of no confidence on the issue. However, anger continues to simmer, increasing support for smaller opposition parties, including one headed by a leading lawyer for the accident victims. The mother of another victim, Maria Karystianou, has announced plans for a new party. “We don't just want to remain a protest movement. We really want to see some things change in the country,” Karystianou said. Two former Greek ministers, including the former minister of infrastructure and transport, were also referred to justice by parliament, but face only misdemeanor charges at present. The European prosecutor has separately charged more than 30 people with various offenses, including subsidy fraud. Footage of the seven-month-old Japanese macaque has gone viral online after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week. Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born in July last year at Ichikawa City Zoo. He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The march went ahead without clashes, but arrests were still possible as police investigate suspects behind Nazi salutes, racist slurs and homophobic insults Thousands of people on Saturday marched in southeastern France under heavy security in tribute to a far-right activist whose killing, blamed on the hard left, has put the country on edge. Hong Kong said it had lodged ‘stern protests' with Panama's consulate, and would ‘staunchly support' the rights and interests of Hong Kong companies Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Monday ordered the temporary occupation of two ports run by a unit of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd following the Supreme Court's ruling against the firm's concession, escalating a dispute that has become a proxy battle between the US and China in Latin America.

The US and Israeli military operation against Iran could trigger a sharp rise in global oil prices, and under these circumstances Ukraine's blockade of the Druzhba oil pipeline amounts to a "crime twice over," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. "Iran is one of the world's largest oil producers, accounting for 15% of oil supplies to China. There is also the [Strait of] Hormuz, through which oil from other Arab countries is exported by tanker to the global market. That strait could be closed, and this would cause a significant increase in global energy prices," the head of government said, according to remarks broadcast by the M1 TV channel. "The fact that Hungary has been cut off from oil in such a situation is a crime twice over," Orban said, recalling that Kiev refuses to resume transit of Russian crude via the Druzhba pipeline. The prime minister assured that Hungary would not yield to pressure from Ukraine and would not make concessions. Russian oil has not been supplied to Hungary since January 27. On February 15, Hungary and Slovakia asked Croatia to allow transit of crude via the Adriatic pipeline. The Hungarian government also decided to provide oil from state strategic reserves to MOL for its refineries. Budapest maintains that the Druzhba pipeline is technically ready for operation and that Kiev is blocking it solely for political reasons.

Democratic member of the Homeland Security Committee Andy Kim called Saturday's strikes on Iran by the US administration an 'appaling action' that the American people 'don't want'. Kim, speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, said that the White House needed to 'make the case' to the American people before military action, who he said 'do not want to be at war'. © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app on Google Play. Scan the QR code to download the CNN app from the Apple Store.

In a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the unprovoked armed attack by the United States and Israel on Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Sergey Lavrov condemned the unprovoked armed attack by the United States and Israel on Iran in violation of the principles and norms of international law, while completely ignoring the grave consequences for the regional and global stability and security," the ministry said. Lavrov also noted "Russia's readiness to promote the search for peaceful solutions based on international law, mutual respect and a balance of interests, including in the UN Security Council." He announced plans to convene the UN Security Council urgently. The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran hitting major Iranian cities, including Tehran. The White House justified the attack by Iran's alleged missile and nuclear threat. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps started a large-scale retaliatory operation launching missiles and drones. Air raid sirens blared in the Tel Aviv area. According to Mehr news agency, the US military bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates were also attacked. Countries in the region are closing their airspace, and airlines are suspending flights.

As it continues to wage its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Feb. 28 condemned the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran, claiming that it can help find "peaceful solutions." Early reports indicate that Iran has already launched retaliatory attacks targeting areas hosting U.S. military bases across the Middle East, underscoring the risk of a wider military conflict. Russia claimed that the international community, including the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), should provide "an objective and uncompromising assessment of these irresponsible actions" aimed at "destroying peace." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, and floated Moscow as a potential mediator — positioning Russia, even as it continues its own war on a neighboring country, as a broker of peace. Moscow's comments against the U.S. and Israel come as Russian troops launch indiscriminate attacks in both front-line areas and cities far from the battlefield, such as Kyiv, with barrages of missiles and drones. More than four years into the full-scale war, Russian troops continue to advance across the front, throwing a massive number of troops forward to gradually push Ukrainian forces back. Russia, despite engaging in peace talks with Ukraine and the U.S., has continued to repeatedly attack Ukrainian cities. Russia and Iran have deepened cooperation in recent years, with Tehran supplying drones and other military equipment used by Russian forces in the war against Ukraine. The two countries held joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean on Feb. 19, amid reports that U.S. Armed Forces had deployed warships near Iran and were preparing for possible strikes. Iran has signed a secret 500 million euro ($589 million) deal with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired missiles, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Feb. 22, citing leaked Russian documents and sources familiar with the agreement. "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime," Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social, confirming U.S. invovlement in the strikes. Among the companies sanctioned are Russian DPD service and Freightlink, joint-stock companies registered in Russia, according to a document attached to a decree published on the Office's website, signed by Zelensky on Feb. 27. Russia and Iran have deepened cooperation in recent years, with Tehran supplying drones and other military equipment used by Russian forces in the war against Ukraine. Russian troops launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 105 drones of various types, including about 60 Shahed drones, the Air Force said on Feb. 28. The FP-7 tactical ballistic missile has a range of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) and carries a combat load of 150 kilograms (about 330 pounds), according to the Ukrainian defense firm Fire Point. The United States has lifted sanctions on three senior Malian officials who were previously designated for their ties to Russia's Wagner Group, the Treasury Department announced Feb. 27.

Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as 'El Mencho,' at an undisclosed location in Michoacán state, Mexico, in July, 2021.Stringer/Reuters Bernardo Bravo, president of the Lime Producers Association in the Mexican state of Michoacán was murdered last October after publicly denouncing drug cartels for extorting lime farmers. Mr. Bravo's killing demonstrated that while the JNGC continues to traffic narcotics and produce synthetic drugs, the group also developed an additional business strategy: investing in legal industries that allow it to launder money while generating substantial profits. Heriberto Paredes, who has long studied the JNGC, said the cartel's involvement in avocados, an industry worth more than US$3-billion, extends even to investing in scientific research related to avocado production, funded through state institutions. “In terms of whether [his death] will weaken the structure, I think over time, one of the things that we have learned over two decades of experience in Mexico is that this is not going to eliminate a criminal group or weaken it at a significant level,” said Cecilia Farfán, head of the North American Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Michoacán, El Mencho's home state, was the centre of his operations. He and his ex-wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, both worked for cartels before sealing an alliance between criminal groups that later produced the JNGC. In Mexico's small towns and rural areas, cartel retaliation has residents on edge As the cartel establishes control over an area, residents get pushed out. A report from the Human Rights Program at Universidad Iberoamericana estimated that in the past eight years more than 20,000 people have been displaced in Michoacán alone. the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico's most the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico's most Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,' was mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel El Mencho maintained a highly centralized control over the cartel. The Decibel: Mexico's uneasy balance of power between cartels and government Instead, the JNGC is structured like a franchise, allowing other groups to use its name in exchange for money, Mr. Mora said. Despite having a highly visible leader in El Mencho, his leadership was, to an extent, symbolic. But others operating under the JNGC brand functioned with significant autonomy, depending on local alliances, tensions and power dynamics, Mr. Paredes added. El Mencho's death is unlikely to end extortion or dismantle the operating model of a cartel whose reach has surpassed that of the Sinaloa Cartel. Communities that have long lived under JNGC rule are more concerned about how the organization will reorder itself. Unlike the Sinaloa Cartel, split between its leaders nicknamed El Chapo and El Mayo, there is no clear heir or successor in the JNGC. Mr. Mora said that, as a result, mid-level or prominent figures may compete to exercise the kind of centralized CEO control he held. These internal realignments are likely to generate instability, which can translate into violence. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

In Puerto Vallarta, caught in a war with cartels, Mexicans and tourists – including Canadians – learn to watch their step From behind a bright pink counter, Irelda Suárez dishes out generous helpings of ice cream covered in sprinkles and chocolate sauce to kids in her tiny shop. This is not the Puerto Vallarta of a week ago. Canadians who have been coming here for years and residents alike say they've never seen anything like the kind of destruction that was unleased by drug cartel thugs when their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, was killed in a shootout with Mexican special forces. “It's still very fresh, and we are living with some kind of uncertainty,” said Ms. Suárez, who remembered an incident from years ago involving the cartel in the city after a failed attempt to capture El Mencho. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,' was mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico's most Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,' was mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico's most Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,' was mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels. Cars and trucks that had been set ablaze were quickly taken away, leaving a pile of ash behind. Shops that had been set on fire were covered with white tarps. On the Malecón boardwalk one evening, Barbara and Carl Nunns, who rented a condo for two months and have been vacationing here since 1998, recounted sheltering in a restaurant Sunday. Others who were caught up in the cartel's retribution remain similarly determined to put it behind them. Not long after Katharina Stieffenhofer, her husband and friends arrived at the airport to catch a flight back to Winnipeg on Sunday, they were ushered into a narrow hallway to hide. She slept on her yoga mat and a piece of cardboard on the floor at the airport that night. “It just seems unreal, very surreal right now, and it seems like a long time ago,” Ms. Stieffenhofer, 70, said in an interview at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta on Thursday, before catching a flight back home. She and her husband have been vacationing in Mexico for years, and she's not going to let one violent episode deter her future travel plans. I still love the people, love the country, and if my health holds out, I plan on coming back next year.” For locals, though, who can't fly off if things take a turn for the worse, that uncertainty still sits heavily across the city. Outside a string of torched shops, Maclovio Lorenzo, carried a tray of cheesecakes and banana bread – not that you could smell the sweets: The acrid smell of burnt rubber and plastic still clung to the air. He said he has read about violence in other parts of the country but has never seen anything like what happened in Puerto Vallarta last weekend. After years of dealing with cartels like El Mencho's – sometimes with violence, sometimes not – Mexico is under increasing pressure from the Trump White House to show results. Fear of cartel retaliation sets rural Mexico on edge From Cuba to Puerto Vallarta, Canadian snowbirds find fewer havens Marsha Lederman: Travelling Canadians deserve sympathy, but spare a thought for the real victims Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following. © Copyright 2026 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.

Once again, a bellicose US president has unleashed overwhelming military firepower to force a sovereign nation to its knees. Once again, blatant lies and exaggerated claims are being propagated to justify the attack. Duplicitous American diplomacy became a fig leaf for premeditated aggression. The UN, international law and public opinion were ignored. Now, as in the past, the predictable result of today's renewed, expanded and apparently open-ended US-Israeli aggression against Iran will be instant, spreading chaos. Civilians will be killed, children orphaned, families torn apart. New hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown. And almost nothing of enduring value will be achieved. Today, it's Tehran's turn to reap the whirlwind. – that those past lessons have not been learned. How incredible that an elected 21st-century American president still believes it's effective and permissible, let alone moral, to dictate to the world from the barrel of a gun. By what conceivable right does the US behave in this way? While there are certain differences, the similarities between Donald Trump's siege of Iran and George W Bush's disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq are striking. Both crises fit a wider pattern of ultimately unsuccessful, costly US interventionism dating back to Vietnam – and the 1953 CIA-led Iran coup. In this, he's no different from his predecessors. Though he said today that he wants “freedom” for the Iranian people, and for Iran to be a place that's “safe”, he's no Woodrow Wilson, who justified plunging the US into the first world war in 1917 by saying “the world must be made safe for democracy”. (It transpired Wilson meant democracy in Europe, not in the colonial empires of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.) After attacking Venezuela in January, Trump baldly admitted he just wanted the oil. Yet in other respects, what's happening now feels very familiar. Like Bush, Trump manufactured a crisis, founded on falsehood, and effectively cornered himself. He is hostage to self-imposed expectations, having confounded his own false claim to have “obliterated” Iran's nuclear capabilities last year. Like Bush and his accomplice, Tony Blair, Trump deliberately inflates the threat. His unsubstantiated State of the Union claim that Tehran's ballistic missiles could “soon” reach US territory recalls notoriously false US and UK claims about Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction. Israel's claim to have mounted “pre-emptive” strikes is misleading, too. There is zero clear evidence Iran was about to attack. Speaking on Truth Social, Trump claimed Iran has repeatedly failed to renounce nuclear weapons. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said again last week that Iran “will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon”. There is claim and counter claim, but the fact is that, neither the US, UN inspectors nor Israel's ultra-hostile leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, have provided proof that Iran plans or wants to build nukes. Prior to the attack, Trump refused to define his aims despite Arab and European allies' fears of regional conflagration. He says he is seeking to “obliterate” Iran's nuclear facilities (again), destroy its ballistic missiles, destroy the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (or accept its unconditional surrender in return for “total immunity”), and somehow also destroy Iran's allied proxy forces in the region. Trump is also openly encouraging the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their government, having previously declared that regime change is “the best thing that could happen” and promised “help is on its way”. But he doesn't say how that change can be achieved without deploying ground troops, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupying the country for years, and fighting open-ended insurgencies – and no such US deployment is on offer. When George HW Bush made a similar appeal to Iraqis following the 1991 Gulf war, a mass slaughter of the Shia Muslim population ensued, carried out by Saddam's undefeated regime. “This will be probably your only chance for generations,” Trump said as he called for a national insurrection. It's an irresponsible invitation to anarchy and mayhem. It could trigger the fracturing of the Iranian state into its many ethnic and religious components and a catastrophic civil war drawing in regional states. “Trump poses an exponentially greater danger to Americans and the world – not because he is a historical anomaly but rather because he reflects the worst impulses from the American past,” warned Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama's former deputy national security adviser, in a recent essay. Trump typified the entrenched problem of vainglorious American exceptionalism. “We are now entering another spasm of aggression cast as necessity.” For the second time, Trump has offered negotiations to Iran while obviously planning an attack. It's now evident this week's negotiations in Geneva were a charade. Nor is there any sign Trump and Netanyahu, having set out their maximalist objectives, will break off the attacks soon. He also wants a “win” to impress November's midterm voters – one that revives his poor approval ratings. It's unclear how this dangerous, ill-considered intervention may end. Although “leadership targets” (meaning the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his close associates) are reportedly being attacked, a sudden government collapse remains improbable at this point. Iran cannot be bombed into functioning democracy. Common ground nevertheless exists, on which peaceful coexistence could be built. Concepts of democratic self-determination, political autonomy, individual rights and adherence to moral principles are anathema to control-freak authoritarians such as Trump and Khamenei. Like a Persian emperor, what “King” Donald really wants from Iranians is capitulation, tribute and homage. He demands a similar fearful fealty from citizens at home. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Donald Trump said the US had begun 'major combat operations' in Iran, warning that there may be US casualties. The strikes, which the US president said were aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and annihilating its navy, follow repeated US-Israeli warnings that they would strike Iran again if it pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Trump told members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's armed forces, to lay down their weapons, promising they would be granted immunity. The other option, according to Trump, was 'certain death' US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates US and Israel strikes on Iran: what we know so far Full report

Israel and the United States launched an attack against Iran on Feb. 28, with U.S. President Donald Trump confirming American involvement. "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime," Trump said in a video. The strikes mark a sharp escalation in tensions between Washington, Jerusalem, and Tehran, raising the risk of a broader regional conflict. Early reports indicate that Iran has already launched retaliatory attacks targeting areas hosting U.S. military bases across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia condemned on Feb. 28 the Iranian strikes against the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan, underscoring its "readiness to place all its capabilities at their disposal in support of any measures they may undertake." Russia condemned the strikes, with its Foreign Ministry describing them as "an unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent state" — despite Moscow's own unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, and floated Moscow as a potential mediator — positioning Russia, even as it continues its own war on a neighboring country, as a broker of peace. The escalation also came after U.S.–Iran talks in Geneva on Feb. 26 — part of the Trump administration's effort to secure a deal curbing Tehran's nuclear program — ended without a breakthrough. The U.S. previously conducted air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025. "This will be probably your only chance for generations," he said. The strikes open a new and dangerous phase for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose grip on power has already been weakened by nationwide unrest and a violent crackdown that authorities now acknowledge has killed thousands. "Should Iran decide not to make a Deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford, to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime," Trump said on Feb. 18. Recent days saw U.S. officials make unproven claims about Iran developing a missile capable of striking U.S. territory and having enough material to build a nuclear bomb within days. During his State of the Union address on Feb. 25, Trump said he prefers a diplomatic solution but will "never allow the number one state sponsor of terrorism to have a nuclear weapon." Trump previously encouraged Iranians protesting against the regime to intensify their actions, urging them to seize government buildings and promising U.S. support. "Iranian Patriots, keep protesting — take over your institutions," Trump wrote on Jan. 13. Since those encouragements, at least 6,100 and up to 30,000 people may have been killed during protests on Jan. 8–9 alone, according to NPR and Time, citing unnamed activists and officials from Iran's Health Ministry. 7,007 fatalities have been confirmed alongside 25,846 civilian injuries, and 53,777 arrests, the U.S.-based Iranian Human Rights Activist News Agency reported on Feb. 23. The exact number of casualties remains unclear, as authorities shut down internet and mobile communications nationwide. Protests erupted across Iran in late December after the national currency collapsed and prices surged, further deepening economic hardship for ordinary Iranians. Demonstrations quickly spread nationwide, evolving from economic grievances into something far more threatening to the regime. They have unfolded against a backdrop of mounting external pressure, including Israeli and U.S. strikes last year targeting Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, has threatened retaliation if the United States carries out attacks again. "If the U.S. takes military action towards Iran or occupied territories, the U.S. military and shipping centers will be considered legitimate targets," he said on Jan. 11. It remains unclear whether the protests are still ongoing, as internet and mobile blackouts across Iran prevent verification of their scale or intensity. Zelensky met with Pahlavi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 13, condemning cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. Tehran supplied Russia early in the war with Shahed-type attack drones, which Moscow later adapted into its own Geran-1 and Geran-2 models for relentless strikes on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. The pattern of crumbling alliances threatens to leave Russia even more isolated. Uncertainty surrounds Iran's political future, even as some Western leaders suggest the end may be imminent. Experts, however, remain divided on whether the regime's demise is truly imminent. "In general, it is premature to believe that the Iranian regime is about to fall," said Julian G. Waller, a lecturer in political science at George Washington University. "It may do so, but the… strong, violent, and coercive measures are being employed by the regime on a mass scale to prevent such an outcome." Russia and China, he said, may assist Tehran's crackdown by providing surveillance tools and capabilities to shut down the internet. Those structures "are deeply rooted and institute its own well-honed political program," he told the Kyiv Independent. The fall of Iran's leadership would represent a major geopolitical shock, opening a path for Iranians to pursue political freedom while sending shockwaves across the Middle East. Iran is a strategic ally Russia cannot afford to lose, he said, adding that Moscow would likely do everything possible to prevent such an outcome. The immediate damage, Nizhnikau argued, would be reputational. Russian President Vladimir Putin's international standing would suffer further, reinforcing perceptions of weakness and undermining his efforts to project Russia as a power capable of shaping global events alongside Trump. Elena Davlikanova, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the impact on Ukraine will depend on how power changes hands in Tehran. For now, Iran's future hangs in the balance. A crisis that began with economic desperation but has grown into an existential threat to the regime's four-decade grip on power. Thank you for taking the time to read it. At the Kyiv Independent, we don't have a wealthy owner or political backing. We rely on readers like you to support our work. If you found this article interesting, consider joining our community today.

A military cargo aircraft carrying large quantities of newly printed cash crashed onto a busy highway near Bolivia's administrative capital late Friday, killing at least 15 people and triggering chaos as banknotes were scattered around the wreckage. The aircraft struck multiple vehicles after leaving airport before its debris came to rest in a nearby field, Fire Chief Pavel Tovar told reporters. At least a dozen vehicles were damaged, with burned wreckage and bodies reportedly scattered along the roadway. At least 15 killed, 30 injured after Bolivian Air Force plane crashes in #ElAlto#Boliviapic.twitter.com/HS4s9woRyE Un avión de la Fuerza Aérea de #Bolivia se estrelló en la ciudad de El Alto, impactó varios vehículos y causó heridos, informaron medios locales.Ningún comunicado oficial ha sido emitido hasta el momento pic.twitter.com/AYe7srMnIu Police and emergency crews reportedly used water hoses and riot-control measures to disperse people attempting to approach the crash zone as investigators secured the area. Other images broadcast by television stations showed extensive structural damage to the aircraft's fuselage and crushed civilian vehicles lining the avenue. Operations at El Alto International Airport were temporarily suspended following the incident. Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash, focusing on weather conditions and possible mechanical failure shortly after takeoff. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.