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Aug 2, 2026 - World

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pleaded with President Donald Trump Saturday to hold off on authorizing an “unprecedented” attack on Iran that is reportedly being actively considered by U.S. and Israeli officials, Axios reported.The Trump administration and Israeli officials are considering launching what would be “one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date” targeting Iranian energy infrastructure, multiple inside sources told CBS News, and as a response to the Iranian attacks on a U.S. military base in Jordan earlier this week.However, “such an attack could lead to an unprecedented escalation in the five-month war,” Axios’ Barak Ravid wrote, and could put U.S. allies in the Middle East at great risk of Iranian retaliatory strikes.“The Saudis expressed concern and asked for clarity about the plan of action,” a U.S. official told Axios. A second source, described by Axios as a person “with knowledge of the call” said that bin Salman “urged Trump to de-escalate and refrain from launching the strikes,” Ravid wrote.Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns about the conflict's trajectory, insisting in recent public remarks that the war is "going extremely well" and that Iran's military capabilities have been severely degraded, while also floating the possibility of a negotiated settlement. Meanwhile, Iranian officials have signaled no willingness to back down, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi telling NBC News that Iran is ready for a ground invasion by American troops and would refuse any negotiations with Washington.

Aug 1, 2026 - World

Foreign policy expert Trita Parsi issued a bleak warning Saturday over what he called a major “strategic mistake” of the Trump administration that could very well “bring the [Iran] war to the U.S.,” and soon.Earlier on Saturday, CBS News reported that the United States and Israel were actively planning “one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date” targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure, citing multiple inside sources. Also on Saturday, federal authorities were investigating whether Iran was responsible for a string of cyber attacks on U.S. water systems across several states.The cyber attacks, per The New York Times, “increasingly appeared to be the work of Iran.” As such, Parsi, a foreign policy analyst and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, feared that the Trump administration’s plans and the cyber attacks could be connected.“If Iran is behind these cyberattacks on US water systems, the message is clear,” Parsi wrote in a social media post Saturday on Substack.“It's a warning: If the US strikes critical infrastructure in Iran, including desalination plants and power grids, Iran will respond in kind through cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the US. Essentially, Iran will bring the war to the US itself using cyber.”President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to destroy Iranian power plants and other critical infrastructure, threats that, if carried out, would likely be considered war crimes. Should the United States and Israel carry out its supposed plan to launch a massive attack on Iranian energy infrastructure, Parsi warned that the consequences could be astronomical for Americans.“The strategic mistake of starting – and restarting – this war is only becoming more enormous,” Parsi wrote.If Iran is behind these cyberattacks on US water systems, the message is clear.It's a warning: If the US strikes critical infrastructure in Iran, including desalination plants and power grids, Iran will respond in kind through cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the US.Essentially, Iran will bring the war to the US itself using cyber.The strategic mistake of starting - and restarting - this war is only becoming more enormous. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/us/politics/iran-cyberattack-water-systems.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20260801&instance_id=179699&nl=breaking-news®i_id=75080685&segment_id=224053&user_id=a45a9b52edcc21d2f15a650c5a769bd9 - Trita ParsiRead on Substack

Aug 1, 2026 - World

Concern is mounting among high-ranking Republicans that the next generation of conservatives consists primarily of "rabid" "idiot" Nazis, according to a new report. GOP veterans have begun to fret that the pipeline feeding young conservative "talent" into government job has collapsed under the pressure of a Trumpist ideology that prefers sycophancy to smarts, Politico reported Saturday. “We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots," a senior GOP congressional staffer told Politico. "The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence." Politco argues the concerns amount to more than middle-aged griping about "kids these days." As organizations such as the Heritage Foundation have adapted their conservative beliefs to fit the MAGA mold, they've attracted a group of young people with serious problems, sources told Politico. Those sources include four senior Republican congressional staffers, think tank scholars, Heritage expats, academics and up-and-coming young Republicans."Critics fear a decline of merit and skill," Politico reported, "along with a tolerance for darker ideologies that could cripple the party’s ability to govern in the long run."The biggest problem for these conservatives are "groypers" — followers of the white nationalist holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and fellow anti-establishment right-wingers, according to the report. "Prominent conservative commentators have alleged that groyperism is spreading among younger members of the GOP, including in government — a view seemingly backed by examples like the young Trump administration lawyer who admitted to a 'Nazi streak' in text messages revealed by POLITICO," the report stated. "Others point to social-media posts from official government accounts that echo the language or memes of the online far right."Meanwhile young Republicans argue their elders are using groyperism complaints to dismiss their frustrations with the party's relationship with Israel. Marty Bertao, a Berkeley senior and president of the College Republicans of America, told Politico, "there is not this mass groyper issue." Rachel Bovard, the VP of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, added, "They’re counting as ‘groyper’ anyone who’s remotely anti-Israel.”E.J. Fagan, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, fears the problem isn't specifically groypers but social media — and pointed to E.J. Antoni, a Heritage economist, as proof.President Donald Trump nominated Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but later rescinded after reports surfaced that Antoni ran a deleted X account that hurled sexual insults at former Vice President Kamala Harris.Another source argued the problem is, as Politico described it, "a generation hooked on the conspiratorial musings of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens." “Five, eight years from now," the source said, "if we’re reliant on people with this view of the world, we’re in serious trouble.”

Aug 1, 2026 - World

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is being pressured to backtrack after an airstrike gone wrong, according to The Atlantic.The Pentagon is moving towards restoring as many as half of the roles that Hegseth cut during a "pugnacious" purge at the Department of Defense, according to reporting by The Atlantic. Hegseth's downsizing included the firing or reassignment of staff dedicated to avoiding civilian casualties in war, the reporting noted."The potential reversal, which hasn't previously been reported, now awaits Hegseth's signature," according to The Atlantic. The Pentagon is considering bringing back staff as it deals with the fallout of an airstrike that killed almost 170 people, most of them children, at a school in southern Iran, The Atlantic reported.The Atlantic also noted that Hegseth said early in the conflict that the U.S. would fight with "no stupid rules of engagement" and "no politically correct wars."An anonymous Pentagon official confirmed to The Atlantic that the DoD is "currently undergoing a strategic reassessment to inform its future reorganization."A Pentagon inspector general report this spring determined that the DoD's cuts to civilian-harm protections may have violated laws designed to protect noncombatants, The Atlantic reported. Leaders of the Pentagon's combatant commands also support the restoration of personnel who can safeguard against civilian casualties, a U.S. official told The Atlantic."Over the last year, we have seen a total disconnect between the willingness to wage wars all over the world, at an unprecedented pace and scale, while at the same time all but abandoning their leading role in setting up the systems and approaches needed to better protect civilians," Emily Tripp, the head of Airwars, an independent UK-based watchdog, told The Atlantic.

Jul 31, 2026 - World

A former Republican strategist on Friday argued that a major development in President Donald Trump's Iran war has gone under the radar and will change the outcome of elections in November.In an interview on his podcast, The Warning, Steve Schmidt discussed the disastrous fallout over the war in a conversation with Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. The two talked about how Americans will rebuke Trump and his administration in the midterms this fall and how the latest incident has changed the shape of the conflict."There is a momentous event that occurred this week that I think is underreported and commented on, which is that a Ukrainian drone struck an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, combining these two theaters of war," Schmidt said. "What should the American people know about this moment in time and the danger we're facing?""The American people should know that Donald Trump and his foreign policy are absolute failures," Beshear said. "He got us into a war of choice that has only made the country that we went to war with more powerful. Iran is more powerful today based on their control of the Strait of Hormuz than they were before this war started."Beshear criticized Trump for starting a war without a realistic goal that could be achieved. And in the process, putting Americans at risk as the national deficit and debt rise."This is not just bungling international. It is really damaging at home," Beshear added. "And he doesn't have a way out of it. And part of it is look at who he sent to negotiate. We have amazing people in the Foreign Service that spend decades understanding every nuance of every word that an Iranian negotiator would say at the table to put us in the best position to get a peace deal that prevents a nuclear weapon. But we don't send them." He called Trump out for sending developer and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, along with JD Vance, "a vice president who is way out of his league just being vice president, much less trying to negotiate and failing to negotiate any lasting peace.""It is bananas that foreign policy would be conducted this way and that the Senate and the House haven't stopped it and are allowing a president to just go to war and make decisions on his gut," Beshear added. "When we know our munitions are low, when we know our sailors have been on some of the longest deployments ever. It is the worst that you could ever potentially run a foreign conflict."