@christinecheng
War Studies, King’s College London. Researcher of war-to-peace transitions, civil wars, corruption, elite bargains, statebuilding, and UK foreign policy. Trustee at Conciliation Resources. Defender of democracy. Padel enthusiast.
1. GOP Senator John Kennedy on why he felt it was important to apologize and acknowledge the truth about the bombing of a school in Minab, Iran, which multiple reports indicate was caused by a U.S. military targeting error.
Patel fires FBI Iran experts just in time for war. Counter-terror generally has already been taken apart.
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
A shocking number of people responding to this video clearly did not watch the video. David is extremely opposed to the Trump administration's terrorization of immigrant communities. He is describing serious problems with the current laws which make accountability difficult.
Ukraine has become one of the smartest, most creative, and most nimble militaries in the world out of necessity.
The fact that they’re helping the US stop drone attacks in the Gulf is a case in point. So much to learn here.
The UK & Europe must keep up its support!
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/w...
The latest news this hour:
ATTACK ON OIL DEPOT LEAVES TEHRAN BURNING: Late Saturday huge flames and columns of smoke spread across Tehran as the capital city was set ablaze after Israel hit Iranian oil infrastructure for the first time since the start of the war.
U.S., ISRAEL COULD RAID IRAN'S NUCLEAR STOCKPILE: Four sources familiar with the matter have said that the U.S. and Israel are eyeing the possibility of using special forces to seize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium farther down the line.
IRAN ATTACKS GULF COUNTRIES, DESPITE PROMISE: Early on Sunday, the Gulf countries reported new missile and drone strikes, which hit fuel storage facilities. Civilian infrastructure was also damaged, including the social security building in Kuwait.
KURDISH FIGHTERS SIGNAL PUSH INTO IRAN: An Iranian Kurdish nationalist group leader told Aljazeera that it’s “highly likely” that Iranian Kurds will push into Iran from the Iraqi side of the Iran-Iraq border.
IRAN IS TAKING OUT REGIONAL AIR DEFENCE: U.S. officials have reported that Iran has been striking air defense radars in the Middle East, namely in Qatar, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. The technology is critical to identifying and intercepting incoming missiles.
ISRAELI STRIKES DISPLACE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IN LEBANON: Israeli strikes on Lebanon have displaced around 454,000, Lebanon’s social affairs minister announced. In recent days, Israel has intensified attacks against Hezbollah and has bombed the suburbs of Beirut.
INCREASINGLY LIKELY U.S. STRUCK IRANIAN SCHOOL: A U.S. official and a source familiar with the investigation told NBC that it’s becoming more likely that U.S. weapons were used in the attack that hit a girl’s elementary school in the town of Minab in Southern Iran.
"At one point he said he overheard a security guard talking about bets made among the staff over which detainee would be next to die by suicide. The guard said he had paid $500 into a pool, with the total pot riding on the outcome."
hell isn't hot enough
apnews.com/article/suic...
This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen.
BREAKING:
The Justice Department just posted online three FBI interviews that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files initially released.
They're related to unsubstantiated sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump.
DOC 1: www.justice.gov/epstein/file...
Special Military Operation, as they say.
Or WAR, by any other name.
BBC Verify has pieced together verified videos, satellite imagery and expert views after a deadly attack near a primary school in Minab, souther Iran, which suggest the area was hit more than once "by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
During the Second Reading of the Representation of the People Bill, MP after MP got up to point out what's missing from it: fixing the voting system.
The problems with FPTP can no longer be ignored - and neither can the growing calls for PR. 📣
Here are just a few highlights:
"It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
— Donald Rumsfeld on the Iraq War (7 Feb 2003).
Again, Farage, Badenoch and their fellow travellers on X are wildly out of touch with the public on Iran.
Even the majority of Reform supporters oppose their position.
I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.
I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.
Congrats on the new book!
Tickets to see Arthur Snell discussing his new book Elemental are available here:
ticketsource.co.uk/rossiterbook...
If you are within reach of Ross on Wye we highly recommend you join us!
Can’t stress this enough: Ukraine has the most experience in drone warfare of any military in the world + the most nimble supply chain capabilities.
When this war ends- and it will end- Ukrainian expertise will be in demand everywhere. It’s in Europe’s own interests to properly support them NOW.
When Mike Bloomberg tried to ban Big Gulp sodas for the same reason - heart-stopping amounts of sugar - the right wing lost their damn minds. Same people will no doubt nod sagely at this.
“When asked who he would like to rule Iran, Mr. Trump responded bluntly: ‘Most of the people we had in mind are dead.’ Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
/3
Trump: “It would probably be the worst, you go through this, and then in 5 years you realize you put somebody in who’s no better.”
NYT reports that Trump was able give his “worst case” scenario but not able to give a best case scenario.
/2
Trump, in his own words, on Iran war.
Q. What is Trump’s worst-case scenario for Iran?
A.: “I guess the worst case would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person…Right, that could happen? We don’t want that to happen….”
/1
The UK, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden & Denmark “would also share in the development of ‘auxiliary’ capacities under the new nuclear doctrine: space-based alarm systems; air defence to shoot down incoming drones and missiles; and long-range missiles.”
bbc.com/news/article...
EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.
One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…
