May 8th, 2026 | Weekly Issue
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US Bombs Iran's Qeshm Port and Bandar Abbas
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Iran's military has said that the US violated the ceasefire by attacking ships and launching airstrikes on Iranian ports
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The US bombed Iranian ports on Thursday, an attack that will likely plunge the region back into full-scale war.
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin first reported that the US was behind strikes on a port in Iran's Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, and a naval target in Minab, where the US bombed an elementary school on February 28, an attack that killed 120 children.
Iran's military then released a statement saying that the US violated the ceasefire by attacking two commercial ships and bombing Iranian ports.
"The aggressive, terrorist, and bandit American army violated the ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil tanker ship moving from Iranian coastal waters in the Jask region towards the Strait of Hormuz, as well as another ship entering the Strait of Hormuz, opposite the port of Fujairah in the UAE," said a spokesman for the Iranian military's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
"At the same time, they carried out aerial attacks on civilian areas in cooperation with some regional countries on the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island," the statement added.
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Report: Trump Paused 'Project Freedom' Due To Backlash From Gulf Arab Allies
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According to Israeli media, Saudi Arabia is restricting US access to bases until the US 'provides proper protection' from Iranian attacks
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NBC News reported on Wednesday that President Trump quickly ended the US military operation to "guide" commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz due to backlash from the US's Gulf Arab allies.
The report said that the abrupt reversal came after Saudi Arabia was caught off guard by Trump's announcement of what he dubbed "Project Freedom," and Riyadh informed the US that it would not allow the US military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort.
Israel's i24 reported on Thursday, citing Gulf sources, that Saudi Arabia would restrict US military access until the US "provides proper protection" from Iranian attacks. During the short-lived Project Freedom, the UAE came under missile and drone attacks, and the US downplayed the attacks and didn't respond.
The Wall Street Journal reported later on Thursday that both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait restricted US access due to the US downplaying the attacks on the UAE, but that the Gulf countries have since reversed the restrictions and the US may restart Project Freedom.
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Hegseth Calls Inflating the Pentagon Budget by 50% to $1.5 Trillion a 'Fiscally Responsible Investment'
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a post on X on Thursday that inflating the Pentagon budget by nearly 50% to $1.5 trillion for 2027 was a "fiscally responsible investment" as the Trump administration attempts to justify its record-shattering military budget request.
"Thanks to President Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget, this War Department has moved from bureaucracy to business," Hegseth wrote. "This is a FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT in our Arsenal of Freedom-ensuring our military remains the most lethal fighting force in the world."
The post included an animated video featuring Hegseth, where he claimed that the Trump administration was "putting the American taxpayer first" and taking action against bureaucracy.
Hegseth said that the administration insisted that when weapons makers expand their factories to sell more equipment to the US military, they pay the expenses, rather than have them funded by US taxpayers. The video didn't explain why something that would seemingly reduce US military spending would necessitate increasing the budget by $500 billion.
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US Continues To Blow Up Small Boats
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Militarism Normalized in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific
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A US military strike on May 4 killed two mariners in an alleged "narco boat" campaign which now has a cumulative death toll of at least 188. The pace of extrajudicial executions is ramping up, according to The Guardian. But why?
The serial murders could be, as the Trump administration claims, a genuine counter-narcotics operation. Or Mr. Trump and company may be conducting a demonstration exercise of executive power. Alternatively, the "kinetic strikes" may reflect more domestic concerns or perhaps foreign policy issues. Another possibility is that the administration is intentionally cultivating an image of unpredictability associated with "madman theory" of deterrence. We interrogate those explanations.
Counter-narcotics rationale
When small boats were first being blown out of the water off the coast of Venezuela last September, stopping the epidemic of fentanyl deaths was presented as a national-security emergency.
This claim was despite failure of the US Drug Enforcement Administration's reports from 2017 through 2025 to list Venezuela as a fentanyl producer or trafficker. This was backed by comprehensive studies from the United Nations. Almost all the fentanyl enters the US from land routes according to the US State Department.
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Israel Confirms 500 Strikes Against Lebanon Since 'Ceasefire' Went Into Effect
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Displacement and destruction continues as ceasefire fails to cease firing
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Overnight, the Lebanese town of Habboush was targeted in Israeli airstrikes, causing significant damage. In the morning, Israeli artillery was actively shelling the town, causing even more destruction in residential and commercial parts of town.
Habboush is just one of several towns reporting roughly the same situation, active Israeli attacks, in spite of what is notionally an active ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. In practice, very little fire seems to actually be ceased.
The Israeli Army has reported that it has hit an estimated 500 areas in Lebanon since April 17, when the ceasefire initially went into effect. Though the ceasefire has been extended before and on paper goes through much of May, the fighting and the firing seems to be a constant in southern Lebanon.
The problems are myriad, but the most obvious are the widespread displacement of Lebanese civilians and the massive amount of destruction being caused to civilian property and religious sites. The Council of Melkite Greek Catholic Bishops in Lebanon yesterday issued a statement calling on the government and UN to do something about protecting such buildings.
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Two Weeks to an Iranian Nuke - The Ultimate False Flag Lie
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The now endlessly repeated notion that Iran's stockpile of 60% enriched uranium (HEU) is tantamount to having a nuclear weapon within weeks is downright malefic. Indeed, this gross deception is so thoroughly fallacious and dangerously misleading that it needs be debunked lock, stock and barrel.
So we begin with the War Party's hoary claim that the roughly 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium possessed by Iran as of May 2025, according to the IAEA, could have been further processed to weapons-grade levels (90 percent or higher) in a matter of a few days or weeks using existing centrifuge cascades.
And, then, poof, they would supposedly have had ten nukes.
Actually, they would not have had any nuclear bombs at all. Not even remotely.
That's because producing fissile material is only the first - and in many respects the easiest--step on the long road to a reliable, deliverable nuclear weapon. If building the latter is akin to a grueling 20-mile journey across rugged terrain, acquiring 60 percent HEU gets you perhaps to the "mile-one" marker.
Metaphorically speaking, you would have cleared the initial foothills of uranium isotope separation. But the remaining 19 miles are chock-a-bloc with uncharted engineering valleys, sheer technical manufacturing cliffs and a final summit that no nation has ever scaled without extensive trial, error, and empirical proof that the wherewithal for successful weaponization of a nuclear reaction has been obtained.
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Dave DeCamp
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Dave breaks down the news 5 days a week.
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Experts address world conflicts and US foreign policy.
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akeaton@antiwar.com
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