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The number of US military personnel seeking advice about becoming conscientious objectors has increased by 1,000% since the start of the Iran war, according to a US nonprofit.
The Centre on Conscience and War (CCW) advocates for the rights of soldiers refusing to serve on moral grounds, and operates a “GI rights” helpline to help servicepeople with a variety of issues, including conscientious objection.
“I haven’t heard from a single caller who said, ‘I’m scared of dying in a war I don’t believe in,’” Mike Prysner, CCW’s director, told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. “All of them are scared of killing people in a war they don’t believe in.”
Prysner said most people calling for advice referenced the US bombing of a girls’ school in Minab on 28 February, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children.
The illegal US-Israeli war on Iran has killed 3,540 people, including 1,616 civilians and at least 244 were children, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
US secretary of war Pete Hegseth said on 2 March that there would be “no stupid rules of engagement” during attacks against Iran, raising fears that this signalled an intention to commit war crimes.
US-Israeli attacks have destroyed or damaged over 113,000 civilian structures, including 90,000 homes, 760 schools or other educational centres and over 300 healthcare facilities, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
A US-Israeli strike on Monday caused significant damage at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, one of the country’s leading scientific universities. Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, accused the US of using a bunker-buster bomb – specialised weapons that can destroy reinforced structures by burrowing underground – for the attack, which he said was “a symbol of Trump’s madness and ignorance”.
“He fails to understand that Iran’s knowledge is not embedded in concrete to be destroyed by bombs,” Aref wrote on X. “No barbarity in history has ever been able to strip science from the Iranian people.”
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Easter Box Office: ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Soars to Gigantic $190M U.S. Opening, $372M Globally
(www.hollywoodreporter.com)
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Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press on Mexico and Mexican politics.
USMCA Panel Finds Labor Violations at Orla Mining, Mexico Business News. Camino Rojo, a gold and silver mine in Zacatecas operated by Canada-based Orla Mining, committed a severe denial of labor rights by interfering in union activities, using coercion and intimidation to force workers away from Los Mineros and toward a company-preferred union.
“El litio mexicano salió de la lógica del saqueo: ahora es patrimonio del pueblo”: Violeta Núñez en La Base América Latina Diario Red. La decisión de convertir al litio en un recurso estratégico coloca a México en el centro de una disputa geopolítica atravesada por intereses mineros, el T-MEC y la transición energética.
William Savinar, Mexico City sex workers say World Cup construction hurting their income Courthouse News Service. Bike path and pedestrian walkway construction is underway for the World Cup on one of Mexico City’s major thoroughfares — but not everyone is buying in.
José Manuel Fuentes García, Mexicanos muertos en manos del ICE “se suicidaron” o tuvieron “complicación médicas” Sin Embargo. Bajo la política migratoria de Trump, 14 mexicanos fallecieron en manos del ICE. Se detuvieron a más de 177 mil connacionales, durante la gestión de la exsecretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kisti Noem.
Sheinbaum Backs Use of Venezuelan Funds for President Maduro’s Defense Telesur English. Mexican President Addresses Ongoing Legal Proceedings in New York.
Beatriz Guillén, Los agricultores y transportistas de México confirman “un paro indefinido” en 20 Estados a partir del lunes El País. El Frente Nacional por el Rescate del Campo Mexicano y la Asociación Nacional de Transportistas en México iniciarán bloqueos carreteros para protestar por “la inseguridad” y la “falta de financiamiento”.
Oscar Lopez, Mexican art world protests over plan to send Frida Kahlo masterpieces to Spain The Guardian. Cultural figures sign open letter asking government for clarity on how long landmark collection will remain abroad.
Gustavo Leal F., 18 meses de la política de salud-Sheinbaum La Jornada. Los primeros 18 meses de la administración Sheinbaum trabajan sobre un lienzo heredado sin cambio.
Caroline Tracey, Alejandro Cartagena’s Mexico in Flux The Nation. Reminiscent of the New Topographics, the photographs of Cartagena and others captures a country in the midst of a geographic transformation.
Zosimo Camacho, Más de mil 100 zonas de sacrificio: los desastres ambientales de México Luces Del Siglo. Mil 142 sitios contaminados, más de 10 millones de metros cuadrados de suelo envenenado, comunidades enteras condenadas a una vida de enfermedad y precariedad…
Mexico’s Unpaid & Exploited Gas Station Attendants
April 6, 2026
Slave-like working conditions and numerous abuses persist; while the majority of workers lack employment contracts, wages, social security, and benefits.
Mexico Imports Record Amount of Corn From US
April 6, 2026April 6, 2026
Despite this multi-billion dollar business, the US Trade Representative continues to assert a series of non-tariff barriers prevent the free access of genetically modified corn to Mexican territory.
Clicks
April 6, 2026
Our weekly roundup of stories in the English and Spanish language press including Camino Rojo union busting, Mexican lithium, sex workers & the World Cup, ICE deaths, national farmers strike, and mining sacrifice zones.
The post Clicks appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.
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US Army wants new grenade launcher, ammunition to be able to destroy drones
(www.militarytimes.com)
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Photograph Source: Office of Speaker Mike Johnson – Public Domain
As global markets continue to churn under the weight of a month-long conflict in the Gulf, the strategic map of the world is shifting in a quiet but profound way. In Beijing, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar sat down with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for “in-depth” consultations. The meeting, ostensibly about bilateral ties, was in reality a master class in the new diplomacy of the Middle East, where Washington’s absence is increasingly filled by its rivals.
The timing is not coincidental. It marks the precise moment when two signature elements of the Trump administration’s foreign policy—its revived tariff agenda and its military confrontation with Iran—have begun to work at cross-purposes.
The mechanics are straightforward. For weeks, the administration has pressed its Section 301 investigations into what it calls excess industrial capacity and unfair practices among 16 trading partners, including China. These inquiries were intended to rebuild the legal foundation for tariffs after the Supreme Court curtailed some of the president’s earlier emergency powers. At the same time, the United States has been engaged in a military campaign against Iran, now in its fourth week. The conflict has severely restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil normally passes. As of April 2, Brent crude is convulsing above $108 a barrel, while the International Energy Agency has officially characterized the situation as the largest supply disruption in history.
The convergence is costly. Higher energy prices flow directly into American gasoline costs, manufacturing expenses, and consumer prices. Yet the administration’s trade policy simultaneously alienates the very country best positioned to help stabilize global energy markets. While the United States has sought to isolate Tehran through secondary sanctions, Beijing is positioning itself as the primary mediator. During today’s high-level meeting in Beijing, Wang Yi signaled China’s willingness to enhance “strategic communication” with Pakistan to end the conflict and restore normal navigation. By empowering a key regional ally to act as a bridge, China is effectively sidelining Washington’s “maximum pressure” tactic in favor of a “maximum mediation” strategy that earns Beijing diplomatic capital across the Global South.
Beijing’s response on the economic front has been equally measured and surgical. Rather than impose immediate, blunt retaliatory duties, it has opened reciprocal inquiries into American trade barriers that mirror the U.S. Section 301 probes. These investigations, targeting U.S. disruptions to Green technology supply chains, are scheduled to conclude in six months. The message is clear: China will not simply absorb new pressure on trade while the United States demands cooperation on energy security. A Trump-Xi summit, once planned for early next month, remains postponed. The new probes serve as quiet preparation for whatever negotiations eventually occur, while the Dar-Wang meeting demonstrates that China has a functioning diplomatic alternative to the American-led order.
This episode illustrates a larger pattern. The administration entered office determined to pursue a zero-sum confrontation with Iran while simultaneously wielding tariffs as a tool of economic statecraft against China. Both approaches rest on the assumption that American leverage is overwhelming and that adversaries will eventually yield. Yet the two policies now undermine each other. The Iran conflict has driven oil prices to levels that hurt American consumers and businesses. The tariff investigations have prompted China to harden its negotiating position just as Washington might benefit from a steadier energy picture. Furthermore, the disruption is now hitting critical non-energy supplies: Gulf facility damage has even halted the production of helium, a byproduct essential for the very semiconductor chips the U.S. is trying to reshore.
China, for its part, is behaving as any major power would. It is safeguarding its supply lines, preserving its manufacturing advantages, and positioning itself for the next round of talks. Its restraint in avoiding outright retaliation so far suggests a preference for stability, even as it uses the visit of Ishaq Dar to showcase its role as a regional “stabilizer.” In short, Beijing is advancing its interests without allowing the United States to dictate the terms.
The cost to the United States is not abstract. Rising fuel prices are elevating consumer anxieties, and the S&P 500 has turned lower as investors weigh the prospect of prolonged uncertainty. American allies in Europe and Asia, which also depend on Gulf oil and gas, are watching the administration’s mix of military pressure and trade friction with growing alarm. None of this was inevitable. A more coordinated approach, which separated energy diplomacy from tariff brinkmanship, might have limited the damage.
The deeper difficulty lies in the administration’s habit of treating trade and security as separate theaters that can be managed in isolation. In practice, they are linked. Energy markets are global. Supply chains cross borders. When one policy raises costs and another alienates potential partners, the result is self-inflicted pressure. China did not create the current oil spike; the conflict in the Gulf did. But American trade policy, combined with a vacuum in Middle East diplomacy, has handed Beijing the leverage to shape how that spike is resolved.
History offers a caution. Past American presidents managed simultaneous challenges in the Middle East and Asia with greater care. Today’s approach risks the opposite outcome: higher prices at home, strained alliances abroad, and a stronger bargaining position for the very competitor Washington seeks to contain. While Washington is focused on winning a war of attrition, Beijing is winning the war of position. The United States is paying the price in higher energy costs and reduced diplomatic flexibility, a self-inflicted wound in an increasingly competitive world.
This first appeared on FPIF.
The post Trump’s Dual Obsessions are Colliding and China’s Gaining Ground appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
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If you thought the speed of writing code was your problem - you have bigger problems
(andrewmurphy.io)
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